Students of Primorskaya high school in the Volgograd region, once a month they go to pioneer training camps - to the obligatory drum roll and half-forgotten lines: “Raise your bonfires, blue nights!” And every spring here, younger children are initiated into pioneers, they take an oath and tie red ties.

The most important principles that the pioneers trumpeted are still relevant today: to be the best in work, study and sports. Photo: Oleg Ivanov, Boris Kvashkin / TASS Photo Chronicle

At first there were only a few detachments at the school, but now there is a single pioneer organization. In order to become a pioneer, a child must write an application and be sure to obtain parental consent, says Olga Naslednikova, a counselor at the Primorsky school.

So far, parents unanimously say yes. Many of them once studied with the same teachers who teach today, and wore red ties in the same way.

Our village is small, but multinational. Therefore, the pioneers include Turks, Koreans, and Kazakhs. And, of course, we are very lucky that our parents support the pioneer movement: they go out to clean-up days together with their children,” adds Naslednikova.

The main principle by which Volgograd pioneers live today is the same as many years ago - to be the best in work, study and sports. Pensioners need care the most. For them, the guys hold “Days of Timur’s care.”

We help someone dig up their beds, sort out their potatoes, and clean their yard. This is not at all difficult for the guys, but for our pensioners - good help! - says Olga Naslednikova.

Help "RG"

Today in Russia there is an official successor to the work of the pioneers - the Russian Schoolchildren Movement. It was created in 2015 by decree of Russian President Vladimir Putin. The main task of the Children's School is practically the same as that of the Soviet pioneers - the diversified development and education of schoolchildren. This movement has already been supported in dozens of Russian regions.

Older people need schoolchildren's care the most. And the guys do not ignore them either on weekdays or on holidays. Photo: From the Archives of Secondary School No. 40

A comment

Alexander Karpilovsky, director, screenwriter:

Organized leisure time for children is wonderful. Children must be organized, but they can be called whatever they want, be it pioneers or scouts. Pioneers are young naturalists, scouts, future leaders, they protect the younger ones, help the older ones, and their lives are interesting and eventful. The same Boy Scouts in America have existed for many decades, and no one complains.

It’s not easy to get into the pioneers now. You need to prove yourself, pass the test, take an oath, and only then will you be accepted. As long as such a system exists, and the pioneer movement is chaotic and amateur, everything is great. But everything will change immediately if any political force decides to join this movement. Then we will get exactly the pioneering that many remember with an unkind word, with postscripts and window dressing.

In my “Private Pioneer” trilogy, I deliberately did not show this side of the pioneer organization, but highlighted only the best. Collecting waste paper and scrap metal can be fun, especially if the adults don't ruin it. In the end, it all comes down to the teacher, counselor, organizer, enthusiastic and with sparkling eyes. And our children are sincere, open, wonderful. Just give them a whistle and they will go protect the dogs and help the grandmothers. The last thing they want is to wander the streets idle or sit for hours in front of computers. If a leader appears, the children are happy to stand under his banner. True, the question is: who is this leader and where will he lead the children? But this is already the responsibility of adults.

I don't believe red tie will drive bullying out of schools. A tie alone will not protect you from bullying by your peers. But when children are organized by smart, intelligent adults, they behave differently. I saw how pioneer organizations are organized in Moscow schools today - there is a very touching and reverent attitude of the elders towards the younger ones. And no one there would definitely think of coming to school with a knife. Aggression and bullying flourish where children are left to their own devices and live according to wolf laws. But the laws of survival should not supplant the laws of life.

May 19 is the founding day of the All-Union Pioneer Organization.
Unlike most modern youth organizations, today's pioneers do not participate in adult games and do not strive for the image of brave eaglets, bear cubs and other animals. Their romance is different, time-tested: getting ready, hiking, communicating.

