Pionýr (literally: Pioneer), officially Pioneer Organization of the Socialist Youth Union (Czech: Pionýrská organizace Socialistického svazu mládeže, PO SSM), was a youth Marxist-Leninist organization in communist Czechoslovakia. Although the organisation proclaimed to be voluntary, every child was expected to join from the age of six.
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Etymology
The Czech word pionýr is an approximate synonym of the word skaut (scout). Both are loan words from English and both are connected with the Czech idealization of the Wild West. Therefore, the Pionýr's inspiration from the Scout movement is obvious.
Activities
Pioneer activities were taken from the Scout movement, the Sokol movement, and the Soviet Komsomol. Original pioneer activities included old paper or herb collecting, described as "voluntary help for Czechoslovak industry". Collecting was a nationwide competition, and the winning pioneer team received a prize and media attention, and a positive reference for their later career. Other common activities including creating poster walls praising the Soviet Union and socialist life in general, or “navázání družby” (“creating a friendship”) with youth from other communist countries. Young pioneers also recited poems in various communist festivals. The most popular activity were the summer camps, which sometimes involved the hosting of youth communist organizations from the whole Eastern Bloc. The organisation's most controversial activity was young pioneers being encouraged to denounce their parents, like the Soviet hero Pavlik Morozov.
The group's activities changed significantly over time. The group was most radical in the 1950s and became more liberal during the 80s due to perestroika.
Uniform
The uniform consisted of a light blue shirt and grey trousers. The female variant used a white shirt and dark blue trousers or skirt. Both sexes wore a red neckerchief.
Ideology and mission statement
The PO-SYU Regulation mission statement from 1949 states that a Pioneer:
Motto, Summons and response
Post-Communism
After the fall of the Communist regime in 1989, there was a debate over the dissolution of Pioneer. The resulting compromise was a complete reform of the movement. This decision was controversial, as Pioneers were a potent symbol of the communist dictatorship. Pioneers nowadays are in fact more liberal than Scouts.