At the present stage of the development of society, the question of the formation and development of political intelligence in general has not been sufficiently studied. The pioneer of this concept, J. Owen, revealed the essence of political intelligence, relying on the work of top managers in large companies and corporations, and its developments outside business structures are not unambiguous for application in the political sphere. The authors, however, rely on the results of a study of a profile sample, which was made by activists of the youth political movement. The purpose of the article is to study the relationship and influence of personality traits (personal characteristics, value orientations, career orientations, basic beliefs), cognitive abilities (non-verbal, verbal, social and emotional intelligence) on the expression of political intelligence of activists of the youth political movement. Methodology and methods: the study used methodological tools for diagnosing personality traits: a questionnaire of career orientations by E. Shein; the scale of basic beliefs by R. Yanoff-Bulman; methodology for diagnosing value orientations by Sh. Schwartz; methodology "Personal questionnaire of the leader" (modified Russian-language version of the Californian personality questionnaire CPI by H. Gauch, adapted by N.V. Tarabrina and N.A. Grafinina, and a version of the methodology “Locus of control” proposed by E. Ksenofontova). Four methods were used to diagnose intellectual abilities: the verbal intelligence diagnostic technique (Subtest “Analogy” of the test of the structure of intelligence by R. Amthauer); the method of diagnostics of general intelligence “Domino-2”; the method of diagnostics of social intelligence by J. Guildford (Subtest No. 3 "Verbal Expression"); the method of diagnostics of emotional intelligence by H. Wong and K. Low. To diagnose the level of expressiveness of political intelligence, the "Political intelligence" method, developed by E.A. Petrova and V.I. Shelest, was used. To assess the average indicators of the severity of political intelligence, descriptive statistics, correlation analysis, and multiple linear regression analysis were used to identify the determinants of political intelligence. Results: an empirical study revealed the relationship and influence of personality traits (personality characteristics, value orientations, career orientations, basic beliefs), cognitive abilities (non-verbal, verbal, social and emotional intelligence) on the expression of political intelligence of activists of the youth political movement. The results obtained in the course of the study can be used to prepare methodological and practical materials for specialized public organizations and structural units of the Government of the Russian Federation for work with youth.