The Pionner Organization. The Evolution of Citizenship Education in The Soviet Union

67-14,092
SCHLESINGER, Ina, 1922-

TH E PIO N EER ORGANIZATION: TH E EVO LUTIO N OF
C ITIZE N S H IP EDUCATION IN THE SO VIET U NIO N.
Columbia U niversity, Ph.D ., 1967

P o litic a l Science, general
U n iversity M icrofilm s, Inc., A nn A rb o r, M ichigan
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
w) Copyright by
INA SCHLESINGER
1967
THE PIONEER ORGANIZATION:
The Evolution of Citizenship Education in the Soviet Union
by
Ina Schlesinger
Submitted in partial fulfillment

of the requirements for the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy
in the Faculty of Political Science
Columbia University
1967
ABSTRACT
THE PIONEER ORGANIZATION:
The Evolution of Citizenship Education in the Soviet Union
by Ina Schlesinger
This dissertation focusses on the origins, history and
development of the Pioneer Organization, which is today one of
the most important means of the political socialization of
Soviet youth. The Soviet regime is viewed as a government en
gaged in rapid modernization by political means; the pressures
which resulted from this produced a need for total control by
the government and complete commitment on the part of the
population. Part One of the dissertation examines the reasons
for founding the children's organization, the development of
the Pioneer movement in the context of changing educational
theories and policies, its relations with the school, and pr o
blems of Komsomol and Party control. Part Two analyses the
model of the "new Soviet man" and the methods used to form him
in the light of the changing needs of the regime. The early
blueprint is compared with the Stalinist model, and the changes
made in the post-Stalin era are examined. Finally, an attempt
is made to evaluate the impact of the Pioneer program on Soviet
youth.
It was found that the Pioneer Organization was estab
lished early in the history of the regime in order to establish
exclusive control over youth, shape the political ideas of its
members and involve them in approved social action. In the
early years of Soviet power it was also used to break up old
cultural patterns and help establish the new. In this period,
the children's organization was treated as an auxiliary of
the Party and the Komsomol. As the Stalin regime crystallized,
the Pioneer Organization lost its role in the transformation
of society and became completely subordinate to the educa
tional goals of the regime. Since Stalin's death and with the
increasing sophistication of Soviet society, the movement has
again been assigned a modest role outside the school. Although
there is some doubt whether the movement played a significant
part in breaking up the old culture, it is today one of the
main factors in the consolidation and maintenance of the new.
From the outset, the Pioneer Organization was placed
under the immediate control of the Komsomol with over-all
supervision by the Party. The Youth League was hampered con
stantly by lack of personnel and funds and often came into con
flict with the teaching and administrative staff of the schools:
it is only recently that a more harmonious collaboration has
been worked out.
While the Organization can be adjudged fairly successful
in its aim of establishing exclusive political control and incul
cating the desired convictions in the young, the ideal of the
"new Soviet man" is still far from a reality. The model cry
stallized in the Stalin era and has changed but little since.
It was found to contain a basic contradiction rooted in the-
conflict between the Marxist humanitarian ideal and the require-
3.
merits of the Leninist/Stalinist regime bent on more rapid
modernization. The dedicated, disciplined individual obedi
ent to orders from above and forgetful of his own interests,
needed by the latter, could not coexist with the freely-acting,
fully developed and thinking man of the Marxist Utopia.
While the Leninist/Stalinist model served the regime
well as an ideal during the period of rapid build-up and
development, indications are mounting that it is becoming
obsolete in a sophisticated economy and a society where total
control from the center is no longer efficient or effective.
So far, it was found, the regime has not responded adequately
to the changes in the society and to the need for a new model
and for different methods of citizenship training.
ii
TABLE OF CONTESTS
Page
PREFACE..................................................... iii
INTRODUCTION:SOCIALIZATION IN THE SOVIET UNION................. 1
PART I: BACKGROUND
THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE PIONEER ORGANIZATION

AND ITS ROLE IN THE SOVIET SOCIETY
Chapter
I. THE BACKGROUND..................................... 16
II. ESTABLISHMENT AND FORMATIVE YEARS..................... 37
III. THE ORGANIZATION AND THE SCHOOL...................... 67
IV. KOMSOMOL AND PARTY CONTROL.......................... 100
PART II: ANALYSIS
THE PIONEER ORGANIZATION'S ROLE IN

FORMING THE SOVIET CITIZEN
V. THE MODEL OF THE NEW MAN (l):THE EARLY YEARS .......... 128
VI. THE MODEL OF THE HEW MAN (2).................... 157
VII. THE POST-STALIN E R A ................................ 196
VIII. THE IMPACT OF THE PIONEER PROGRAM.................... 2lh
IX. CONCLUSION......................................... 225
BIBLIOGRAPHY................................................. 232
iii
PREFACE
Along with the family, the educational system, and mass media,
the Pioneer Organization today probably remains the most important
means of the political socialization of Soviet youth. As such, it
served the government in the past as a weapon in the battle against
the traditions and loyalties of the older generation. At present,
its main impact on society as a whole is less clear-cut.
This dissertation focuses on the origins, history and devel
opment of the Pioneers, the role played by the Organization in the
transformation of society, and its role in forming the type of citizen
required by the Soviet system. The Soviet regime is viewed here as
a government engaged in rapid modernization by political means. The
resulting pressures produced the need for total control by the govern
ment and complete commitment on the part of the population. Such an
approach is expected to throw some light on the part played by the
political socialization process in the modernization of a society
and on the importance of this process in the establishment and main
tenance of the values and attitudes propagated by the regime.
Some basic problems faced by the Soviet regime in its dealings
with youth will emerge from this study. The leadership was bent on
producing a citizen who would be both obedient subject and eager par
ticipant. The fundamental contradiction contained in this image has
its roots in the conflict between Marxist theory on the nature of the
socialist society, and Leninist-Stalinist practice in "building"
iv
socialism; related to it are the corollary contradictions between
concern for the individual and the paramount interests of the state,
the desire to foster independent initiative and the regime's need
for total control, and— in the case of the childrens1 organization—
the contradiction between the requirements of pedagogy and the demands
of political goals. The conflict between these differing factors
was resolved lu favor of one side or the other in accordance with
the requirements of the regime at every stage of the development of
the Soviet system.
While the image of the "new man” could never be fully realized,
it seems to have served the regime well as an ideal during the period
of rapid development. The question which must be answered today is
whether this ideal is undergoing modification as the society is
modernized and the effectiveness of all-pervasive control is reduced.
A study of the Pioneer Organization's aims and methods today should
help to determine what changes have taken place in Soviet society
and to what extent the regime is responsive to them.
Although studies have been made of the Soviet youth program
as a whole and of the Komsomol in particular,1 no work has as yet
concentrated on the Pioneer Organization. A close study of this
most comprehensive of the Soviet youth organizations should fill this
gap. It must be pointed out however, that such a study if carried
1. A. Kassof, The Soviet Youth Program (Cambridge: Harvard University

Press, 1965); R. T. Fisher, Pattern for Soviet Youth (Hew York: Columbia
University Press, 1959)*
V
out In the West, is necessarily subject to some limitations. The
lack of sources available in this country mates it impossible to give
a complete picture of the Organization and its development in all
areas of the Soviet Union. Thus, this dissertation will leave
largely out of consideration the special problems posed for the
Pioneers in rural and national areas. The discussion will concen
trate on the Pioneers in urban centers and on the top-level debates
on central problems of the Organization. Such an approach does not
seem unjustified in viev of the fact that the ideal "new man" is an
urban individual who has shed the "survivals” of national traditions
in his consciousness.
The evaluation of the part of the Pioneer program concerned
with the formation of the "new man" is also beset with problems.
To obtain reliable information, the researcher would have to live
and work among Soviet children and adults free of all the restrictions
and obstacles which hamper such research in the Soviet Union. Con
clusions drawn here are based on the discussions published by the
Soviet press and on Western studies, supplemented by personal
observations and such contact with Soviet educators as could be
obtained during three visits to the Soviet Union for the purpose of
studying Soviet schools.
1
INTRODUCTION
SOCIALIZATION IN THE SOVIET UNION
Every society from the most primitive to the most complex
evolves a method of training succeeding generations to accept its
values and to perform their assigned role in the approved manner.
As the older generation hands down its traditions to the young, con
tinuity is preserved and the stability of the society is assured.
This socialization process begins in earliest childhood, through
training by the family. It is from his parents that the child
learns the first rules of behavior and it is the family which demands
and enforces conformity with the standards set by the adult world.
In a primitive and homogeneous society, this world presents
the individual with a set of values applicable to all situations in
which he may find himself. Religion, ethics and politics all form
a part of this one basic pattern. Family, clan or tribal relations
determine the social relations of the society as a whole. Definite
rules can be followed to achieve one’s aims and to gain the approval
of the gods and of the world. Conduct is prescribed, demands made
upon men are consistent and the problem of choice is unknown. As
political functions are not differentiated from social, economic or
religious, the individual is not required to assume a citizen’s role
and political orientation in the society is unnecessary.
In more complex and sophisticated societies, early socializa
tion in the family circle is followed by the development of social
2
loyalties in the world outside. Society is divided into many subgroups
determined "by a diversified economy, a multitude of religions, a number
of different ethnic groups, and a complicated government system. When
the child leaves the family, he is exposed to a variety of other
socializing agencies— the school, the church, the peer group— which
set their own standards, impose their own rules of conduct, and exert
their own authority. The code of conduct learned in the family may
or may not apply under these new conditions and the child is often
faced with a set of differing demands and standards. The teachings
of his church may conflict with those of the school, the values of
the ethni c group to which he belongs may clash with the demands of
society as a whole or with those of other subgroups, and racial conflict
may arise. The sources of possible disagreement are many and varied.
A child in such a society must learn to cope with conflict and to
determine his own priorities among these different loyalties.
In the more complex societies, the political function is
specialized and visible, and some form of political allegiance is
required of all members. General support of or acquiescence in the
established form of government is essential to the stability of every
state and to its very existence. Although the demand for such support
or acquiescence is backed by the full might of the coercive power of
the state— all countries have their treason laws— the use of force on
a large scale, or the threat of it, is mostly necessary only during
periods of revolutionary change. At other times, allegiance to the
state is developed in a prolonged and often imperceptible process.
Political socialization begins long before any conscious and
3
concerted effort is made to develop civic loyalties. The term has
been defined as: "that process by which individuals acquire attitudes
and feelings toward the political system and toward their role in it,
including cognition . . . feeling . . . and one*s sense of political

1
competence. , . . Many of these attitudes and feelings are rooted
in values acquired at a very early period in life and transmitted by
the family. An individual*s concept of and feelings about authority,
his ideas about the society in which he lives and his evaluation of
its members, all are acquired in early childhood. " . . . the process
of politicization begins far down in the scale both in organization and
in years. The point of departure for civic education is the child. . . .
Social and political attitudes are determined far earlier than is
commonly supposed, many of them in fact in pre-school years," wrote one
student of the process.
The influence of the family on the child*s political attitudes
begins to decline when he is exposed to other socializing agencies.
At this time he comes into contact with many different views, some of
which may differ from or contradict those held by his parents. If
the outside influences run parallel with that of the family, they may
have a cumulative effect, reinforcing attitudes acquired earlier in
childhood; on the other hand "educational experiences on the secondary
level or above may suppress, substitute for, or transcend earlier
1. James S. Coleran,Education and Political Development (Princeton:

Princeton University Press, 1965),p. lb. Emphasis in original.
2. Charles E. Merriam, The Miking of Citizens (Chicago: University of

Chicago Press, 1931), p. 331.
4
«1
familial experiences. On the whole, one of the foremost students
of the political socialization process has found., "the relative in
fluence of parental nouns declines as peers and other agencies exert

o
their influence on the growing individual.
It is at this point that a conscious effort is made by the
state to shape the political attitudes and loyalties of the young.
The most important institution which undertakes this task— especially
since the spread of universal and compulsory education— are the schools.
Schools in all countries inculcate in their pupils feelings of alle
giance to their country and admiration for the prevailing system of
government. Subtly or crudely children are taught to value their
country* s political system above all others; patriotic ceremonies are
held to ensure their involvement, and all teaching is permeated with
the values of the society in which they live.
After school hours, social organizations of various types
take over the task of political socialization. Boy Scouts or Girl
Scouts, youth programs established by the churches, or youth groups
organized by labor unions or political parties, all may work in differ
ent ways to develop support for the policies which they advocate among
the young.
Political socialization processes thus may be implicit and
hidden or explicit and overt, private, public or official. In trans
mitting the values of a society to the younger generation they are a
1. Coleman, op. cit., p. 21.
2. H. Hynan, Political Socialization (Glencoe, Free Press, 1959)j

P. 105.
5
force for continuity and stability; in times of development and innova
tion, political socialization may be used as one of the most important
forces for change.
The concept of political development^" has been worked out by
contemporary political scientists to interpret changes taking place in
a political system which is trying to adapt to the requirements of
modernization. Differing views exist on how this latter concept may
best be defined. For the purposes of this dissertation, the following
ideas seem the most useful.
Modernization can be defined as the transition from a pre
industrial to an industrialized economy, accompanied by profound social
and political change. The development of an industrialized economy
entails the mobilization of the population, urbanization, increasing
social mobility, changes in the occupational structure and the
development of new work habits, and the spread of education.
These changes affect the political system in many ways: the
structure of the system must become increasingly differentiated to
enable it to cope with the complex tasks which confront it, and the
scope of political power expands until almost every citizen experiences
some direct contact with his government. The active cooperation and
support of the citizenry becomes increasingly important to the national
government.
We are concerned here mainly with changes in what has been called
1. For a discussion of the various definitions of this idea see Lucian

W. Pye, Aspects of Political Development (Boston: Little Brown and Co.,
1966).
6
the "political culture," those "aspects of the general culture [which]
are especially concerned with how government ought to he conducted and
what it should try to do. . . .As with the general culture of a society,
the principal components of the political culture are values, beliefs

t»l
and emotional attitudes. As the power of the government expands in
the process of modernization, and the demands made on the citizens
increase, this pattern of beliefs and attitudes about the political
system will have to adapt to the new conditions if these changes are
to be accepted.
Political cultures may be classified in terms of the popula
tion's orientation towards the system as "parochial," "subject," and

_2
participant. The parochial individual lives within the confines
of his immediate environment and has little awareness of the national
political system; the subject is aware of the national political
system, but only as a passive recipient of the impact which it has on
his life; participants are those individuals who realize that they can
take part in the political process and influence the acts of the
government. All types of individuals may be present in any one
culture. Parochlals and subjects however, seem to be predominant in
a premodem society.
In a society which is undergoing the changes involved in
1. S. H. Beer, and Adam B. Ulam (eds.), Patterns of Government (Hew York:

Random House, 19&2), p. 32. For another definition of the concept of
political culture see Gabriel A. Almond and Sidney Verba, The Civic Culture
(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 19^5)> P. 15*
2. For a fuller treatment of this topic see Gabriel A. Almond and G.

