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And in a country where men and women had equal constitutional rights by law, letting girls into after-school flying clubs fulfilled Komsomol requirements, so they couldn’t be turned away.

They were run by the Komsomol.

All the information was spread through word of mouth, mostly by the Komsomol.

He told them that their wartime experiences would make them stronger and wiser, and that they could now apply these virtues to their civilian lives; and he promised that the Komsomol would help them find work—which it did.

For the young women who answered the Komsomol call for volunteers on October 10, 1941, their transformation from civilians to soldiers was abrupt.