In the Soviet pioneer tradition, a scarlet triangular tie symbolizes a piece of the red banner and the revolutionary unity of three generations - communists, Komsomol members and pioneers. Today's pioneers associate it with the rising sun and Green's scarlet sails - an emblem of romance and youth.

According to one version, Pavel Morozov was a pioneer, according to another - in Gerasimovka, the village in which Pavel was born and raised, there was no pioneer squad. According to one version, Morozov was a fighter and a bully, the opposite version claims that he was a quiet, sickly boy. One version says that at the trial Pavel testified that his father was engaged in counter-revolutionary activities, while the other says that he and his mother testified against their father that he beat both the mother and the children.

My interlocutor is a real pioneer, and he looks like a revived illustration for the chapter “Building a Gazebo” in the thick “Counselor’s Book,” only in color. He is fourteen, hay-colored hair, hay-like eyebrows, small hands. And the voice doesn’t exactly break, but rather gently bends. The pioneer is apolitical, and is as free in his beliefs as in his clothes. Only on special occasions does he wear a khaki military shirt, the color of protection.

On weekends, he meets in the children's and youth center on the territory of a former kindergarten. However, “meeting” is not the right word. We have to look for a convenient place to talk with a member of the organization by stepping over parachute panels and abstract boards over which young men and women hover, setting up something in difficult devices.

-Whose portrait is hanging on the wall of the headquarters?
- We don’t have political guidelines now, but it’s difficult to say that we are absolutely apolitical: the lack of an approach to politics is also politics. We are not anyone's replacement and do not belong to any party, we are on our own.

- How do you differ from your predecessors?
- And this too, but in Moscow we also differ in quantity, there are incomparably fewer of us. True, this is also convenient: there is more opportunity for everyone to express themselves and do something. And so the reference point is specific person or for a specific strength we do not have.

- What are you first at?
- Now we are the first who are ready to break in and help if asked for it. And first of all they ask for veterans' homes, just veterans, military hospitals - there, of course, they are mainly cleaning the territory. If we are vacationing in summer camps- we go to nearby towns or villages and offer help.

-You don’t call yourself Timurites?
- There is simply a separate program, a separate direction - the Timur movement. This is exactly what it was before. Conversations with veterans, recording memories of the war - this book was recently published. We sometimes arrange concerts if requested.

- Are there still only “selected” personnel in your ranks?
- No! The same school success They are not an indicator for us; we do not focus on them at all. And we quarrel terribly with school teachers who do not allow children into our camps because they do not study well, they say that they are unworthy of it. This is not an indicator, no matter who studies! I can not stand school, but at the same time be an interesting and adequate person. So we accept completely different people.

The released animated film “First Squad” is a high-profile and, in a sense, unprecedented project. And not only because this is “the first Russian anime,” as its writers and distributors position it. But also due to its surprisingly free handling of the past, which, according to some, reaches the point of cynicism. The main characters of “The First Detachment” are heroic pioneers who died during the bombing in 1942, but were returned from the dead to confront occult forces, caused, in turn, by the Nazis.

- And if a person comes from the street and says: “Take me into the pioneers”...

Then we will give him time within three months to look around, get acquainted with the organization, and understand what the pioneer lifestyle was based on. After this, the person is asked again about his desire to join and, if the team agrees, he is accepted. At the same time, each of the actual bosses of the organization can express his opinion about this person, say what exactly he doesn’t like about him and what, in our opinion, he should change about himself. Then everything is decided by general voting.

- What does the famous oath sound like today?
- I, last name, first name, joining the ranks of the Moscow City Pioneer Organization, in front of my comrades, solemnly promise: to fervently love and take care of my Motherland; bring joy to people, do good, fight for justice; cherish the honor of the organization, always and everywhere follow its laws, customs and traditions!

- What is the minimum knowledge that a future pioneer should have?
- He must know our laws and know how we live. He will receive all other knowledge from the organization.