Bingham Powell, Comparative Politics: a Developmental Approach (Boston:
Little Brown and Co., 1966), PP. 50-72.
7
V
modernization, old -values become irrelevant and traditional loyalties,
customs and attitudes break down* A new pattern of orientation must
be developed to take the place of the old. The particular form
which these new beliefs, attitudes and values will take will depend
to a large extent on the characteristics of the society, its history
and its culture. Speaking generally however, certain basic trends
can be identified.
Modernization brings about increasing contact between the
various parts of the society, a rising level of education, the spread
of information, and an increase in the demands made by the national
political power on all citizens. These trends tend to exert pressures
for the elimination of parochial and subject attitudes. It has been
held by one author that: "the general trends in societies experiencing
modernization are those which are closely related to *participating*

_1
attitudes in the political culture. Political development thus
seems to entail, as far as the citizenry is concerned: "a change from
wide-spread subject status to an increasing number of contributing
citizens, with an accompanying spread of mass participation, a greater
sensitivity to the principles of equality and a wider acceptance of

2
universalistic laws.”
1. Ibid., p. 96. See also Reinhard Bendix, Nation-Building and

Citizenship (New York: John Wiley and Sons, 196*0.
2. Lucian w. Pye and Sidney Verba (cds.), Political Culture and Political
Development (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 19&5J* p. 13. For
a discussion of the development of citizenship in England see T. 5.
Marshall, Class, Citizenship and Social Development (Garden City, N.Y.:
Doubleday and Co., 1964).
8
Modernization may take place gradually and in a more or less
unplanned way. In that case, the society slowly establishes an
adjustment between the old values and the new. Traditional loyalties
may be preserved and accommodated into the new system, while a con
sensus on generally accepted values comes to be established. A
pluralistic system can be maintained which provides ample roam for
disagreement and argument within these agreed limits. If a con
siderable effort is exerted to develop political views and attitudes
in the young, this effort is not centrally directed or uniformly
oriented.
The process of modernization in every society however, is
affected by conditions in. the world outside the particular nation
involved. In a nation which comes to the process later than its
neighbors or rivals and which feels the pressures involved in
"catching tip," the pace of modernization may become forced. Time is
felt to be lacking to wait for gradual change, and rapid development
becomes the political concern of the government.^
In such a case, the political socialization process becomes
the urgent concern of the rulers; gradual accommodation of traditional
values with the new may be replaced by an authoritarian or totali
tarian approach, and a compulsory value system may be imposed on the
society to bridge the abrupt transition. Under these conditions, the
struggle against the culture-preserving, conservative institutions
1. For a study of this process in Japan and Germany, see BencLix, op. cit.,
Chapter 6.
9
may become acute. The formal educational system may become an
instrument for change, and values taught by "official" institutions
may be in sharp conflict with those taught in the family and other
socializing agencies.
Karl Marx- -himself an outstanding student of the processes of
social and political change— based his theory on observations aade
in a country which was experiencing gradual industrialization and
modernization. In spite of his original insistence on the need for
violent revolution at the point of changeover from one system to
another, his was in essence a theory of evolution. Fundamental
change, he held, could not take place until all conditions were ripe
for it, and his vision of Utopia applied only to a fully developed
and industrialized society. The members of such a society would be
"participants" par excellence (if the analogy can be used in speaking
of a system where the political power was supposed to disappear),
contributing to society whatever they could, faQc-trig from it whatever
they needed, and all participating in the task of social management.
The Soviet regime was concerned from the very beginning,
however, with rapid development by political means. Lenin had to
adapt the Marxist theory to making socialist revolution in a pre-modem
society, where conditions for the establishment of the Marxist Utopia
were far from ripe. It thus became the task of the Bolsheviks when
they took power to initiate sweeping change in attitudes and class
structure rather than to adapt to it. Their Immediate goal was
political control, but the real enemy was cultural inertia. In the
10
name of an ideology vhich extolled change as progress, the Bolsheviks
announced their intention of destroying traditional and indigenous
values and of replacing them with an all-inclusive belief system of
their own.'1' They condemned all values of the past in making their
plans for the future. There was to be no gradual accommodation with
previous loyalties. Soviet Marxists hold that their doctrine
presents mankind with a set of universally valid beliefs which form
the basis for all behavior and are applicable to all circumstances.
In their urgent desire to modernize and to remake society for this
purpose, the Bolsheviks claimed the right to regulate all of human
life; the state became merged with society, and private relations
became the political concern of the regime.
The drive towards total control inherent in Bolshevik goals
and in Marxist doctrine (as amended by Lenin) became reinforced when
a threat developed to the security of the nation, and gained added
impetus from the peculiarities of Stalin’s character. Furthermore,
the Soviet regime was particularly sensitive to the danger to its
power inherent in disagreement with the official doctrine. As the
Communist party’s claim to power rested on its presumably unique
ability to interpret the ideology, no divergent opinion could be
tolerated.
Under all these pressures, the regime forged a political system
1. For an elaboration of the theory that the Communist ideology appeals

mainly to societies which are anxious to modernize, see Adam Ulam,
The Unfinished Revolution (Hew York: Random House, i960).
11
as powerful and pervasive as any system known to history. In con
ditions such as these, political socialization became an important
tool both for political control and for social change. The regime
demanded more than political allegiance from its subjects; nothing
less than total commitment would do. As conceived by the rulers,
the ideal Soviet citizen should believe in and actively work for
the goals of his government, without claiming a part in determining
those goals or desiring to influence the regime in his own interests.
It became the ambitious aim of the regime to form a new type of man,
who would stand ready to vork selflessly for the common good. In
the scheme set forth above, this type of citizen would combine
subject with participant attitudes.^"
From the very outset, the Soviet regime attempted to take
over the entire political socialization process: all phases of this
process were now to became overt and explicit, controlled by the
state. The family, as one cf the culture-preserving, traditional
institutions of society, was one of the first targets of the Bolsheviks.
The public education of children had always been an important
point in the Marxist program. The Communist Manifesto predicts the
dissolution of the bourgeois family and calls for a system of public
education free from the influence of the bourgeois ruling class. As
faithful followers of Marx on matters of upbringing, the Bolsheviks
1. It should be noted that, before the revolution, Lenin still sub

scribed to the "Marxist” ideal of the fully participant citizen in
the socialist state. This view is set forth in his State and Revo
lution. See Robert V. Daniels (ed,), A Documentary History of
Communism (New York: Random House, i960), pp. 104-106.
12
expected the family after the Revolution to lose its "bourgeois”
attributes and to cease to exist as an economic and educational unit.
When they took power in 1917* they tried to speed this process by
suitable legislation: marriage became a civil ceremony, divorce was
made very easy, abortion was legalized and the status of illegitimate
children was regularized.1 Contrary to widespread belief, however,
no general effort was made to take children from their parents at
birth and bring them up in state-owned institutions. Given the
economic conditions prevailing in the post-Revolutionary period, such
an undertaking would have been impossible to put into practice. There
is no doubt, however, that many Bolsheviks considered such a measure
highly desirable as long as the parent generation remained tainted
with the influence of the pre-Revolutionary society. "We must exempt
children from the pernicious influence of the family. We have to
take account of every child. We candidly say we must nationalize
them. From the first days of their life they will be under the
beneficial influence of communistic kindergartens and schools. . . .

_2
Here they shall grow up as real Communists, proclaimed a prominent
Soviet educator in 1918. This was deemed necessary to establish
political control and to combat cultural inertia. The masses, if
1. See R. S. Tixaashcff, The Great Retreat (Hew York: E. P. Dutton and

Company, 19^6). See also, R. Schlesinger (ed.), The Family in the
USSR (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, Ltd., 19^97*
2. H. Bans and S. Hessen, Educational Policy in Soviet Russia (London:

R. S. King and Son, 1930), pp. 20-21. The speaker was a certain Lil-
ina, according to the authors, "head of the Petrograd Education De
partment," p. 26.
13
not actively hostile, were sullenly indifferent to the new rulers and
wholly ignorant of Marxist ideas. They clung to their traditions
and to their "dark" ways. Such parents, even had they wanted to,
were quite incapable of bringing up the new Soviet citizen. As we
shall see, the Bolsheviks reversed the roles in the family in the
early days of their rule: politically "conscious" children were
expected to educate their parents. Even today, with the danger of
mass political opposition to the regime presumably a thing of the past,
and when the parent generation was b o m and brought up under the Soviet
regime, it remains the official view that the family cannot be fully
trusted to bring up its children in the "correct" manner. "The
educational Influence which the family exerts on children must be
brought into ever greater harmony with their public upbringing," says
the 1961 Party program,^ which called for the expansion of the boarding
school program to accommodate all children whose parents were willing

2
to enroll them. Although these plans now seem to have been abandoned,
intensive efforts are still being made to direct and control the
education of children in the family through parent education programs. 3
As soon as the child leaves the family circle for nursery
1. The Camgnr^st Blueprint for the Future (New York: E. P. Button and
Company, 1962j, p. 213.
2. Ibid.
3. The Academy of Pedagogical Sciences in Moscow has a sector for

Education of Children in the Family, which organizes courses for parents
and publishes a series of pamphlets advising parents on how to bring
up their children. Efforts in parent education are also made by the
schools and by organizations such as the Pedagogoical Society.
Ill
school, kindergarten or school, he is exposed to the full force of a
concerted campaign aimed at inculcating the officially approved
values, eradicating undesirable influences picked up from the parents,
and developing the desired character traits. The word "campaign" is
used advisedly: the great resources of the state-owned communication
media, educational institutions and leisure facilities are used in a
militant and purposeful attempt to develop the "new Soviet man."
An integral and vital part of this campaign are the youth
organizations. Used at the outset as a tool for the break-up of the
old culture at the grass roots, they are today one of the main agencies
for the political socialization of the younger generation. A Soviet
child becomes part of such an organization when he enters school at
the age of seven and becomes a Little Octobrist. At the age of ten
he is promoted to the Young Pioneer Organization, where he stays until
he is fifteen. These are some of the most impressionable years in a
child*s life, and this is the period when interest in political
matters awakens.1 Membership in the Pioneer Organization is virtually
universal in this age group today, while the next and last youth organ—
the Komsomol— is much less aggressive in its membership drive. Thus,
for many Soviet children, the Pioneer Organization offers the most
systematic and thoroughgoing training in the prescribed values and
attitudes which they ever receive. While the most important task of
the school is to provide academic instruction and formal education,
1. Hyman found that political interest in children in the U. S. awakens

at the age of 11 and increases throughout the teens.
15
and the family may he uncommitted or inept, the Pioneer Organization
concentrates on the task of developing the Soviet citizen.^
The goals set for the Pioneer Organization, however, are hut
a part of the general educational and upbringing program in the
Soviet Union. Dealing as it does, exclusively with school children,
the movement has had to maintain close contact with the schools.
From the outset it was recognized that political leadership was not
enough for the childrens1 organization; youth leaders were called on
to collaborate with educators in the task of forming the "new man."
While the Party and the Komsomol laid down the political guidelines
for the Pioneer program, psychologists and educators provided the
pedagogical background and worked out the methods and procedures to
be used in training the ideal citizen. The evolution of the program
can thus not be understood without a background knowledge of devel
opments in the field of pedagogy in the years of Soviet rule.
1. The terms "citizen" and "citizenship education" are used throughout

in the extended sense described above. The writer feels that neither
the term "civic education" nor the term "political socialization" cor
rectly conveys the scope of the educational effort made in the USSR.
PAST I : BACKSBOtJHD
THE DEVELOPMEHT OF THE PIONEER ORGANIZATION AND

