Igor Ivanov laid foundation for the Communard movement in the mid-1950s in Leningrad by gathering young teachers and instructors from several schools into a creative group called Union of Enthusiasts (Soyuz Entuziastov).
In this Union, during the years of 1956-1958, Ivanov developed and began to implement his ideas concerning the involvement of teenagers into a prototype of youth social organization which would not impose strict dogmatic rules on its participants.
This was in contrast to Communists' practice at that time when most social activities in post-World War II Soviet schools were under the auspices of the pro-communist Pioneer organization.
In 1959, Union of Enthusiasts led by Igor Ivanov and his close colleguages including Ludmila Borisova and Faina Shapiro gave birth to an organization of high-school students - Commune of Frunze High Schoolers (Kommuna Yunych Frunzentsov), named so after the Frunze - Russian Civil war hero, whose name was also on the precinct in Leningrad, where Commune was located.
As political climate changed when Nikita Khrushchev was replaced by Leonid Brezhnev in 1964, the Communard movement as an individual trend could not be supported by Komsomol any longer.