- How to leave the pioneer organization?
- Just stop walking. This happens quite often. Sometimes, however, they come and explain the reason in person and hand over the tie. Leaving is most often motivated by some problems at school or in the family. There are probably people who have specific complaints against the organization, but in my memory there were no such people. And, of course, there are shortcomings, but they are purely internal.

- Do you feel like you are part of a subculture?
- Yes, there is something in this.

- What are you ready for?
- Now it seems to me that it’s all over. Our goal is self-improvement, and in this regard, in my opinion, we can do a lot.

Interviewed by Ksenia Zheglaya

I went to this school with my ten-year-old son. Vanya. He's too interested in Lately era of the USSR. I dug up old things in my grandfather’s garage: a Soviet-style first aid kit, a gas mask, badges and coins. Therefore, he really wanted to see real pioneers.

Modern Pioneers - the largest organization in the Volgograd region - live in the village of Primorsk. The population here is only 3,200 people. There is practically no asphalt here, mostly dirt roads. Cows and horses crawled across the steppe. Apartment buildings No. Only private farmsteads, next to which chickens roam. In the very center of the village there is a school.

The inscription on the facade of the school. Photo: / Nadezhda Kuzmina

The school is the same age as the village itself, which was formed during the construction of the Volzhskaya Hydroelectric Power Station. Soviet slogans (“Citizens of the USSR have the right to free education” and “ Lenin bequeathed to us: study, study and study").

And the students themselves are truly international, as if greetings from former USSR. Russians, Uzbeks, Turks, Kalmyks, Koreans, Azerbaijanis - all of them proudly wear red ties.

Volgar kids first

The first pioneer detachment appeared in the seaside school in 2004. Senior counselor Olga Naslednikova and she doesn’t hide the fact that this was partly her dream. After all, she, too, was once, first a pioneer, then the chairman of a detachment, and the secretary of a Komsomol organization.

“In 1995, pioneering was revived in the Volgograd region. Then schools began to join, detachments began to appear. We, too, having learned about this, revived our pioneer organization in 2004. At first we had only one detachment, then two. Now there is already such a large organization: 7 teams according to the number of classes from 4 to 8,” says the teacher.

Regardless of nationality, all schoolchildren wear red ties. Photo: / Nadezhda Kuzmina

Before becoming pioneers, junior high school students go to volgariyat. These are like the October people who were there before. The responsibilities of the Volgars are similar to those of the Octobrists: to love the Motherland, help each other, be honest and study well. And only in the 4th grade does a Volgarenka have the right to wear a red tie. To join the Pioneers, fourth-graders write applications addressed to the senior counselor, and at the bottom of the sheet the parents put their signatures, confirming that they agree with the choice of their son or daughter.

Statement by a future pioneer. Photo: / Nadezhda Kuzmina

Schoolchildren rush to talk about how much they like being pioneers.

“A pioneer in everything. Helps the defenseless, say the sisters Dadashovs, Gunay and Vusala. — We help everyone who needs help: veterans, children, the village. We are organizing some events.” However, they cannot talk about their actions in more detail: they look at the counselor like chicks. Even the largest event - Victory Day - is remembered with a hint.

“We have no worship of Lenin”

On May 9, in Primorsk, as throughout the country, there was a parade and Immortal Regiment, and the Victory Banner, on which the students wrote the names of all their relatives who went through the war. And, of course, the most honored guests: veterans. In total, the schoolchildren are supervised by four war veterans. Them - Special attention. But schoolchildren do not forget about the ordinary old people of the village, about those who are lonely or simply need help. Someone will get potatoes from the cellar, someone will get food from the store, or they will dig up trees in the garden. Olga Naslednikova says that it is a great joy for children: to be needed by someone.

Olga Naslednikova herself was a pioneer and Komsomol member. Photo: / Nadezhda Kuzmina

“We don’t worship Lenin. We live by these laws: you need to be the best. Pioneer is the first. We want our children to be the first, the leaders,” Olga Naslednikova clarifies. — Pioneers take care of lonely people, not necessarily veterans. They themselves are looking for “addresses of care.” Like Timur and his team. But we do not idealize any party. We are a public organization, we do not bear the name of Lenin.”