ITS HOLE IN SOVIET SOCI^Y
vi
16
CHAPTER I
THE BACKGROUND
Underlying much of the debate on educational theory and the
frequent changes in educational policies in the Soviet Union is the
basic contradiction between the evolutionary aspects of Marxist theory
and its liberal-humanistic ideas, and the Leninist/Stalinist view of
the need for planned development and political control.
Basic to all educational theory and practice was the regime*s
view of the role of man in society. In the early days after the
revolution, Soviet psychologists and educators saw man as the helpless
product of his environment, acted upon by outside forces but powerless
to Influence or change them. He was a passive creature, whose only
activity was performed in the process of adjusting to the pressure of
the outside world in an effort to achieve or restore his equilibrium
with it. This view was in complete accord with the ideas of Marx,
who held that man’s material existence determined his consciousness:
"Does it require deep intuition," he inquired in the Communist Manifesto,
"to comprehend that man’s ideas, views and conceptions, in one word,
man’s consciousness, changes with every change in the conditions of
his material existence?"^ In his view, human nature was innately
good; negative qualities developed only as a result of the adverse
1. The Communist Blueprint for the Future, p. 29.
17
action upon it of the environment.
This thesis was easily adapted to the Bolshevik need for
social control. It led to the belief that the nature of man is
infinitely malleable. If only the right conditions could be provided,
man could, so to speak, be "made to order." "From the beginning of
the Soviet regime it was recognized that the remaking of human
personality was an integral part of the social, political and
economic revolution that Bolshevism represented. Soviet psychologists,
particularly those closely associated with the party, realized that
the assumption of the plasticity of the human organism was a necessary
‘optimistic* premise for the goal of developing the ‘new type of
man*. From the beginning of Bolshevik rule it was recognized that
it would be necessary to create a "new man" in order to build the
new society.
The same process of adaptation can be traced in the discussion
carried on in the early years among psychologists and educators as
to the relative importance of heredity and environment in the devel
opment of the human personality. The initial inclination towards
over-emphasis of the biological aspects in the development of the
individual seemed to underline the futility of planned purposeful
action aimed at influencing the nature of man. If heredity was one
of the "objective" factors shaping man*s consciousness, was human
nature then not pre-determined? Political consideration demanded an
1. R. A. Bauer, The Rev Man In Soviet Psychology (Cambridge: Harvard

University Press, 1952), p. tio.
18
admission that human character could he formed by manipulation of
his environment. Accordingly the discussion among scholars was
ultimately resolved in favor of those who emphasized the importance
of non-biological factors in the development of the human psyche.
As one prominent Soviet educator put it at the end of the 1920*s:
Indeed on the one hand, the transmission through

heredity of certain mental dispositions is altogether
indisputable . . . on the other hand, to deny the
power of nurture [this term is defined by the author
as "the prolonged action of one or more persons upon
another for the purpose of developing his native
biologically and socially useful qualities"] is
indefensible . . . the newly boro possesses merely
certain tendencies which, depending on the conditions
of education and environment, may be either fully
developed or suppressed.1
Educational practices in the first years of Soviet rule re
flected the same accommodation between liberal democratic ideals and
the political needs of the regime. The period was one of considerable
ferment and experimentation. Both liberal educators and Bolshevik
politicians agreed that it was necessary to abolish the policies of
Tsarist times, which provided education differentiated according to

O
the social origin of the pupil. Democratic educational philosophy,
however, demanded a school system open to all, while Bolshevik ideology
called for a "proletarian" school to be used as an instrument of
1. A. Pinkevich, The Hew Soviet Education (Hew York: John Day, 1929),
p. 1^.
2. Tsarist education was dominated by two conflicting tendencies, one

conservative, the other democratic. Although by 1917 the democratic
trend was gaining, this did not have time to take effect before the
outbreak of the Revolution. For a discussion of pre-Revolutionary
educational policies, see William H. E. Johnson, Russia*s Educational
Heritage (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1950).
19
political control. "The All-Russian Communist Party in the field of
education sets itself the task of bringing to fulfilment the work
begun by the October Revolution of 1917* of transforming the school
from an instrument of class domination of the bourgeoisie into an
instrument for the abolition of the class divisions of society, into

„1
an instrument for a Communist regeneration of society, says the
1919 Party program.
Democratic ideas were dominant in the period immediately
after the Revolution. The old school system was replaced by the
"Unified Labor School," which was intended to provide access to all
levels of education for all who wished to avail themselves of the
opportunity. The new school was divided into two levels of five and
four years respectively, and was to admit, free of charge, children of
both sexes. Primary and secondary education were to be universal and
compulsory. The administration of the school system was decentralized
to allow for local initiative.
Under the influence both of Marx’s ideas of "polytechnical

2
education" and of the latest Western ideas of progressive education,
Soviet educators decided that the school should no longer form a
separate unit, closed off from the society which it served. It would
now become an integral part of the community, and children would learn
from "life itself"— i.e., from work and observations on farms and in
1. The Communist Blueprint for the Future, p. 86.
2. A principle which calls for combining education with productive work

and instruction in the basic principles of industrial production.
20
factories— as much as from school hooks and teachers’ lectures. Active
and free methods of instruction were to replace traditional teaching
methods. The curriculum was completely reorganized to conform both
to progressive ideas of "learning from life" and to ideological
requirements. Study of broad topics such as "Nature,” "Labor" and
"Society" was to replace subject courses with a strictly defined content.
The emphasis was on "learning through doing." Children were to be
encouraged to develop their innate abilities in activities of their
choice with only over-all guidance from the teacher. Some enthusiasts
even expected the school to "wither away" with the state.
Pedagogical practice was naturally influenced by the psycho
logical theories prevalent at the time. In line with the initial
emphasis on the importance of the individual, educators in the early
days concentrated their efforts on studying the child in his reaction
to his environment. A new science was created for this purpose,
pedology; its aim was to devise the best possible conditions for
children to develop their innate abilities to their fullest extent.
Discipline was considered to be positively harmful, and the first
Education Act of the Russian Republic (passed in 1913) abolished all
forms of punishment.1 The central concept of the new education was
"self-activity," i.e., learning through active participation; children
were encouraged to plan their own activities, to show initiative in
organizing their work, and to set up self-government organs to run
1. Sobranie uzakonenii i rasporiazhenii rabochego i krestianskogo

pravitel’stva, R. S. F. S. R., 1918, Moscow, IuR. Izd. NKIU, Art. 812.
21
their own affairs. Supervision by higher authority was to be kept
at a r>-tnnnnT
Political and economic considerations all too soon put an end
to this initial period of revolutionary idealism. It rapidly became
apparent that the education law could not be implemented as passed.
War and civil war had devastated the country and depleted its resources.
Conditions deteriorated further as a result of the rash measures of
"War Communism." Lack of material resources made it impossible to
enforce universal, compulsory and free primary and secondary education
in the foreseeable future. Moreover, the introduction of the New
Economic Policy, with its accompanying resurgence of bourgeois elements,
made indiscriminate admission of all children to the schools politically
undesirable; the need for more stringent practical controls was now
apparent. Consequently, a new Education Act was passed in 1923;
which provided for admission to schools on a class basis (children of
toilers were to be given preference), and tightened the control of the
central authorities over school administration.^* In spite of these
measures, the schools were still far from being the instrument of
proletarian rule which the reforms had sought to create. The First
Level of the Unified Labor School (now consisting of four years)
naturally tended to become a purely peasant institution in rural
areas; in the cities, the enrollment was more proletarian, but the
schools at this level never achieved the close contact with the
1. N. I. Boldryev (Comp.), Direktivy i dokumenty v. TsK VKP (b) i

postanovleniia sovetskogo pravitel *stva o narodnom obrazovanii (Moscow:
Ak. Fed. Nauk, 19^7), I, 128.
22
factory which the Marxist program prescribed. The Second Level was
now divided into two cycles (five years altogether). It could admit
only a tiny percentage of graduates of the four-year school;^ many
of these schools charged fees and they were fast becoming the training
ground for an elite. Proletarian children for the most part, did
not continue their education beyond the first stage.
This situation gave rise to increasing tensions between the
youth organization, entrusted with political supervision in the
schools, and Narkompros officials concerned with providing the best
possible education. The Komsomol showed a deep-seated distrust of
the Narkompros, based on the conviction that the administrators were
dragging their feet in transforming the school. Teachers were
suspected of openly or secretly opposing the new regime. As the
Komsomol was assigned a leading role in the schools* self-government
organs and enjoyed broadly defined powers to intervene in the class
room in the interest of the political education of children, this
conflict had a harmful effect on the work of the educational system.
The Pioneer Organization was founded at this time (1922) as the
junior arm of the Youth League. In line with prevalent educational
theory as well as in accordance with the political aims of the Komsomol,
it was centered in factories rather than in schools, and concentrated
on the all-round development of the individual. In the schools, it
became the ally of the Komsomol in its struggle with educational
1. The figure cited by Hans and Hessen is 3.5 percent. For a break
down of attendance figures, see Bans and Hessen, op. cit., p. 96.
23
officials, and was charged with political leadership of the mass of
non-members.
When the decision was taken to "build socialism in one
country"— in other words, to undertake rapid modernization at a
forced pace— the interests of the state became dominant and took
precedence over all other considerations in the field of education
for a long time to come. Drastic revisions had to be made both in
psychological theory and in educational policies and practices. The
regime could no longer afford to regard man as a helpless creature
in the grip of external forces beyond his control; nor could it
afford to wait until environment had changed human nature. The
state now needed active, dedicated citizens, conscious of their duties
and responsible for their actions, acting upon their environment,
instead of being shaped by it.
Previously approved theories on human nature were now condemned
as "fatalistic" and a new doctrine was worked out. While in the
preceding period little thought had been devoted to the problem of
motivation, and the concepts of consciousness and purpose did not form
part of the approved psychology, these now became focal points for study.
A theory of social motivation was developed, based on sociel rather
than biological concepts. Man, it was now held, is moved by social
needs; these differ from biological needs by the fact that they are
not immutable, but are constantly expanding, thus providing a basis
for social action. Eased on such needs, interests develop; these are
focused on relevant objects, and are uniformly conscious and uniformly
the product of concrete social, political, economic and educational
2h
conditions. These Interests constitute social motives. In the
pursuit of his interests, man is guided by an ideal, which furnishes
the guidelines for self-training, and by his sense of duty to society.1
With the adoption of this view of the nature of man— the image
of a purposeful being consciously striving to reach his goal— the
problem of shaping his motives and molding his character became more
important than ever before. With the state now setting ambitious
goals, the interests of society rather than the needs of the individual
became the central point of interest. Educators were now asked to
abandon their efforts to find the best possible conditions for the
free development of the individual, and told to concentrate on producing
a citizen with the abilities and attributes needed by the state. ”It
is obvious that, since 1930, the emphasis has shifted more and more
to the primacy of society over the individual. The Bolsheviks have
clear objectives toward which the individual and his motives are
being molded, and these objectives have sis their goal the proper
„2
functioning of the Soviet system as a whole. In other words, if
rapid development was to be achieved, the needs of the individual would
have to be subordinated to the needs of the regime.
A clear blueprint was now offered to educators, psychologists
and, youth leaders of the type of man required by the Soviet system if
its stated objectives were to be reached. The new Soviet man was to
1. The foregoing paraphrases and summarizes the theory of motivation as

it is described in Bauer, op. cit., pp. 138 ff-
2. Ibid., p. Ik2.
25
"be a strong-willed, purposeful individual, fully aware of the goals of
his society and imbued with a consuming desire to reach them. He
was to be disinterested, a collectivist putting the interests of the
society and those of his group above his own. He must be active,
disciplined and obedient to higher authority, but always ready to
take the initiative, steeled in the struggle for the common goal and
ready to endure any hardship and to overcome any difficulty in the
pursuit of his aim.
It is clear that this image contains some basic contradictions.
There is a fundamental dichotomy in this concept of the subject/
participant: an individual trained to obey orders from above and to
accept without question his superiors1 goals, will not display much
initiative, nor will a disciplined soldier in the ranks devise ways
to be active on his own. Rigid control from above is difficult to
combine with enthusiastic collaboration from below. This contra
diction was to plague the development of citizenship education both
in the schools and in the Pioneer Organization throughout the years
to come.
Nevertheless Soviet scholars never wavered' in their view that
human nature was malleable and that the "new man" could be produced
according to the blueprint design. This design has remained un
changed in general outline since it was traced in the 1930ss, although
different traits may have been emphasized at various periods. Soviet
psychologists, writing in the post-Stalin era differ little from
their colleagues in the earlier periods, when they maintain:
26
Starting from the premise that "the nature of man can

he cultivated," pedagogy sets itself the task of directing
the development and forming the personality, the character
and capabilities, satisfying the demands of that social
system, which is represented and served by that pedagogy. .
. . However, within the unity of the form of character
the will stands out as the dominant content component of
character. . . . The will is directed towards reaching
definite goals. There can he no will activity outside
the nseds, interests and convictions from which stem
the motives and aims of activity. Depending on the
social values of the aims, will can he 'bad* or 'good1. .
. . Depending on the strength of the motives and the
depth of their consciousness . . . such qualities as
hardness, firmness, decisiveness, or on the other hand,
passivity, impulsiveness, indecisiveness and dependence
are manifested. 3-
The primacy of environment over heredity, asserted in the
earlier period, has likewise been maintained to the present day:
"Each child is endowed by nature with some individual physiological
characteristics, which represent potentialities," writes a Soviet
scholar in the sixties. "The task of education is to create favorable
conditions under which these potentialities would blossom into full
development. What is being transferred by heredity is not ready-made
abilities, but only the prerequisites for their development. . . .
Instead of being concerned about heredity, one should strive to
instill neatness, obedience, concentration, purposefulness, strong
will-power and attentiveness, through the application of correct

