Belarusian Republican Youth Union

The Belarusian Republican Youth Union ( (БРСМ), (БРСМ, BRSM)) is a youth organization in Belarus. Its goals are to promote patriotism and to instill moral values into the youth of Belarus, using activities such as camping, sporting events, and visiting memorials. The organization was created after a merger of other youth groups in 2002 and is the successor of the Leninist Communist Youth League of the Byelorussian SSR. The BRSM is the largest youth group in Belarus and is supported by the Belarusian government. Some people have accused the group of using methods of coercion and empty promises in order to recruit new members and of being used as propaganda for the government of Alexander Lukashenko. Creation The BRSM was created on 6 September 2002, after the merger of two Belarusian youth organizations, the Belarusian Youth Union and the Belarusian Patriotic Youth Union. The Belarusian Youth Union had been considered the legal successor of Leninist Communist Youth Union of Belarus (the Komsomol branch in the Byelorussian SSR), and the Belarusian Patriotic Youth Union had been created in 1997 by the president of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko. Lukashenko not only issued a decree calling for the creation of the BRSM, he also issued decrees that gave the BRSM governmental support, mostly from the ministry of education and the presidential administration. President Lukashenko stated in his 2003 address to the nation the need for the BRSM to play a key role in Belarusian life: Organization The BRSM national headquarters is located in Minsk, the national capital of Belarus. Each region—Minsk, Brest, Vitebsk, Gomel, Grodno and Mogilev—has its own branches of the BRSM. The BRSM has estimated that it has 6,803 branches located inside Belarus. The national leadership of the BRSM is controlled by the central committee, which is headed by the first secretary of the central committee. Leonid Kovalev was elected as first secretary in 2006. Below the first secretary are the second secretary of the central committee, the chairman of the central investigation commission, and three secretaries of the central committee. Collectively, these leaders are also referred to as the secretariat of the BRSM.