“And I know who Lenin is,” Vanya suddenly says. - This is like a president or sovereign during the USSR. He helped his people a lot, signed all sorts of agreements at factories.”

"They want to be together"

“Look how to tie a tie correctly. First you make a vertical knot, then a horizontal one,” the girls from the Pioneer activists demonstrate the intricacies of tying a Pioneer tie. They also know how to play pioneer marches on the drums. True, for every 6 young drummers there is only one drummer: Seryozha Egorov. He is especially appreciated here, because he can also play the bugle.

“Children are interested in this, probably because they want to be together,” Olga Naslednikova answers the question of why young people today are so drawn to a seemingly outdated ideology. — There is not enough communication, the Internet takes up a lot of time. And all such pioneering activities are joint endeavors. They went somewhere together to visit veterans, together they went to collect waste paper, they competed for something. Each detachment has links. They compete with each other, just like squads. We are holding a “Pioneer of the Year” competition. There they evaluate the studies, the classroom, the school duty, and the condition of the school grounds. They try to be leaders in everything. This is a very kind competition, and not just going and punching someone.”

Ilyich strictly observes everything that happens from the height of the closet. Photo: / Nadezhda Kuzmina

Revive the Komsomol

Olga shows cards with questions to which exemplary pioneers should know the answers: “When do the fireworks go off?”, “Play a drum march,” “What do you know about Sasha Filippov?”, “Insert the missing words into the text of the pioneer song.” The winners of the school competition will go to the region, and from there the best will go to the region and, if they are lucky, to Moscow. Primorsky pioneers have already represented the Volgograd land at a gathering of the best pioneers in the capital. They hope to win now.

Schoolchildren are preparing for the Pioneer of the Year competition. Photo: / Nadezhda Kuzmina

“Our organization is the largest in the region. “I’ve never seen a whole school participate,” says senior counselor, teacher-organizer Olga Naslednikova. “But every year there are fewer and fewer events for us. We're stewing in own juice. About 10 years ago the movement was more extensive. The pioneers met with Maresyev, went to Zvezdny, where they met with an astronaut Malyshev».

And they dream of reviving the Komsomol. Photo: / Nadezhda Kuzmina

But the Primorskaya School is not used to despair. To the beginning of a new one school year There are plans to revive the Komsomol here. In the meantime, students starting from the 9th grade are simply called high school students.

The entire time I was talking with the schoolchildren and the senior counselor, who was giving me a tour of the school, my son listened attentively and took photos. And then he said: “Mom, please, let’s move here. I want to be a pioneer too.”

“It’s finished!” echoed across the country when it became known that on October 29, the President of the country signed a decree on the creation of the “Russian Schoolchildren’s Movement.” Many believed that the time had come for the revival of the pioneers, and it is clear from the interview that this decision was perceived precisely as the creation of a new all-Russian organization of children and adolescents, similar in goals and principles of work to the pioneer organization.

Initially, I was also happy about this decision - after all, for several decades now I have heard more than once that a unifying organization of teenagers is needed (by analogy with the pioneers), which could help education solve educational problems and ensure the integrity of work with youth in the country, region or at the level of the municipality and a specific city/village/village.

However, when the first emotional “flash” of joy went away, it was replaced by conclusions that are not at all pleasing...
So, the Russian Schoolchildren Movement (hereinafter referred to as RMS) sets itself the goal of “improving state policy in the field of educating the younger generation, promoting the formation of personality based on the inherent Russian society systems of cultural values." It seems to sound good, but somewhere there is a "falsehood". It seems to me that today the "system of cultural values ​​inherent in Russian society" does not correspond to what exists in public and non-public terms.