„2
methods of upbringing.
1. A. G. Kovalev and B. H. Miasishchev, Psikhicheskie osobennosti

cheloveka: kharakter, Izd. Lenigr. Un-ta (Leningrad, 1957), I, S, 125.
2. G. S. Prozorov: Heredity and Upbringing, UchPedGiz (Moscow, i960),

quoted in H. Redl: Soviet Educators on Soviet Education (Glencoe,
Illinois: Free Press, 1964), p. 4.
Reproduced with permission o f the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
27
The educational system also was re-structured in the thirties
to adapt to the goals of the regime. The Unified Labor School was
unable to satisfy the demands of the state for a well-trained labor
force. The system introduced in 1918 had proved inadequate even
before the change of policy decided on by Stalin; pupils were being
graduated from the Unified Labor School with only the sketchiest
knowledge of basic subjects and with no preparation for a useful life.
Considerable confusion had resulted from the advocation and application
of little-tried new teaching methods, which were properly understood
by neither teachers nor pupils. Finally, the political suspicion
and constant control by the Komsomol and the lack of classroom
discipline had made effective teaching impossible.^
The educational reforms of the thirties were heralded by a
decree in 1931, which abolished the Unified Labor School and substituted
for it a three-step system; a four-year elementary school, a seven-year
incomplete secondary school, and a ten-year complete secondary school.
Only elementary schooling was made universally compulsory; all further
education depended on ability and the availability of secondary schools.
The new provisions established strict academic standards and became
highly selective, with only a small portion of the school population
admitted to higher education. In the period of rapid Industrialization,
when higher education offered great prestige and high material rewards,
1. An amusing account of the confusion in the schools of this period

can be found in the fictionalized account of events in one school.
N. Ognev: Diary of a Communist School Boy (New York; Payson and Clarke,
1928).
28
this educational policy necessarily helped to consolidate the
stratification of Soviet society characteristic for this era.
The 1931 decree was followed in rapid succession by a series
of others which revised the curriculum, re-established strictly
defined subjects, re-introduced stable textbooks, and established a
system of grading to evaluate the knowledge of the individual student.
Discipline was restored in the classroom by vesting all authority in
the teacher; the youth organizations were forbidden to interfere with
school work. The principle of polytechnic education was quietly—
though not explicitly— abandoned, and the schools were ordered to
concentrate on academic instruction. Conservative teaching methods
were restored and the school again became a closed institution, shut
off from the community around it.
The educational reforms culminated in the decree: "On
Pedological Perversions in the System of the Narkompros" (July 1936),
which sounded the deathknell for the educational theories of the
post-revolutionary years. Pedological experiments had formed the
basis for the educational experimentation of the twenties. Carried
on with much enthusiasm, the projects sometimes verged on the ridiculous.
Enemies of pedology charged that research was conducted on such topics
as the correct measurements of a child’s bedroom, so as to ensure the
best conditions for his development. Pupils were often taken out of
their classrooms to be submitted to endless tests on the influence of
their family, national or religious background, on their progress and
development; such testing, it was now charged, was anti-Marxist, as it
29
tended to stress class and national differences. Pedological
activities were banned and educators were told to abandon their child-
centered approach.
The reorganization of the school and the abandonment of the
child-centered approach in pedagogy had their effect on the Pioneer
Organization as well; as we shall see, the organization became
centered in the schools and concentrated heavily on academic tasks.
The all-round development of the individual was to all intents and
purposes forgotten.
The reforms of the thirties determined the organization of the
Soviet educational system until after the Second World War. Throughout
the period of rapid industrialization and the war the schools supplied
the Soviet economy with the necessary number of university students and
the required pool of skilled and unskilled labor. Rigidly formal
teaching methods and the strictly enforced rules of behavior introduced
in 19^3^ formed in children habits of unquestioning faith in the
pronouncements of authority and unfailing obedience to their elders.
At the beginning of the fifties, however, it became apparent
that some changes were imminent. The Nineteenth Party Congress,
echoing a demand made in Stalin’s last work, passed a resolution calling
for the gradual introduction of universal polytechnic education. This
official revival of this traditional slogan of Marxist pedagogical
theory pointed up the nature of the needed changes. The truth was,
that the existing educational, system was outgrowing its usefulness.
While the economy was still in urgent need of skilled specialists, the
30
exclusive emphasis of the secondary school on academic and theoretical
training and its selective admission policies had been useful and
necessary. With the development of an up-to-date technology, however,
Soviet industry would have less use for unskilled labor, and the need
for semi-skilled and semi-professional labor was sharply rising. In
addition, the secondary school network had been expanded to the point
where the universities and higher educational institutions could no
longer absorb all graduates.'*'
The years following the Nineteenth Party Congress of 1952 saw
the gradual introduction of manual labor courses in the lower grades
of the schools, and of various kinds of practical and shop work for
older pupils. Throughout this period, an intense discussion was
carried on about the true meaning of "polytechnic" education and on
ways of implementing the Congress decisions. For the time being, the
academic orientation of the school remained unchanged.
Further and more drastic changes were impending however,
speeded perhaps by the death of Stalin and the reappraisal of Soviet
society which followed. These changes were prompted as much by
political and ideological considerations as by economic necessity.
The high prestige and great material rewards attached to higher education
in the Soviet Union and the great need for special skills during the
industrialization period had produced an "upper class" which felt
1. For a discussion of the economic reasons behind the 1958 educational

reforms see Nicholas De Witt, Education and Professional Employment in
the U.S.S.R. (Washington, D.C.: U. S. Government Printing Office, 1961),
pp. 9-17.
31
itself increasingly secure in its privileged position (especially
after the terror abated). The intelligentsia had come to think of
itself as an elite group, and a wide gulf had developed between the
educated and the masses.
A situation such as this could not be tolerated by a Party
which had always felt the need for total control over society. The
attitudes of the intellectual elite also conflicted with Marxist
ideology, which preached the dignity of all labor, the eventual
disappearance of differences between physical, and intellectual labor,
and the advent of the classless society. Finally, the regime was
becoming increasingly concerned with the problem presented by the
young. Young people growing up in the fifties had not experienced
revolution or war, and had never felt the need for commitment to a
cause. They were becoming increasingly "bourgeois," concerned mainly
with their private lives and their personal careers.^ Some way had
to be found to rekindle the enthusiasm of the younger generation and
to produce the devotion and the commitment which the regime desired.
All these pressures for reform in education came to a climax
in 1958, with the introduction of a draft plan submitted for public
discussion by Khrushchev. The proposed changes reflect all the above-
mentioned considerations and were aimed at abolishing in some measure
the social differentiation which had developed in the preceding period
and thus narrowing the gap between the intelligentsia and the rest of
1. For a discussion of the values of the young in this period, see Peter
H. Juviler, "Communist Morality and Soviet Youth," Problems of Communism,
Vol. 10, No. 3, May-June 19&1, pp. 16-24.
32
society, at producing the necessary skills for the economy and at

3
taking the pressure off the universities. As finally passed, the
new law extended compulsory schooling by one year, establishing a

i
new eight-year school. Vocational training was made a part of the
regular school program for all secondary school pupils. The over
whelming majority of eight-year school graduates were expected to go
straight to work, having acquired a marketable skill in their last
year of schooling. Students of the complete secondary school (fees
for the higher classes of secondary school and for higher education
had been abolished in 19 56) would spend part of their last year at
work in a factory or on a farm and would acquire skills of a somewhat
higher order. Most applicants for admission to higher educational
institutions (up to 80 percent) would have to work in "production"
for at least two years after graduating from the complete secondary
school.
The desire of the regime to restructure the upbringing of the
younger generation so as to produce dedicated citizens of the Com
munist society had found its expression earlier: the Twentieth Party
Congress (1956) had decreed the establishment of a new institution—
1. See R. A. Feldmesser, "Equality and Inequality under Khrushchev,"

Ibid., Vol. 9, No. 2, March-April i960, pp. 31-39 for a discussion of
this aspect of the reforms.
2. An evaluation of the reforms in higher education can be found in

Peter H. Juviler, "Current Reforms in Soviet Higher Education, 1959-
1960," Comparative Education Review, Vol. 4, No. 3, February 1961,
pp. 149-157.
3. No attempt will be made here to evaluate the relative importance of

the various motives for the school reforms.
33
the general-education hoarding school. Far from being planned as an
elite institution (as was widely held in the West), these schools
represented an ideological return to early Marxist and Bolshevik ideas
of the replacement of the family as a child-rearing institution by

♦
"public" education. As in the early days of Soviet rule, economic
and material considerations forced a retrenchment in goals; the
boarding schools were started on a modest scale and admission was,
in effect, limited to children from needy families. In the original
conception however, they were hailed as a "higher stage of Communist
education," which would accommodate children from infancy through
graduation from secondary school and which would bring up dedicated
"builders of the Communist society."1
All of these reforms gave rise to a great deal of opposition,
some of which was voiced quite openly. Scientists and scholars
objected to the introduction of vocational training in secondary
schools, and to the waiting period of two years before graduates
could be enrolled in higher educational institutions (although
exceptions were made for outstanding students); parents and children
of the "upper class" objected to the requirement of manual work and
labor training, and parents objected to the idea of surrendering their
1. For a discussion of the boarding schools see N. A. Petrov, "On the

New System of Public Education," Sovetskaia Pedagogika, No. 6, June
1956, pp. 3-12, I. A. Kairov, "Basic Problems of the Organization and
Content of Teaching and Upbringing Work in Boarding Schools," Ibid.,
No. 7, July 1956, pp. 3-l6 and G. F. Bereday, W. W. Brickman and G. H.
Read, The Changing Soviet School (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., i960),
pp. 207-212.
3^
children to hoarding schools.^ nevertheless, the school reform vas
passed with only slight changes in the draft lav.
Reorganization of the school system proved more difficult than had
been expected. In the years that followed the school reform, difficulties
mounted and results were unsatisfactory. Vocational courses were often
useless, as equipment vas lacking or was obsolete. Compulsory work by
school pupils in plants and factories interfered with plan fulfilment and
training programs were often quietly sabotaged by managers responsible
for the performance of the enterprise. Scientists protested the loss of
talent resulting from enforced "work in production” for secondary school
graduates, and academic standards were lowered with the enforced con
centration on practical training. In short, it soon became evident that
the new Soviet school was neither maintaining a high academic level nor
producing the labor force required by the state.
In a reappraisal of the school reform in 19&*, it vas decided
to reduce vocational training courses in the schools and to concentrate
on graduating secondary school pupils as quickly as possible, so that
they might be utilized in the economy. Accordingly, in August of

