Defeat of the National Communists in Latvia in 1959 and the Komsomol

The article addresses the Latvian Komsomol’s leadership change in the context of the National Communists’ 1959–1961 persecution. At first, the mass dismissal from office was only supposed to apply to a specific group of officials, since the Central Committee (CC) of the Communist Party of Latvia did not anticipate strong opposition. During the plenary session on 22 September 1959, however, the Komsomol CC proposed a substitute candidate in place of Moscow’s second secretary nominee. The number of Komsomol leadership members who lost their positions as a result of this action increased. Moscow had backed a programme between 1953 and 1959 that sought to boost the proportion of Latvians in the Komsomol, develop Latvian cadres, and carry out ideological work with Latvians in Latvian. Although the goal of this campaign was to bring Latvian youth closer to the Soviet system, it was denounced as nationalistic.