Let me make a simple comparison:

The country during the period of the pioneer organization: patriotism, responsibility, friendship, mutual assistance, pioneering, leadership, hard work

Current situation: consumerism, individualism, success, modernity, tolerance
I think that by comparing these “values” we are unlikely to be able to get for the growing modern “pioneers” those examples that will educate them and create motivation for a positive movement towards self-development and self-realization for the benefit of the country or their region.

It also does not inspire much confidence that Rossyouth will supervise the RDS. Behind last years this structure has not shown itself in any way in terms of the formation of a unified and holistic state youth policy, having reduced all its activities to conducting a so-called “forum campaign”, thereby actually abdicating responsibility for a systemic network approach to the implementation of the GMP. Unfortunately, by analogy with the agency, a similar position is beginning to be used by regional bodies on youth affairs, reducing all youth to holding regional “forums” and events. And if at the regional levels there is still some money for such actions, then at the municipal level youth policy has virtually ceased to exist due to lack of funds and personnel.

Thirdly, the ideology of the RDS should become part of the state ideology, thereby forming the strategic direction of the created youth movement. But today, just like 15 and 20 years ago, the country still does not have a law on the State Medical Assistance, and there is no clear strategy for the development of the country and youth policy in general. And the point is not the crisis and sanctions, but the fact that there is no interest in young people on the part of the authorities and the oligarchs who “rule”. For them, young people are “meat” for political “games” and technologies. Suffice it to recall Nashi, Young Guard, youth parliaments, etc. And with this approach, we can assume that the RDS will again become an element election campaign next year with an emphasis on supporting “some” and opposing “others” in the struggle for deputy mandates.
And finally, when they announce the creation of something large-scale, major and ideologically in demand, the need for funding cannot be ignored. So far, in Moscow they are considering the issue of financing a special organization created for the RDS, but there is no talk about financing the construction of regional and municipal divisions of the RDS. And without them there will be no all-Russian organization. There will be another “show-off” network of several organizations and structures forcibly formalized in the RDS. We went through this too.

Most likely, Moscow will dump funding on regions and municipalities. With municipalities, everything is clear - the entire young population will be enumerated and enrolled in the organization with “tying ties” (as was the case with the development of volunteers). Again, it is clear that under the “active work” of these municipal branches of the RDS all activities from plans for education, culture, etc. will be written off, as is done today. However, one can understand the municipalities - as I said above, there is neither money nor personnel who could be fully responsible for this work and at a high professional level.

The situation in the regions is also no better. In 2016, in our region, the regional youth program goes into oblivion (it becomes a subprogram within the framework of education), budget funds are provided at the “cat cried” level, there is no infrastructure, no network work between UDM and municipalities, accordingly, there is no GMP strategy, there are no priorities in working with youth, there is no methodological basis, in 2015 there was an actual abandonment of systematicity, etc. It is not clear what can be expected from the region in such conditions...

But I will repeat the initial thought that work to create an all-Russian unifying youth organization must be carried out and the sooner it is carried out, the greater the chance that the country will stop “sausaging” both socially and economically.

Children's and youth communist organizations

· Oktyabryonok - students primary classes

· Pioneer - middle school students

· Komsomolets - high school students, students, youth under 35 years old.

Structure of the pioneer organization

· Link- 5-10 pioneers, the leader is a link pioneer.

· Squad- 30-40 pioneers, usually a class secondary school, chairman of the detachment's council and its flag - a pioneer elected by the detachment.

· Druzhina- a pioneer school organization, 300-400 pioneers, the chairman of the squad council is a pioneer leader or a young Komsomol teacher, and his flag leader is a pioneer elected by the squad.

· District Pioneer Organization- all units and squads educational institutions district, is headed by the chairman of the council of the district pioneer organization - the head of the department of the district committee or the third secretary of the district committee of the Komsomol Komsomol.

· Regional Pioneer Organization- all detachments and squads, regional organizations of the region are headed by the chairman of the council of the regional pioneer organization - the head of the regional committee department or the third secretary of the regional committee of the Komsomol Komsomol.