2
that year, the schooling period was reduced from eleven years back to
ten, without, however, reducing academic requirements. The drive for
the expansion of the boarding school system vas quietly abandoned.
The 1958 reform vas accompanied, however, by an extremely
fruitful and animated discussion of related educational problems, which
is still in progress at this writing and may yet have far-reaching effects
on the educational system as a whole.
1. For some of this protest see Ibid., Chapter 16.
2. Pravda, 13 August 196k, p. 1. Italics mine.
35
With the Introduction of labor courses into the Soviet school
and the call for a turn from the theoretical-academic to the practical,
came a re-examination of teaching methods and of the traditional
relationship between teacher and pupil. It vas found that pupils
who had received excellent marks in mathematics did not know hov to
measure a room, that graduates of the school physics course did not
knov hov to carry out the simplest experiments, and that children who
could repeat the textbook maxims in literature and history, could
not explain vhat they meant. The whole system of traditional
teaching methods vas called into question. Learning by rote, cramming,
unquestioning repetition of the teachers' ready-made formulae on all
problems, formal instruction which stifled independent thought and
kept the pupil a passive listener in the classroom, Inflexible rules
which left no room for Individual initiative, rigid academic standards
which paid no heed to the differences between pupils, all these timer-
honored characteristics of the Soviet school of the Stalin period, were
re-examined and condemned. Most of these are now universally recognized
as evils in the Soviet educational press, although there is some
disagreement on vhat should replace them. A more flexible approach
is being worked out, and there is general acceptance of the fact that
a modem industrial society must train its children to think for them
selves and to show initiative in solving practical problems. In the
Pioneer program these trends were reflected in an increasing emphasis on
manual and experimental work and a restatement of the need to reach every
child and arouse his interest. Educators today are being told to develop
an individual approach to every child, based on intimate knowledge of his
individual characteristics and abilities. The problem and research method
is being increasingly used in teaching on all levels of the school and
36
the importance of arousing pupils’ Interest In learning is being
universally acknowledged. Although this is not a coaplete return to
the ideas and theories of the twenties— academic standards remain high,
discipline in the classroom is stressed, and curricula and textbooks
are standardized— it represents a distinct departure from the rigid
views of the intervening era. Interests of state are still paramount
in educational natters, but the individual is being accorded far sore
consideration than in the Stalin era.***
This then, is the framework within which the Pioneer Organi
zation developed. The background of Soviet educational theory and
practice oust be kept in aind in studying the aims and methods of the
youth movement, as the Pioneers were part of the educational system.
The Pioneer Organization, however, was founded as a political
rather than an educational Institution. The conflict between its
political goals and its educational aims was to harass the movement
throughout much of its history: political leaders viewed the Organi
zation as a tool to be used in the society at large, while educators
stressed the importance of concentrating on the children themselves;
political considerations required strict over-all control, while
educational needs called for attention to the individual. The original
and primary motive for the establishment of the Pioneers was political,
but the conflict with educational goals became apparent almost
immediately as it began its work.
1. See If. K. Goncharov, "On Some Trends in the Development of Peda

gogical Science," Sovetskaia Pedagoglha, Bo. 6, June 1966, pp. 11-23
for an authoritative statement of the official position today.
37
CHAPTER U
ESTABLISHMENT AID FORMATIVE YEARS
The Bolshevik; party did mot establish a separate youth organiza
tion before its take-over of power in 1917* Lenin vas veil aware of
the importance of winning over working youth and the turbulent students,
and of converting them to the Marxist point of view; as early as 1903
he introduced the resolution passed by the Second Party Congress: “On
the Attitudes Towards Student Youth," urging students to work out a
"complete and. consistent" socialist world outlook and to coordinate
their practical activity with the plans of the Social Democratic Labor
1
Party. However, his concept of a small, tightly knit and conspiratorial
party left no room for the establishment of separate and auxiliary bodies.
Hardly any thought vas given at this time to the political education of
children. The Party's concern for this age group vas confined to prob
lems of child welfare. Bie 1903 party program called for the abolition
of child labor (for children under the age of 16), and for the intro-
2
duction of free, compulsory general and professional education. The
aims of such an education were not defined.
With the outbreak of the February Revolution, radical youth
1. V. I. Lenin, Sochineniia (2d ed.. Moscow: GosSotzSklzdat, 1931), VI,

7. He said much the same to secondary school students in December, 1902.
See V. I. Lenin, 0 molodezhi (Moscow: Molodaia Gvardiia, 1958), p* 9^>
2. Communist Blueprint for the Future, p. 70.
38
groups were organized in many ports of the country, both by students
and by working youth. The war had brought about a considerable in
crease in the employment of children and minors in the factories to
replace men mobilized for service, and many youngsters in their teens
acquired their first political experiences in contact with these orga
nizations. As the basic pattern for the future Komsomol emerged in
this period,^ realization vas growing in Bolshevik circles that the
indoctrination of the very young vas important if the party vas to
take and keep power. "Whoever obtains the following of working youth,
_2
to him belongs the future, proclaimed Krupskaia, Xenia's wife and one
of the lofid-ing Bolshevik experts on youth problems. Writing in Pravda
in May 1917, she deplored the influence of bourgeois civic education,
which teaches children such "virtuesas chauvinism, bourgeois morality
and contempt for other nations. -That such training can be successful
in deceiving youth as to where their civic duty lies vas proved, she
notes, when secondary school children in Petrograd participated in a
demonstration in defense of the Provisional Government. So counteract
this influence, working youth must unite in its own organization and
carry on civic education based on class principles and the struggle for
3
the liberation of the working class. Krupskaia also stressed the
1. Fisher, op. cit., pp. 6-7*
2. B. K« Krupskaia: 0 kommunisticheskom vospitaaii (Moscow: Molodaia

Gvardiia, 1956), p. 75.
3. Ibid., pp. 72-74. Shat the proposed youth organization vas to in
clude children was made clear in this author1s suggestions for the
formation of a youth league, in which she expressly stated that the
league should admit adolescents (podrostki). Ibid., p. 79*
39
importance of political education. The bourgeoisie, she asserts,
attempts to divert the interest of young people frost politics by telling
then that they are too young and ignorant to be able to fora their own
opinions on such subjects. Children are urged to study literature
and history first, before making up their Binds on political questions.
This is aerely a trick, as all books are published by the bourgeoisie
and are permeated vith the bourgeois point of view. To counteract the
hidden propaganda carried on by the bourgeoisie in this Banner, Marxists
Bust go to youth openly, discuss political questions and give then the
proletarian point of view.
With the Bolshevik take-over of poser, the problen of organizing
youth and of teaching children the proletarian point of view seened
even sore acute. She only organization for children in existence in
Russia at the outbreak of the Revolution vas the Boy Scout aoveaeat.
An earlier group— the Poteshny— had been started after the Russo-Japanese
War by nationalist and nilitarist groups, but had not lasted for more
than a fev years. The Boy Scouts were founded in Russia in 1910 and,
by 1917, bad reached a membership of 50,000. This organization vas
necessarily highly suspect to the Bolsheviks, both because of its
"bourgeois-nationalist” orientation and because of its international
affiliations.
Sarly efforts to gain the allegiance of young people centered
in the first Soviet youth organization, the Komsomol, founded in 1918.
The new League decided to admit "the broad masses of still uncommitted,
vorker and peasant youth, rather than confine itself to Party members.
1. Fisher, op. cit., p. 11.
Ho thought was given to the establishment of a separate group for
younger children, and debates during the founding Congress made it
clear that the new organization was intended to include youngsters in
its ranks* In discussing the problem of setting a lower age limit
for the League, one delegate suggested twelve years for cities and
fourteen for rural youth, while another proposed setting a lower limit
of fourteen for rural youth only; both members agreed that rural youth
matured more slowly and thus should be admitted later than proletarian
children.^ However, both these suggestions, as well as a later one
to set a general age limit of fourteen, were rejected by the Congress.
Consequently, early Komsomol cells included a large number of Juveniles;
one group of working youth reported that 80 per cent of its membership
O
was below the age of sixteen, and many of the Komsomol cells included
children as young as twelve or thirteen.^ Die proportion of young
children increased during the years of civil and foreign war when
many of the older Komsomols were mobilized for the fighting fronts and
younger members took their place in the factories. As no difference
was made in the approach to members of different ages, effective work
with children became difficult if not impossible.
In the absence of a separate children’s organization, some
1. Pervyi vserossiiskii n"ezd RKSM (3d ed., Moscow; Molodaia Gvardiia,

1926), hereafter cited as Pervyi~§"ezd.
2. V. G. Iakovlev, "Sozdanie organizatsii iunykh pionerov v SSSR,"

Sovetskaia Pedagogoka..Ho. 5 (1952), p. 58.
3. Pionerskaia organizatsiia imeni V. I. Lenina (Moscow; Uchpedgiz, 1950),

p. 12.
efforts were made in different localities to combat the influence of
the Boy Scouts and to remodel the movement for Bolshevik purposes.
Bival groups were formed in several cities which borrowed many of the
methods, principles and activities of the Boy Scouts, but emphasized
loyalty to the new order. These units— called Yunnye Koanunisty
(Young Coosunlsts) or Yuki for short— had no official backing, but
operated under loose guidance from the CoosBissariats of Health and
Public Education.1 They never achieved significant growth, nor did
they satisfy Bolshevik requirements for a rigorous political orienta
tion. In an article published in 1919, Krupskaia criticized them
sharply for “slavishly" imitating Boy Scout methods and for propagating
bourgeois values. The list of rules which Yuki were asked to obey
seems to bear her out. Members were enjoined to "Be modest, thrifty,
honest, truthful, love labor, be polite and helpful, be a faithful son

O
of the working people. A Yuk is pure in his thoughts. . . . ” Shis
is hardly an educational program calculated to develop singlemindad
devotion to Communist principles and to inculcate loyalty to the
Bolshevik government. Bevertheless, Krupskaia did not condemn the
movement; on the contrary, she suggested a series of measures for trans
forming it into an effective organization for the training of genuine
young Communists. One of the first to plead for the establishment of
1. Basha smena (Moscow: Moskovskii Babochii, 1962), p. 32; and

Harper, Civic Training in Soviet Bussia (Chicago: University of Chicago
Press, 1929), P* 63.
2. 3. K. Krupskaia: Pedagogicheskie soclriaenlla (Moscow: 1939), I*d-

Ak. Ped. Bauk, V, 13.
v
42
a separate political organization for children, Krupskaia thought that the
Yuk movement, once remodelled, should be widely propagandized to transform
it from a small group of several hundreds into a mass organization. Her
proposals for reform of the movement reflected many of the liberal-demo
cratic ideas in vogue at the time. The way to teach Yuki the meaning of
Communism and the purpose of the new Soviet Republic, she submitted, is to
bring them into immediate contact with the Communist youth organizations
established by working youth (this was written at a period before the
Komsomol had established an absolute monopoly). In participating directly
in the work of such groups, Yuki would learn to believe in the ideals of
Communism and would become ready to lay down their lives for them. How
ever, devotion to the cause was not enough; children also had to be taught
to organize their activities in order to reach their goals. Accordingly
Krupskaia suggested that the Yuki be allowed to set up self-government on
the broadest possible scale. Even if they made some mistakes, she
believed, this would teach them internal discipline instead of blind
obedience, and habits of collective work. Only in this way can the
movement become a proper training ground for future Communists.^
Mainly for political reasons, neither the Party nor the Komsomol
agreed that the Yuk movement should be remodelled into a Communist organiza
tion and developed on a mass basis. The Second Komsomol Congress, held in
1919> condemned both the Scout movement and the Young Communists and called
for the dissolution of both. The Scouts were accused of political disloyalty
— the Congress said they were "leaning in the direction of the White
1. Krupskaia, ”0 Iukakh," Bsdagogicheskie socMnenHa, pp. 12-14.
Guards . . . la all towns"1— and of inculcating is young people
qualities quite unsuited, to the new society. "In the Scout organiza
tions e strict authoritarian!sa was instituted eabodylag on the one
strict rule froa the top and, on the other, submission froe
below— rule and unquestioning obedience. Strict discipline permeated
the whole organization from beginning to end. fiiis discipline as
distinguished froa class, proletarian collective discipline, was a

„2
discipline of the cane, a militarist discipline. Yukisn was not
much better. ooveaent, asserted the Xoososol, was nerely "a
mechanical coabination of Co-unist words and phrases, with a purely
bourgeois content."^ Both its neabers and the leaders were for the
■ost part old Scouts. Control by the Party could not be established
for lack of the necessary forces— in itself a sufficient reason for
abolishing the aoveaent. Sae question of preserving or expanding
the organization did not cose up.
Although the Boy Scouts and the Young Co— unists lingered on
for a tine after the Congress, their organizations were dooned. The
Bolsheviks, however, established nothing to take their place, although
the need for organized work with children was becoming ever aore
pressing. Large numbers of Juveniles were unsupervised and uncared-
for as a result of the war and civil war years, and aany others were
1. Pisher, op. cit., p. 19*
2. Ibid.
3. Ytoroi vserossiiakii s“agd rkbm (3d ed., Moscow-Leningrad: Molodaia

