Pioneers

PIONERY (Young Pioneers) are young members of the children's communist organization. The tasks of the children's communist movement are to train active and conscious builders of socialism; for this purpose—public and labor education of children, the development of collective skills, cohesion, discipline, class solidarity, and the political and cultural development of the Pioneers. The main slogan of the Pioneer organization of the USSR is assistance to socialist construction. The motto of the Pioneers is: 'Be ready for the struggle for the working cause.' In the resolution dedicated to the tenth anniversary of the Pioneer organization, the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) defines the Pioneer organization as a mass political organization of children, having great significance in the matter of communist education of rising generations, and demands a restructuring of the content of the public work of Pioneer detachments, 'so that the central place in it is occupied by the struggle organized by the children themselves and under the guidance of the Komsomol, in the closest connection with school organizations and bodies of public education, for the quality of education, for conscious discipline, for polytechnization in school, for the development of children's physical culture, for the correct organization of children's leisure, and for raising the entire work on communist education of the masses of children, against any attempts to smuggle alien to the proletariat ideology into the children's environment.' The beginning of the Pioneer movement in the USSR dates back to 1922. However, the children's communist movement in the USSR actually begins to develop almost from the first days of Soviet power. Even in 1918–1919, the first communist children's groups were created in Tula and Odessa. In 1919, the Narkompros and Vseobuch created detachments of young communists—YUKI. In the statutes and content of the work, the organization of young communists copied in a significant degree the bourgeois Boy Scout organizations. The date of the beginning of the Pioneer movement as such is considered the Second Conference of the Komsomol, which took place in May 1922, which entrusted the Central Committee of the Komsomol with developing the question of the children's communist movement. From this moment, the Pioneer movement in the USSR develops under the guidance of the Komsomol. The tempo of its development is as follows: 1923—75,000; 1924—161,349; 1925—1,000,000; 1926—1,739,977; 1927—1,681,566; 1928—1,791,575; 1929—2,476,000; 1930—3,441,320; 1931—6,000,000. The main mass of Pioneers are children aged 10–13 and adolescents aged 14–16. By social origin, the majority are children of workers, then kolkhoz members and individual peasant farmers, and children of office workers. The first detachments of young Pioneers were created at factories and enterprises; only in Ukraine did the organization of young Pioneers go the path of creating detachments at schools and orphanages. Various deviations took place in the history of the Pioneer movement: there were attempts to merge the Pioneer movement with the school and vice versa—to transfer the functions of the school to Pioneer detachments. By the resolution of the Central Committee of the VKP(b) of April 20, 1932, both these deviations were sternly condemned: 'The CC resolutely condemns the right-opportunist attempts that took place to liquidate the Pioneer movement through its merger with the school, as well as the left-wing distortions propagating the transfer of school functions to the Pioneer movement, which is a direct reflection of the anti-Leninist theory of the withering away of the school.' Besides the USSR, the children's communist movement successfully develops in a number of bourgeois countries, waging struggle against bourgeois Boy Scout fascist (Ballila in Italy, Steel Helmet in Germany) and social-chauvinist (Friends of Children, Red Falcons) children's organizations. In 1932, the number of young Pioneers was: in Germany 650,000 people, in Czechoslovakia—20,000 people, USA—5,000 people, in France—900 people. The task of the children's communist movement in bourgeois countries is the struggle against the exploitation of children and adolescents working in factories, the propaganda of communist ideas among children and adults, and the struggle for self-management of the school. Pioneers in bourgeois countries participate in workers' demonstrations, help during strikes and even in barricade fights (Germany). Chinese Pioneers in the troops of Soviet regions perform the tasks of scouts and sentries. Pioneers in bourgeois countries are subjected to severe persecution: in China they are actually driven underground, in the USA they are subjected to arrests and beatings. The sentencing of the American Pioneer Harry Iezman to five years caused a storm of indignation among proletarian children all over the world. During the existence of the children's communist movement, three international rallies were held: a children's international week is held annually. Organizationally, Pioneer work is built as follows: the main cell is the Pioneer detachment (40–50 people), headed by a leader (vozhaty), nominated by the Komsomol organization. The detachment is divided into links of 8–10 people, headed by link leaders (zvenovye), elected by the Pioneers themselves. The link leaders together with the leader form the detachment council. To lead the Pioneer movement, Pioneer bureaus exist at district committees, obkom committees, and krai committees of the Komsomol; at the Central Committee of the VLKSM—the Central Bureau of the Children's Communist Movement. For children aged 7 to 10, October detachments are created. The content of the work and its scale in October detachments are modified in accordance with the younger age of the children. In a number of voluntary societies, Pioneers recruit young friends (Young Friend of Osoviakhim, Avtodor, Red Cross). By the beginning of 1932, the Red Cross numbered 114,000 young friends. In accordance with the resolution of the Central Committee of the VKP(b), the organization of young friends will undoubtedly receive significant development in the near future. One of the most important tasks of the children's communist movement is the struggle for a healthy generation. This struggle must be imbued with Lenin's indication that 'it is precisely this youth that is to finish, complete the cause of communism, it is precisely this youth that still has to fight for communism, and it must meet these fights with strong, healthy nerves and iron muscles.' Until now, the main forms of health-improving work among Pioneers were: mass Pioneer camps, sanatorium camps, children's playgrounds. The CC of the VKP(b) expands these forms in the direction of organizing children's rest homes, children's ski stations, children's rinks, and organizing children's tourism. The organs of public health, the Komsomol, physical culture organizations, Children's Commissions under the VTsIK and executive committees, the society 'Friend of Children' and the Red Cross carry out health-improving work among young Pioneers. Almost from the first days of the Pioneer movement, the Red Cross Society carries out medical patronage over the Pioneer organizations. The forms of this patronage are: so-called primary points of service for the health of young Pioneers (medical-research cabins), health-improving playgrounds and sanatorium camps, including the all-union Pioneer health resort Artek named after Z. P. Solovyev in the Crimea. In 1932, there were 186 primary points, 25 dental cabins, 449 health-improving playgrounds, and 78 sanatorium camps. The sanatorium camp Artek on the southern coast of the Crimea at present represents a whole children's complex—a sanatorium camp as such, a children's sanatorium, and a rest home for leaders. In 1931, 1,000 kids passed through the camp, 840 through the sanatorium, and 200 through the leaders' home. Artek is very popular among the entire mass of Pioneers in the USSR and is known abroad. Sanatorium camps are intended for lagging, sick children, requiring a special regime. The rules of selection and direction and the regime of sanatorium camps are published in the Regulation of the Narkompros of the RSFSR of May 4, 1928, No. 109/4. Hundreds of thousands of healthy children are annually taken out of the city to mass Pioneer camps created with the material assistance of managers, trade unions, and voluntary societies. In 1931, 1,500,000 Pioneers were taken to mass camps, and in 1932, according to the plan, 3,000,000 children should already be taken. In recent years, the organs of public health have begun to widely develop mass health-improving work among young Pioneers, leading it in the same directions as the Red Cross—by creating Pioneer playgrounds, sanatorium camps, etc. In 1931, there were 3,405 beds in the sanatoriums of young Pioneers, and in 1932 already 6,560 beds. The entire organization of OZDIP at present leads the health-improving and sanitary-educational work among young Pioneers both by attaching to detachments and bases, and by servicing mass Pioneer camps. A number of resolutions of the Narkompros, Narcompros, and the Central Committee of the VLKSM regulates measures to ensure the correct physical development of Pioneers. The most important of these resolutions is the resolution of the Narkompros of the RSFSR and the Central Committee of the VLKSM of January 18, 1928, on normalizing the school and out-of-school day of Pioneers and children, in which an example regime of labor and rest for a school Pioneer was given. In 1932, the Central Committee of the VLKSM by a resolution of February 27 again confirmed the indications on the struggle against the overloading of Pioneers. By this resolution, in particular, loading Pioneers on weekends and after 8 o'clock is prohibited. The question of the protection of the health of Pioneer leaders is devoted to a special Regulation of the Narkompros and Narcompros of the RSFSR of February 2, 1927, on the dispensary examination of Pioneer leaders.

In accordance with the task of raising pioneers who are fully healthy builders of socialism, physical culture occupies a very large place in all pioneer work. The Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) resolution of April 21, 1932, requires 'to ensure the widest development among children of sports and various forms of mass health-improving-military physical culture work'. In recent years, tourist work among Pioneers has developed significantly. In 1930, a mass tourist trip was conducted in Crimea involving about a thousand pioneers.