· All-Union Pioneer Organization named after V.I. Lenin- united all the republican pioneer organizations of the union republics of the USSR, headed the organization the Central Council, headed by the secretary of the Komsomol Central Committee (the last chairman of the Central Council was the secretary of the Komsomol Central Committee L.I. Shvetsova).

Pioneers in modern Russia

In 1990, at the last All-Union Pioneer rally in Artek, the public organization "SPO-FDO - Union of Pioneer Organizations - Federation of Children's Organizations" was established, acting as its successor, in fact it turned out to be the Union of Children's Organizations (without symbols and later without mentioning Pioneerism), the Union uniting children's organizations. After the collapse of the USSR, the vast majority of Pioneer camps were repurposed into private camp sites and boarding houses, some into children's health camps, most of them located far from populated areas were abandoned in the forests of the former Soviet republics. In Russia, by the forces of public initiative groups and enthusiasts on a voluntary basis The ideological activities of the Pioneer Movement are supported, being of a purely symbolic nature. One of such organizations is the Communist Party of the Russian Federation and its youth wing of the Komsomol of the Russian Federation. The vast majority of both supporters and opponents Soviet system, recall with nostalgia their participation in the Pioneer movement and speak out for the return of the Pioneer organization to schools at the state level. In October 2010, Dmitry Medvedev said that he was not against the revival of the Pioneer and Komsomol movements in Russia, but at the level public organization, without its ideological component and without the participation of the state. From 2008 to 2010, the Mishki movement project tried to become one of such organizations without the participation of the state, having existed for 3 years.

Pionerskaya the organization was created by decision of the All-Russian Komsomol Conference on May 19, 1922 and was officially dissolved in 1991. Until 1924, it bore the name of Spartak, and after Lenin’s death it was renamed in his honor. Initially, when creating the Pioneers, they took the scout organization as a model; later this connection was hushed up, “scoutism” was declared a bourgeois fascist children’s movement.

The name of young communists in methodological literature was explained as follows: “A pioneer is a person who goes ahead of others and paves the way for those who follow him. Communist Party– the vanguard of the working class – is also a “pioneer”. She goes ahead of all oppressed working humanity and leads him to new way, the path to a communist society."

The first detachments of pioneers were created in the proletarian environment - at factories, factories, village councils, orphanages, at the production cells of the RKSM, rural party cells, Komsomol or trade union clubs. In Soviet historiography, the first is considered to be the Moscow detachment, which was created at the vocational school of printers on Krasnaya Presnya. On February 13, in the building of the 16th printing house (the former Mashistov printing house), Komsomol members held a meeting of the pioneer detachment. It was organized by M. Stremyakov.

Its government treated the children of the Soviet country as building material for creating future staunch fighters for the cause of the Communist Party, and this became main goal creation of a children's communist organization. The most important task was to raise a new type of person, not constrained by the old, “bourgeois” morality. N.K. Krupskaya wrote: “It is very difficult for an adult who grew up in a capitalist system to give up old skills, old habits, old relationships. And our pioneers are guys who are still developing, have not yet fully developed, new attitudes towards social phenomena. That is why the pioneer movement is of such exceptional importance.”

At the III Congress of the RKSM V.I. Lenin elevated this ideological selection, the denial of the very basis of the “outdated” worldview, to the rank of a program. “We deny any such morality, taken from a non-human, non-class concept,” he declared from the rostrum. “We say that our morality is completely subordinated to the interests of the class struggle of the proletariat... We say: morality is what serves to destroy the old exploitative society and unite all working people around the proletariat, creating a new society of communists”... This speech of the leader became the foundation for all subsequent works on the new Soviet morality. The ultimate goal of educating a pioneer was to achieve a level of consciousness at which he would perceive the demands of Soviet society as his own.