Gvardiia, 1926), p. 173* Hereafter cited as Ytoroi g*ezd.
kk
thrown out on the streets when unemployment increased at the end of
the war. A number of childrens* groups were spontaneously organized
in various areas of the country during this period (1919-1920). Soae
of these were directly attached to Komsomol cells, such as the
“childrens1 sections" established in Moscow, Petrograd, Iaroslavl and
Hizhaii Novgorod; others were based on clubs or cultural institutions,
independent organizations such as childrens* trade unions or labor
armies sprang up; Tula had a "Childrens* Proletkult,” Kiev a "Childrens*
International,” and several cities is the Urals set up an organization
called "The Anthill” (Muraveinik). There were even some "Childrens'
Cooaunist Parties.**“ Soae of these organizations concentrated on
cultural and recreational activities, others were confined to politics.
All of then were run by local leaders and none received direction or
guidance froa the center.
By the tine the Third Konsomol Congress convened in 1920, a
clear need had arisen to define the Komsomol's role in the political
education of children. Shis Congress was the first to concern itself
in detail with educational problens. The keynote address was delivered
by T, h i n s e l f in his faaous and often quoted speech: "The Saaks of
the Youth League," in which he dwelt at length on the ways in which
young people learn to be good Communists. It is not enough, he said,
to learn about Communism frombooks and to memorize its slogans; one
learns to be a Communist onlyby combining learning with practical action.
1. Iakovlev, op. cit., p. 60.
J+5
"To be a mentoer of the Youth League means to behave in such a way as
to devote his vork and his strength to the ccroon cause. This is
vhat Communist education Mans. Only in vork such as this is a
young man or a young girl transformed into a Communist. Only if
they are able to achieve practical results vith this vork, can they
become Communists.
In the building of Communism, Lenin asserted, attention focuses
on the young. The generation which made the revolution is fit only
to destroy capitalism— it is too deeply imbued with the old culture
to be able to build a nev society* This task is reserved for youth—
those who are nov fifteen years of age. They must study and absorb
the knowledge of all preceding generations, evaluate it from the Communist
point of view, and learn to use it in daily, practical labor. It is
one of the tasks of the Komsomol to see to it that the young are cor
rectly trained: "It is necessary that the League of Communist Tooth
raise the Msses from an early age, from the age of twelve, in conscious,
j?
disciplined labor.
The Congress set up a special section to discuss vork vith child
ren, and the problems of civic education. " . . . we all agreed,”
reported one of its members to the assembled delegates, "that objective
conditions have developed which make it necessary to participate in
vork vith children. It is necessary to bring up the coming generation
1. Lenin, op. cit., XXV, 395*
2. Ibid.
in a Communist spirit and to develop people who will he fit to
build socialism, and to be true citizens of the new society.
It was easier to agree on the need for participation in the
education of the new citizen, than to decide on how to do this. She
Congress voted to set a lower age limit of fourteen years on membership
in the Komsomol; this decision would make work with the remaining
members semevhat easier, but it aggravated the problem of what to do
with children who were too young to Join. A set of theses entitled
"On the Work of the BK5M with Children" was approved by the delegates,
which summarized decisions arrived at after some debate. Proposals
in favor of retaining and expanding the childrens1 sections attached
to Komsomol cells were rejected, and the Komsomol was urged to concentrate
on work with children in schools, orphanages and other institutions run
by the state. This verdict seems somewhat surprising, in view of the
fact that, only one year later, the childrens1 sections were revived
and became the nucleus of the future childrens' movement. The reasons
given for the decisions of the Third Congress— that the Komsomol should
not duplicate the work of the Harkompros in organizations of its own,
and that the proposed sections would not be able to admit all children
and would thus tend to create a privileged group— were as valid in 1921
as they had been in the preceding year. At no time do they appear to
be compelling. The hesitations of this period seem to reflect un
certainty in Party and Komsomol circles on the best forms of work
1. Tretii vserossiiskii sêzd BKSM (Moscow-Leningrad: Molodaia Gvardiia,

1925), p. 213* Hereafter cited as Tretii s"ezd.
47
vith the young. ^
Baere was no doubt, however, that the sain task of the League
was to contribute to the citizenship education of the younger genera
tion. Duties of the Koasoaol in schools and orphanages, as listed
by the Third Congress, vere to include the introduction of political
upbringing vork in childrens* institutions, the organization of aass
celebrations of Revolutionary holidays, and the development of discipline,
public spirit and collectivisa through the organization of assemblies
and subbotnik! (voluntary group vork for the good of the coamunity).
She physical and esthetic education of children vere additional con
cerns. Reasserting the importance of Coanunist upbringing "for the
entire Soviet state and the Coanunist movement, including the KK5M,"
the Congress also resolved to appoint cadres froa the political educa
tion. section for vork vith children. Training courses vere to be
established for them. Vork started along these lines— at least in

O
Moscow— soon after the Congress closed.
The period immediately following the Third Eoasomol Congress
vas one of mounting concern for the morale and ideological dedication
of young people. The introduction of the BSP and the resulting
psychological climate gave rise to considerable disillusionment, while
the regime felt that efforts had to be redoubled to retain the allegiance
1. Fisher, op. cit., p. Jk, thinks that the rejection of the childrens *
sections vas due to the Party's fear that the Eoasoaol vas not yet
surely enough under its control. If this is the case, it is not clear
vhy they vere reinstituted in 1921 in a period of mounting difficulty.
2. BSsfaa smena, p. 30.
k8
and devotion of Impressionable youth who might otherwise succumb to
bourgeois Influence.
If the Kbasomol shoved signs of demoralization,’*’ the situation
vas particularly acute where younger children vere concerned. Excluded
from the League and unable or unwilling to go to school, large numbers
of them roamed the streets making a living as best they could. They
vere exposed to all the unhealthy Influences of the social atmosphere
of the BEP period.
It vas under these conditions that the decision vas taken to
revive childrens * groups under Komsomol guidance and to lay the founda
tions for a politically oriented childrens* organization. In late
1921, the Central Coanittee of the Komsomol, on instructions from the
Party, named a coamission which vas to organize such groups and lay
down the guidelines for their work. It included Krupskaia and several
prominent members of the Komsomol (V. A. Zorin, V. Vasiutin and I.
Chaplin), and it worked, in close collaboration vith the Moscow city
Koasoaol committee.
The aims of the new organization combined immediate political
concerns, long-term goals of citizenship education, and faint overtones
of the educational ideals of this period. As defined in the provisional
charter drawn up by the commission, the goal vas "to develop in children
social propensities . . . developing in them class self-consciousness,**
to train them for their future role in society and "prepare them for a
1. for an account of this period in the Komsomol see Fisher, op. cit.,
pp. 79-88.
future life in social labor and for the straggle in the interests of
the proletariat;" vhile at the same tine ensuring their full individual
development; the childrens' Organization vas urged to "arouse a striving
for knowledge; developing all sides of their [childrens1] nature*"^
As the HEP vas expected to biring about a sharpening of the class
struggle; it vas decided that the movement vas to be class based. Bie
rules for admission provided for the enrollment of children at workers
only; members vere to be between eleven and fourteen years of age.
She cosmission also found a nane far the new movement: "Young Pioneers
imeni Spartaka."
All activities vere to be directed by the Koasoaol. The basic
unit of the Organization vas a patrol or link of seven or eight neuters,
vhich vas to elect its own leader; larger units however— detachments
formed of two to four links— were to be guided by a leader nominated
by the Komsomol. Such detachments vere to be based on clubs or
schools, and sight even be formed in the childrens* homes. In imita
tion of Soy Scout usage, every link and detachment vas to have its
banner or flag, and every Pioneer vas to wear a red kerchief. 2he
slogan of the organization vas "Be ready!" to vhich the members had
to reply: "Always ready!"
While the external forms used by the Pioneer Organization resembled
those of the Boy Scouts, the Lavs and Customs laid down for it differed
little froa those of the Yuki vhich Krupskaia had so sharply condemned.
1 . Sasha smena, p.
50
Somewhat surprisingly, only one of the six Lavs could be said to have
any political content at all; while the Young Communists had been told
to be "faithful sons of the working people," Pioneers vere enjoined
to be "faithful to the working class." This introduces the concept
of class consciousness, but does not sake any great dexutnds on the
Pioneer himself* Other Lavs vere even more innocuous; Pioneers vere
told to be modest, honest and truthful, efficient, thrifty, and merry
("and never downcast")* They must also learn to love labor, respect
socially useful labor and be a friend and brother to every other
Pioneer and Komsomol.
These "Lavs" show little evidence of a militant proletarian
spirit; the "Customs" enumerated by the provisional charter, on the
other hand, sound positively bourgeois. Pioneers are told to get
out of bed willingly in the mornings, to wash their necks and ears and
brush their teeth, and to sit and stand up straight; they are forbidden
to pat their hands in their pockets and to smoke. Perhaps the strangest
command, for an organization of "children of workers" is the rule that
Pioneers are to make their own beds without waiting for others to do
this for them.’*’ Although there seems to have been no doubt about the
ultimate aims of the new organization, it seems obvious that forms and
methods of vork vith children needed considerable further elaboration.
Luring the winter and spring of 1922, the moscov Komsomol com
mittee started vork with several Pioneer detachments; the first case
vas formed in February, in the l6th Printing Press of the Krasnopresenak
1. Ibid., pp. 3^-35. This gives the text of both Lavs and Customs.
rj
1. Although the term "movement" implies a spontaneity and independence

entirely absent from Soviet youth organizations, it is used, as it is a
direct translation from the Russian word dvizhenie; it should be under
stood only in the Soviet sense.
2. Direktivy i dokumenty po voprosam pionerskogo dvizheniia (2d ed., Moscow:

Ak. Bed. Hank RSFSR, 1962;, p. 65* Hereafter cited as Dir. 1 dok.
52
attached to the corresponding Koasoaol committee. The organization
of childrens* groups vas left relatively untouched. The only changes
made vere that detachments are now referred to as "groups," vhich are
to he directed by "group councils,"1 and that the age of admission vas
lowered to ten.
Significant changes vere made, on the other hand, in the polit
ical role assigned to the Pioneers. The new organization vas given
an absolute monopoly in its field. The Congress voted to abolish all
bourgeois childrens* organizations (apparently the Scouts still lingered
on and other, nationalist, groups had formed youth "unions"); "workers'
children" who had been members of these organizations could apply for
admission to the Pioneers. The aims of the movement vere re-defined.
As a "proletarian movement," it vas expected to vork for "the unifica
tion upbringing and training of the masses in the struggle for the
2
interests of the proletariat." This represented a noticeable shift
of emphasis from the previous preoccupation vith the all-round education
of the individual Pioneer, to concentration on his role as a citizen
and a helper of the Party.
In accordance vith this new spirit, the Lavs of the Young
Pioneers vere revised and sharpened to give them a more emphatic polit
ical orientation. True to the Bolshevik principle that moral qualities
are not values for themselves, but must be judged by the end vhich they
serve, the new lavs now set definite goals. "A Pioneer is faithful to
the working class and to Communism," reads the first Lav. Young as
1. However, the term "detachment" came to be universally used.
2. Sir, i dok., p. 66»
they are, Pioneers have a role to play in the society. "A Pioneer
helps his fe1Iov-workers every day to build the communist society,"
proclaims another. Discipline is extolled as one of the virtues vhich
a Pioneer must cultivate, and this is driven home in the "Solemn Promise"
vhich a new member is now required to pronounce upon hi? admission to
the organization. "I promise, on my vord of honor, that I vill be
faithful to the working class, and that I vill help my fellov-vorkers
every day, that I know the lavs of the Pioneers and vill subordinate
myself to them." Finally, an "Iron law" vas added to the list of seven
ordinary lavs. This nms: "I vill strive always and everywhere, wherever
possible, to acquire knowledge so as to use it for the good of the
workers."1 It is clear from this, that, for the time being, political
goals took precedence over educational. A Pioneer no longer lived for
himself alone; he was expected to take an active part in the life of
society. The nev ideal of a disciplined, organized member of a group,
working with the adults around him to build a nev society, is a far cry
from the model little boy (or girl) who does not slouch, washes behind
2
the ears, and makes his own bed.
The Pioneer Organization ended its first year vith a membership
of only 4,000, but it grew very rapidly. By the end of 1924,
it had increased to 10,000, and within the next two years it reached
a membership of 1,800,000. During this period it vas found necessary
to expand the childrens * organization to include children too young
1. Ibid., p. 72. Italics mine.
2. No "Customs” vere established for the Pioneer Organization by the

Fifth Congress.
for the Pioneers. With the formation of the little Octobrists for chil
dren of the age of seven and up (they derived their name from the fact
that their youngest members in that year vere exactly as old as the Revo
lution), the Party attempted to expand its control over children. The
nev group served as a preparatory stage for the Pioneers and must be
considered a part of it. By the end of 1926 it could boast of an
enrollment of 200,000.^
In spite of its rapid growth— the Pioneer Organization increased
at a faster rate than its parent body, the Komsomol— the nev movement had
to contend vith a series of difficulties and problems in the first years
of its existence. Perhaps the most difficult one of all vas a direct
result of its rapid development. The organization did not have the
resources to cope vith its increasing enrollment. In the early years
it vas often impossible even to find a place for meetings, and many
detachments had no equipment for the activities vhich they planned.
The Komsomol and the fferty vere sparing of their help; indeed, the
former has always found it impossible to supply the necessary number
of leaders for the Pioneers. The Komsomols vho did go into Pioneer
vork vere often untrained and had only the vaguest conceptions of their
tasks. As a result, many of the newly formed detachments did not stay
in existence for very long and many others did no effective vork.
Equally serious from the forty's point of view vas the besetting
problem of admission policies. Considerable confusion seems to have
existed as to the true role of the organization. Although the Pioneers
1. Harper, op. cit., p. 66*
vere considered on instrument of proletarian rale, the Ihrty and the
Komsomol stressed the importance of broadening the social base of the
movement and thus increasing its influence among the conservative
pesant masses. The tendency persisted however, to limit the membership
to the proletarian element and to restrict the movement's growth.'*’
Ifcrty leaders maintained that such an approach would have harmful effects
not only in the immediate present, but would also seriously handicap the
transformation of society in the future. In a truly Bolshevik metaphor,
vhich revealed the Party's concern vith modernization and development,
Bukharin at the Thirteenth Barty Congress, likened the tasks of building
the BLoneer Organization to the construction of electric power stations:
"we are faced vith the task of laying the greatest social foundation for
£
the creation of future basic human capital, he told the listening dele*
gates. With the Komsomol, the Pioneers vere asked to "turn to the
village", in the hope that they would become a "mass" organization.
Within the next two years the organization expanded very rapidly in the
villages.
For several years after its establishment, the Pioneer Organiza
tion had to contend vith "deviations" in its ranks. Ominous as this
1. Hie Thirteenth Barty Congress complained in 1924 that the movement vas
reaching only a "completely insignificant" percentage of the mass of chil
dren and called for special efforts to enroll Children from rural areas
(although it vas stressed that proletarian children should be admitted
first). Bukharin deplored the fact that the organization vhich appealed
to the lowest age group also had the highest percentage of proletarian
membership. An investigation of the social composition of the Pioneer
movement in that year (1924) had shown that the majority of the membership
(62.9 per cent) came from workers * families, and that the overwhelming
majority of all detachments (80 per cent) vere located in the cities.
Dir, i dok., p. 9.
2. Detskoe kommunisticheskoe dvizhenie (Moscow: Molcdaia Gvardiia, 1926,

p. 157
sounds, this tern as applied to the Pioneers did not necessarily connote
political opposition. Bukharin, in his report to the Thirteenth ffcrty
Congress, mentioned two "little deviations" [uklpnchiki], an endearing
term presumably used to take the sting out of the word: there vere
"organizational separatism”, i.e., excessive independence from the
Komsomol, and the use of adult methods in childrens' organizations.
Although the first complaint carries political overtones— control by the
Komsomol vas clearly important to the Barty— the tone of the speech
reveals no serious fear that the Pioneer Organization would actually
get out of hand.^
Political control however became a problem of mounting concern
vith the adoption of the First Five Year Plan and the resulting
Gleichschaltung of Soviet society. The Central Committee of the Barty
issued a decree on 25 June 1928 which noted "significant difficulties"
in the movement, caused by faulty methods, and stressed the need for
"decisive intensification of attention to the Pioneer movement" from
the Barty and the Komsomol if the "struggle against the penetration of
petty bourgeois influence into the childrens' milieu" vas to be won.
"Based on the present directive on the improvement of the content and
organization of Pioneer vork, the bureau of the Central Committee of the
VLKSM together vith the Markonrpros must re-examine the lavs and customs
of Young Pioneers and present than for the approval of the Central
A
Committee VKP (b) within three months.” The revised organizational
1. "Do not be afraid of the word 'uklonchlk' comrades," said Bukharin,

"I do not mean that it is petty-bourgeois•*' Ibid., p. 23.
2. KPSS o kcmsomole i molodezhi, Molodaia Gvardiia 1957> pp. 181 and 184.
principles vere Bade public by the Central Bureau of the Pioneer Organiza
tion by the end of that year; they re-stated the purpose and role of the
movement in accordance vith the nev conditions in the. country, laid
down nev rules for Young Pioneers.
These reflect increasing stress on the political role of the
movenent and the triumph of the Leninist/Bolshevik over the Marxian/
humanistic viev of the individual. For the first time the Pioneer
Organization is explicitly designated as the "third shift1* of the
Communist movement as a whole. It is the "auxiliary of the auxiliary"
of the Party, and is to serve as a training ground for future Komsomols.
However, this does not mean that the Pioneer Organization is an exclusive
group; although preference Bust be given in admissions to the children of
proletarians, poor peasants and farm laborers, the movement is open to
others as veil; its aim is defined as: "the Communistic education of chil
dren— their preparation to become future fighters and builders of a
Comuni stlc society. Admission to the organization is not automatic,
but must be earned: children between the ages of ten and fifteen can
p
apply, but they must prove themselves in a probationary period of one
month before final approval is granted. Only when he has shown that he
understands the purpose of the organization and can obey its lavs,3 is the
1. W. Trov, Character Education in Soviet Russia (Ann Arbor: Ann Arbor

Press, 193*0> P» &9»
2. The age limit had been revised and set at 10-16 by an Orgbureau
resolution in 1924 (see Dir, i dok., p. 11); it remained at 10-15 for
some time.
3. T. Woody, Hev Minds: Sew Men? (Hew York: The Macmillan Company, 1932),
reports that nev members had to pass a regular "examination"; see pp.
107-108.
nev Pioneer allowed to pronounce the Solemn Promise vhich completes his
initiation as a member: "I, a Young Pioneer of the Union of Socialist
Soviet Republics in the presence of my comrades, solemnly promise that I
vill firmly support the cause of the working class in its struggle for
the liberation of the workers of the whole world, and that I will honestly
and faithfully follow the precepts of Ilyich and the lavs of the Young
Pioneers;
The list of Lavs which have to be obeyed is expanded to sixteen
from the former seven and reflects all of the Iferty's goals in this period*
It can be divided into three groups: lavs defining the role of the Pioneer
in the Ccassunist movement both at home and abroad; childrens* duties in
helping to implement Phrty policies; and duties concerned vith developing
the qualities and attributes of a citizen and worker in an industrial
society. In the first category belong such precepts as: ”A Pioneer is a
faithful friend and comrade of the children of workers, peasants and toilers
of the whole world • • • a younger brother and helper of the Communist and
the Komsomol in the struggle for Connunism." The second group includes
commands to Pioneers to be "an enemy of the kulaks and bourgeois," an
"active helper of the soviet, of the trade union and of the cooperative,"
and an "active worker in the struggle for the harvest, a helper on the
koikhny. and the sovkhoz and the commune"; he is urged to "stand for the
increase in factories . . . and technical knowledge," and to "oppose
1. The text of the "Principles" of the Pioneer Organization is taken from

Trow, op. cit», pp. 89-95. Both Harper and Woody list a set of five lavs
and five customs which vere in force before the publication of the 1928
"Principles." Their sources are unavailable to this writer, but their
text seems to be a summary and condensation of the lavs of 1928. See
Harper, op. cit., p. 72.
59
4m&ken&es§,hooliganism and religious stupefaction." Finally, Pioneers
are urged to become industrious and persevering, eager to learn and to
help others acquire knowledge, to be quick and accurate, disciplined
and organized, and to respect public property and value their own tine
and the tine of others all qualities needed if the children of
peasants were to become workers in a modem industrialized society.
Gone are the requirements to be pure, honest, truthful and modest;
this Pioneer is made of sterner stuff than his predecessor. He must
be ready to fight for the cause of the Communist Iferty, unafraid of
difficulties, self-delaying, vigorous and alert. (Training starts
early; even the Little Octobrists must learn to obey some laws: Little
Octobrists must keep their bodies clean, love work and prepare themselves
to become Pioneers.) Here, for the first time, the image of the Hew
Soviet Han is spelled out for the Pioneers.
Pioneers were to wear a simple uniform— white shirt or blouse
with dark skirt or trousers— for solemn occasions. A set of symbols
were used to teach young children the meaning and purpose of their
organization; the red kerchief worn at all times by all members had
three corners to symbolize the three arms of the Communist movements:
Pioneers, Komsomols, and the Party. The Pioneer badge was a small
red flag with a hammer and sickle, waving over a fire of five logs
(for the five continents), burning with three flames (for the Third
International). Young Pioneers had to learn to salute with the right
hand, five fingers pressed closely together (to signify the solidarity
of the five continents), raised above the head (to indicate willingness
1. See ibid., pp. 93-9^ for the full text of the laws*
6o
to subordinate individual vill to the coraon ciom). Every detachnent
vas to have a banner, a horn and a drum. She motto of the novenent
vas: "In the struggle of the worker's cause, he ready:0 So vhich the
ansver vas: "Always ready:
Under the nev regulations, the basic unit of the Pioneer Organi
zation vas still the link, a group of about tea children, selected on
the grounds of age, coanon interests, and friendship. Several links
nade up a detachnent, vhich vas not to have nore than fifty nenbera.
Every detachnent vas attached to a Koasoaol cell, and where there vere
several detachnents the cell formed a "base," directed by an elected
base council. Koasoaol leadership vas to be exercised at the detach*
neat level, through assigned leaders. Links vere to be directed by
leaders elected froa the Pioneers themselves; nenbers also elected a
detachnent council. Little Octobrists vere fomad into snail groups
called "Stars,” led by * Koasoaol leader and an elected council and
leader. Pioneer detachnents vere to be based predoninantly on plants
and factories, rather than in orphanages or other childrens* institu
tions. 3his vas to emphasize the close tie of the Organization vith
the proletariat and vith production. In the villages detachnents
could be formed around schools or the village library.
Vith the publication of the "principles," the Pioneer novenent
vas to take its place in Soviet society as an a m of the Party and an
1. Sot all of these symbols and devices vere nev in 1928; they are
described here in the fora they vere established and vhich they vere
to retain to the present day*
6l
Instrument of social control. Never before had its Importance been
so clearly defined* The "lavs" of the Young Pioneers put into concrete
terms, for every member to understand, the three main goals of citizen
ship education in the Soviet Union: as a political institution, the
Pioneer organization vas to take over control of youth and channel its
energies in the approved direction; as an agency of social transforma
tion, it vas to help establish the collective society and bring about
modernization; and as an educational institution, it vas to develop the
"nev man."
While the priority accorded each of these goals in the plans of
the regime vould vary at the various periods of Soviet history, these
basic aims never changed.
It may be that the youth program once vas envisaged

as a temporary measure that vould no longer be re
quired vith the maturation of the Soviet system.
If so, there is no evidence that responsible offi
cials nov subscribe to such a belief. . . . The
factors responsible for the initiation and develop
ment of the youth program are still present in the
Soviet situation: the ideological conviction that
an omniscient elite can and must oversee the fate
of the masses; the continuing drive for rapid
economic growth: and the determination to create
Nev Soviet Men.l
As ve have seen, in the beginning there vas some uncertainty in
Bolshevik circles about the true aims of a childrens * organization: con
cepts of progressive educators vied vith the need to provide child welfare
institutions, and the desire to develop a citizen worthy of the future
Communist society competed vith the goal of permitting the individual
1. Kassof, op. cit., pp. 6-7.
to develop his abilities freely. By the end of the first decade of the
Organization's existence it seemed that all these doubts and hesitations
'been resolved, and the over-all aims of the movement had crystallized.
She "Principles” of 1928 urged Pioneers to participate immediately and
actively in the transformation of the adult world around them. Hot only
were they expected to behave like responsible citizens, they were urged to
organize their peers and to persuade their elders to follow their lead.
If these seem excessive demands to make on children tea to
fifteen years old, they acted on the Pioneer Organization like a shot
in the arm. She movement had been experiencing a difficult period in
the late twenties. Krupskaia had reported to a Party meeting in 1928
that children were losing interest in the Pioneer Organization. The
reason for this, she found, was that Pioneers were not given a clear-
cut purpose. Political dedication had given way to a preoccupation
with formalities: does every one have a uniform? Does everyone know
how to march and sing? Children were offered privileges (movie tickets
or vacation trips) as inducements to join the Organization, instead of
a chance to participate in the stirring events of the times. AH
around then the struggle for the cause of the working class vas raging,
and children were longing to be given a part in it: "To discard it [the
goal of joining in this struggle] means not to know that children in
their teens can do an enormous amount if they are confronted with a
clear, attractive goal; and if this goal is discarded, everything takes
on a dry, everyday, uninteresting character. • . .1,1 This is exactly
1. Krupskaia, Bsdagogicheskie soehineniia, 7, 236.
63
vhat had happened, continued Krupskaia. True, the Organization vas
suffering froa the perennial problems of lack of leaders and equipment.
But the main shortcoming vas a lack of real content ia the vork. She
result vas that children lost interest and stopped participating.
The Eighth Koasoaol Congress, held in the saae year, noted for
1
the first time a drop in the membership of the Organization. The
section of the report of the Central Cooaittee devoted to the Pioneer
Organization is entitled: "Bis Pioneer Organization— Our Weak Section,"
in a frank admission that the Koasoaol had neglected the childrens'
novenent. Bukharin, in his report to this Congress, Bade the saae
confession for the Party. Delegates agreed that the reason for the
loss of interest on the part of children vas lack of training of Koasoaol
leaders and the use of boring and fomal methods in vork vith children.
When the Pioneer Organization vas given a definite place in
the Cooaunist noveaent and children vere asked to play an important
role in the transformation of society, this trend vas almost immediately
reversed. Flagging interest revived sharply, and by 1931 Pioneer
vorkers vere able to report to the Ninth Koasoaol Congress that member-
2
ship had risen to four Billion. Sever'ianova, describing Pioneer
developments to the delegates, vas explicit in attributing the increase
to the reforms vhich had taken place in the movement: "If, before the
Eighth Congress, ve observed a mass exodus of Pioneers froa the
1. A drop of 178,000 vas cited, but it is unclear to vhich period this

refers; see Fisher, op. cit., p. 3^6 for a discussion of the figure.
2. This figure includes Little Octobrists.
r
Y 64
organization and a reduction in its numbers by 200,000 children, then,
from the beginning of 1928 already, vhen the Pioneer Organization began
to actively participate in the class struggle and to organize the
political activity of children, the number of Pioneers and detachments