The pioneer organization was positioned as voluntary, but it was such only in the first years of Soviet power, when only children of workers and the rural poor were accepted as pioneers. They really aspired to be pioneers. In general, there was a silent struggle in the country with Soviet organizations, including the pioneer ones, many parents tried to protect their children from ideological indoctrination in the interests of the new government. That is why it was important to tear children away from their families and raise them to be full-fledged “new people.” In the villages, almost no detachments were created; many detachments created by visiting party members and Komsomol members fell apart. However, gradually voluntariness became only a declared principle: the organization turned into a coherent system, completely subordinated to party interests.

Pioneer with a bugle. 1933 After school reform and the introduction of universal education (compulsory universal primary education) detachments began to be created in schools, the pioneer organization was built on the principle: school - squad, class - squad. The pioneer squad became the organizational basis of the children's communist movement, the detachment was considered its main cell, it consisted of 4-5 units, uniting 40-50 children. The work of each detachment was led by a leader - a Komsomol member. They began to accept all children of suitable age who wanted to join the Pioneers, even if their origin was “flawed” - the Pioneers had to re-educate them. The number of pioneers began to grow. This was facilitated by the atmosphere of the 1930s. The number of orphans and street children left without parents due to hunger, collectivization, arrests of parents has increased greatly... In orphanages, colonies, reception centers, schools, etc., it was easier to agitate for joining the pioneers and process children. And many parents understood that it was better to send their child to be a pioneer than to be accused of disloyalty to the Soviet regime, not to undergo a purge, to find themselves without a job... As a result, by the beginning of the war, approximately half of the children of suitable age (from 9 to 14 years old) were pioneers ).

The pioneer organization worked on the basis statutory documents, where its tasks, structure, conditions of admission, responsibilities and rights of pioneers were defined, laws and the solemn promise of the young pioneer were given. Much of this changed quite often depending on the political situation, on changes in the party’s requirements for pioneers, corresponding to the situation in the country. But the basis of the organization, formed by the 1940s, and its declared goals and objectives did not change.

The pioneer promise, adopted after the debunking of Stalin’s personality cult in 1957, read: “I, the young pioneer Soviet Union, in the face of my comrades, I solemnly promise: to passionately love my Soviet Motherland; live, study and fight, as the great Lenin bequeathed, as the Communist Party teaches.
To the call “Be ready!” the pioneer answered: “Always ready!”
The pioneers greeted each other with a salute and, regardless of their dress code, wore a red tie around their necks. Here is the latest edition of the laws of young pioneers.
The pioneer is devoted to the Motherland, the party, and communism. A pioneer is preparing to become a Komsomol member. The pioneer looks up to the heroes of struggle and labor. The pioneer honors the memory of the fallen fighters and prepares to become a defender of the Motherland. The pioneer is persistent in learning, work and sports. A pioneer is an honest and faithful comrade who always boldly stands for the truth. A pioneer is a comrade and leader of the Octobrists. A pioneer is a friend to pioneers and the children of workers of all countries. The declared initiative of pioneers was practically absent in reality. Under the leadership of Komsomol members, the pioneers carried out the tasks that the party leadership set for them, sending orders to the Komsomol. The leaders had to engage in the ideological education of the pioneers and guide their socially useful work. The main form of work with pioneers was gatherings, which were recommended to be held no more than twice a week. At the training camp, the counselors held conversations with the pioneers, heroes of war and labor, military personnel, representatives different professions... The gatherings were both general political and thematic. Among the thematic collections we can name, for example, the following: “Why are we called Leninists and what does this oblige us to”, “What a pioneer should be”, “The word of a pioneer”, “The price of time”, “Daily routine”, etc. They were very important for the excitement and diversity of pioneer life through game forms: joint useful activities, activities with younger children, October students, learning songs, military sports games, hikes, trips to pioneer camps, pioneer bonfires, etc.

All activities of the pioneer organization were extremely politicized, especially in the first decades. Involving themselves in national campaigns, the pioneers performed the following tasks. They collected money for the construction of tractors, to help children in capitalist countries, to restore the national economy - for everything that the country needed in different time. Recyclable materials were collected for recycling. They participated in communist subbotniks, in various propaganda campaigns - for example, for literacy, for the creation of collective farms, for economy, for peace... In the latter, pioneers were usually required to collect mass signatures, write letters of protest, participate in demonstrations and rallies, pioneer raids, speaking at meetings, etc.

In the first years of Soviet power, pioneers helped fight homelessness and tried to create new units in the villages. During the state campaign to eliminate illiteracy, they learned to read and write, encouraged other children and adults to learn, and taught them themselves, collected books and set up libraries. Participating in a campaign for technical literacy, they took part in technical circles, collected radios and other Appliances and sent them to sponsored villages, built children's ports and railways and worked for them. Young naturalists took care of animals, raised carrier pigeons, horses and service dogs for the army. The children went on geological hikes, nature study expeditions, and collected medicinal plants and fruits. The pioneers worked on collective farms, in the fields, guarded crops and collective farm property, wrote letters to newspapers or to the relevant authorities about violations that they noticed around them. We tried to select activities for children according to their strengths and interests. In terms of ideological education, the importance of extracurricular and club activities was very highly rated. Therefore, the pioneers carried out the tasks proposed by the counselors, if not with enthusiasm, then with the awareness that they were doing something important and useful for the whole country. Pioneers who tried to evade public works were not expelled from the organization, but by all possible ways they tried to set them on the right path - they “worked” at training camps, talked with their families, etc. They could be expelled from the pioneers, first of all, for the offenses of their parents - for example, the children of “enemies of the people.”

Illustration: A. Zhitomirsky, B. Tseyklin. Cover of the magazine "Ogonyok", 1943. At the end of the thirties, young Leninists were actively preparing for military-defense work, studying in circles of young shooters, signalmen, machine gunners, orderlies, etc. During the war, helping the front and the families of front-line soldiers was added to the tasks of the pioneers. The pioneers wrote letters to the soldiers, sewed underwear, knitted warm clothes, collected parcels for the active army, money for tanks and airplanes... Children were on duty in hospitals, organized concerts for the wounded, dug trenches, helped build fortifications and repair buildings after bombings. Some pioneers took part in hostilities, went on reconnaissance missions... In a word, the children did everything they could “for the front, for victory.”

After the war, the pioneers helped restore the country, worked on construction sites, did landscaping, went on hikes to places of military glory and created school museums, continued to work in the fields, collect scrap, etc. Since the victory of the USSR in the war made the “final victory of the Soviet system” obvious to everyone ", and membership in communist organizations was a reliable elevator for career growth, there are no longer any obstacles to the development of pioneering.

The pioneer organization became truly mass, but gradually its work became more and more formalized, limited to the framework of the school, which bore an increased burden of educating future communists. Each school had a senior pioneer counselor at headquarters, who was supposed to organize the work of the teams. Detachment leaders from high school Komsomol students treated their duties more and more formally social work. In practice, pioneer gatherings were often held under the guidance of teachers. International friendship clubs were created at schools, organized hikes, clean-up work in school areas, assistance to veterans, collection of recyclable materials, military sports games, ceremonial pioneer parades and other events that were less and less interesting to teenagers and were often carried out “for show”, for the record. .

By the time of the collapse of the USSR, school squads accepted all children from 10 to 15 years old into pioneers. There is not a single person in our country born before 1980 who was not a pioneer. Not only former pioneer activists, but many today remember their pioneer years with nostalgia, but during detailed conversations it turns out that the latter simply miss the time of their childhood, they remember with warmth interesting events like hikes, tree plantings, etc. At the same time, the ideological component , which permeated the entire life of the Soviet country, seemed boring to them in childhood; they simply turned a deaf ear to the tired slogans and appeals.