„1
began to grow, literally, every day.
Only the year before (1930) the Sixteenth Party Congress had
shown Stalin emerging as the victor over the Right Opposition, as he had
already triumphed over the Left. Pressures to conform were rising in
all sections of Soviet society. Accordingly, Sever'ianova could report
to the Ninth Komsomol Congress that the Pioneer Organization had now
achieved complete monopoly in its field: all rival childrens' groups had
p
been eliminated, and nothing now stood in the way of the rapid growth of
the movement. She called for an immediate goal of ten million members,
while the Congress resolved to aim at the enrollment of all children of
workers, poor peasants and farm laborers.
In accordance with the emphasis on the Organization's political
rather than educational role, the Ninth Congress re-emphasized that the
1. The greatest number of detachments, reported Sever'ianova, were

located in the villages (34 per cent of the total in villages proper,
20 per cent in koikhpzy and sovkhozy); only 17 per cent were attached
to plants, while 19 per cent of the urban detachments were attached
to schools. The movement was now a class Organization, a tool of the
dictatorship of the proletariat. The majority of members were children
of workers, farm laborers and collective farmers (the percentage is
given as 32.4 per cent, 0.8 per cent and 22.1 per cent respectively—
somewhat surprisingly, as the majority of detachments were located in
rural areas), and about one half of them were girls. IX Vsesoiuznyi
s"ezd VLKSM (Moscow: Molodaia Gvardiia, 1928), p. 362. Hereafter cited
as Deviatyi s~cza.
2. She mentions some "splinter groups" in schools, but dismisses them

as insignificant.
> 65
Pioneer Organization should concentrate its York in production centers
such as farms or factories. "The 9th Congress of the ALCLY considers
that the basic line of the Komsomol in work among children must be to
place the vhole matter of education on the basis of systematic
participation of children in the productive and public life of the
factories, state farms, MTS's and collective f arm s.Acco rdi ngly, the
delegates voted to dissolve even the tenuous link vhich the Organization
2
maintained vith the schools— the "foreposts" — and to return Pioneers
vho had belonged to these to the detachment of the plant or farm to
vhich the school vas attached. The resolution on vork among children
contains a truly formidable list of tasks for the Pioneer Organization:
it is expected to help the Party and the Komsomol in plan fulfillment,
assist in the liquidation of the kulaks, help abolish illiteracy,
struggle against religion and help in "national and cultural construc
tion," boost the enrollment in the Organization, and Improve the military
and political education of children. The most important activity of
children in other countries— school vork— is mentioned only once in this
list: the Pioneer Organization is expected to help bring about the
polytechnization of education and bring the school closer to the
factory.
This, of course, had been the goal of the Komsomol for a long
time. Youth League members throughout the twenties had been calling
1. Fisher, op. cit., p. 169*
2. See belov, Chapter III.
3. Deviatyi s"ezd, p. 426-429*
for the proletarianization of the school and the merging of school and
factory. The idea of ending the isolation of the school and of
transforming it into an Integral part of society had been one of the
basic goals of the revolutionary-democratic reformers in education of
the early period of Bolshevik rule. Throughout the early years of its
existence, the Pioneer Organization vas viewed as an adjunct and junior
helper of the Komsomol in its task of introducing the nev order in the
childrens1 sphere, and its relation with the school had been one of the
central issues discussed by its sponsors. Hot until the early thirties
was a more or less permanent solution to this problem found.
67
CHAPOER III
THE ORGANIZATION AND THE SCHOOL
The Pioneer Organization vas established as a political
institution to be led by the Komsomol. Wherever possible, it vas
based on "production" units to keep it close to the vorking class.
In the beginning it vas kept strictly separate from the school.
From the point of view of the Komsomol, the school at the time vas
a suspect institution, an obstacle on the road towards the nev pro
letarian-democratic society.
As we have seen, the early dispute between the Komsomol and
the educational authorities centered around the problem of education
for vorking youth and the "polytechnization" of the general schools.
The Youth League demanded a virtual merger between the factory schools
established to train skilled specialists and the schools of the Second
Level of the general education system. The Narkompros— perhaps
in a more realistic vein— wanted to preserve a system vhich vas
entirely separate from the factory schools.
In spite of or perhaps because of these disagreements, it
vas recognized fairly early in the history of the Pioneer movement
that the organization had to establish some formal contact with the
school. At the first Moscow gubemiia conference of Young Pioneers,
held in the capital in November of 1923, and attended by about 3000
Pioneers, one of the most important discussions developed around
the topic of the vork of the Pioneers in the schools. Numerous
68
delegates complained of the difficulties which they encountered there
and of the hostility of both teachers and pupils. The conference
decided that the Pioneer Organization would have to intensify its

1
work in this field. Accordingly, it was resolved to establish
"Pioneer fractions" in the schools; these groups were to be called
"foreposts" and were to consist of all Pioneers enrolled in the
particular school, even though they might belong to different

2
detachments. There was to be a forepost in every school which
had three or more Pioneers. This group was to form a nucleus of
progressive forces in the school, and represent the interests of
the political leadership. It convened in a "general assembly" every
two months, and elected a presidium to direct its work for the
ensuing period. A representative of the forepost had a deciding

3
vote in the school council. The task of the Pioneer group in the
schools was to provide leadership along the road to the new society:
they were urged to involve pupils in socio-political work in their
community, to organize the self-government of pupils, and to provide
for pupils' political education. In addition they were to help
the "progressive" teachers build the new school— translated into
ordinary language, this meant that they were to collaborate with
those teachers who were in agreement with the new regime to prevent
any backsliding on the part of the more conservative among the
1. Nasha smena, p. 46.
2. Izvsstiia, 22 November 1923, P* 5*
3. Pihkevich, op. cit., p. 235.
69
1
teaching staff.
It is clear that the Komsomol expected the conflict with
educational authorities to continue. Under such conditions no
satisfactory solution to the problem of school-Pioneer relations could
be found. During the twenties Komsomol and educational authorities
debated unceasingly over the relative importance of the two institutions
which were concerned with the upbringing of children. While all
responsible persons recognized that school work was important and should
not be neglected, the Komsomol insisted that it was equally important
to forge the new citizen in work useful to society. Pupils were
constantly being called out of class to perform such tasks, while
teachers were helpless to protest. Repeated decrees, resolutions and
articles published during this period bear witness to the difficulties
involved. A resolution issued by the Central Committee of the Party
in July 1925, deplored the fact that Pioneers were working in isolation
from the school, and that they were overburdened with social work and
tasks assigned by their detachments. This was having an adverse
effect on their studies. The Party demanded that Pioneers intensify

2
their academic work and cut down on their extra-curricular activities.
"The main obligation of a Pioneer is to be an exemplary student in
school," says another Party resolution of the same year. The
Fourteenth Party Congress, held in December of 1925 noted with dis
satisfaction that the existence of two conflicting centers of influence
on the child resulted in frequent drop-outs and the extreme exhaustion
1. V. Yeniutin, "0 vzsimootnosheniakh mezhdu detskim kommunisticheskim

dvizheniem i shkolci," Karodnoe Prosveshchenie, Nos. 11-12 (1924),
pp. 9Q-91.
Dir, i dok., pp. 25-30*
3. Ibid., p. 23.
sV
'V
TO
1
of the remaining Pioneers, vhich vas often detrimental to their health.
That this vas a very serious problem vas attested by Bukharin in a
speech to a teachers’ Congress vhere he stated that 35 per cent of the
Pioneers suffered from heart trouble, and deplored the "idiotism from
a medical point of viev" vhich kept Pioneers at vork in meetings until

2
all hours of the night.
If Komsomol leaders underestimated the importance of school
vork, teachers often misunderstood the importance of Pioneer vork.
The Orgbureau of the Party complained in 192^, that children often
shov contempt for the school, caused by misunderstanding by the
teachers of the aims of the Pioneer movement. In an attempt to
remedy this situation and to achieve closer collaboration between
educational authorities and Pioneer vorkers, the resolution provided
for representation of the Narkompros in the Central Bureau of the
Pioneer movement; teachers vere asked to participate in Pioneer vork
on all levels, and the Harkompros vas required to contribute financially

3
to the movement.
Despite all efforts to resolve the conflict, relations between
the two institutions remained strained. Leading pedagogues attempted
to bring about a better understanding between them by explaining how
each one could help the other. Krupskaia, in an article published
in 1924, called for closer collaboration between the schools and the
1. Ibid., pp. 30-31*
2 . Detskoe kommunisticheskoe dvizhenie, pp. 25-26.
3. Dir, i dok., pp. 10-11.
Pioneer movement, as "both have the ease goals under the Soviet system
(a proposition vhich vas doubted by the Komsomol hotheads).
The Soviet school like the childrens * movement, strives

to educate the growing generation in a Leninist spirit,
strives to prepare it for the solution of those tasks
vhich history has set for it. The Soviet school strives
to equip children in the best possible manner vith the
knowledge vhich is indispensable for them so that they
may clearly understand vhat it is necessary to do, how
life is to be transformed. . . . Without knowledge, man
is blind. Clearly, it is impossible to oppose the
Pioneer movement to the school, as the closest link
exists between them.
On the other hand, continues Krupskaia, the Pioneer movement
has a great deal to offer the school. It presents teachers vith
"new child material"; as it forms the nev man, it develops pupils who
are conscious of their human dignity and eager to learn. Such children
will be more organized and disciplined than the pupils of the old school.
Once children understand that the nev Soviet school is radically
different from the bourgeois institution— and this must be made clear
to them by both Pioneer leaders and teachers— they will begin to study
eagerly.
In a speech to the Second All-Union Congress of Pioneer workers
(1925), Krupskaia dwelt on the duties of the Pioneer leaders towards
the school. She deplored the fact that considerable jealousy often
exists between teachers and Pioneer leaders and defined their relations
from the point of view of the Party's goals. "One of the tasks of
the Pioneer movement is to make more profound the knowledge vhich is
given by the school and to teach children to develop a conscious
1. Krupskaia, Pedagogicheskie sochineniia, V, 135.
72
attitude towards whatever the teacher says, and this is why the
[Pioneer] leader must know the school program.Communists have
three great tasks: to study, organize and propagandize. Pioneers can
fulfill these by mastering the knowledge imparted to them by the school,
passing it on to their comrades, and participating in the work of the
school and in its self-government in a planned and organized manner.
These efforts to up-grade the school in the eyes of Komsomol
workers could prove almost too successful it seemed. Delegates to
the Seventh Komsomol Congress were warned not to forget the political
goals of the Pioneer Organization and to maintain its separate identity.
"We had an argument after the Sixth Congress," reported Chaplin at this
time. Some suggested that we merge the Pioneer movement

with the school by introducing into the school
the methods and forms of Pioneer work . . . and thus
in fact liquidate the Pioneer movement as an
independent movement. We were against that and
we consider that there is a big difference between
the Pioneer movement and the school. It is true
that both are concerned with the upbringing of
the coming generation, but the school is a state
form of education, while the Pioneer Organization
is a mass movement, a Communist organization of
children, working under the direct leadership of
the Party and the Komsomol. . . .
Another speaker put it even more clearly:
The school grows, develops, the teachers are

coming closer to us, improve the school, the
school becomes richer, the school will soon include
all children. And, in addition, our school is
Communist. And so, in connection with this, sane
people suppose that the time will soon come when
the school will be able to completely replace the
Pioneer movement. . . . Attempts to assert that the
Pioneer movement will soon no longer be necessary
must be rejected by us . . .we must learn to link,
1. Ibid., p. l60.
2. Sed'moi s"ezd, p.
73
not oppose to each other, these two forms of the

education and upbringing of children.
Although, by this time, political conflict between the school
and the Pioneer movement seemed to be on the wane, there appeared to
be general consensus at this Congress that the institution of the
forepost was unsatisfactory. Combining as it did, Pioneers from
different detachments, it was an inefficient body. Children became
confused as to which organization— the detachment or the forepost—
had jurisdiction over them, and dual membership hindered effective
organization of Pioneer work. Some of the delegates to the Congress
proposed that the enrollment of schools be reorganized so that all
Pioneers in one school would belong to the same detachment.
If the school was becoming politically more respectable in
Komsomol eyes, the old issues of "polytechnization" and 'proletarian
ization" of the school system were still very much alive. Youth
League leaders were more reluctant than the Party to give up their
revolutionary-democratic ideals. The Eighth Komsomol Congress heard
an appeal by the delegate reporting on Pioneer and school affairs (Zorin)
for the expansion of the factory schools (the so-called fabzavucn
seven-year schools, which combined vocational training with academic
instruction); general-education schools, said Zorin, must be brought

2
closer to production, i.e., to the plant. The main speaker— Chaplin
1. Ibid., pp. 464-465. It is doubtful whether the assembled delegates

would have unreservedly agreed with the proposition that the Soviet
school was already Communist.
2. VIII Ysesoiuznyi s"ezd VT.KSM (Moscow: Molodaia Gvardiia, 1928),

pp. 505-506. Hereafter cited as Vosfmoi s"ezd.
again— even vent so far as to accuse the secondary school of
deviating in the direction of "scholasticism.
The Party, however, had already decided otherwise. The
same Congress vas the forum for Stalin's famous speech on the importance
of science. "To build, one must know [one must] master science. And
to know, one must study, study persistently and patiently. . . . Before
us stands a fortress. It is called science, vith its many branches.
This fortress we must take at all costs. This fortress must be taken
by young people.-. • ." The watchword for the future was to be:
2
"study, study, and study."
This speech was to prove the harbinger of the educational
reforms of the early thirties. The era of the Five Year Plans
marked the triumph of the "Leninist" over the "Marxist" idea. Evolu
tionary ideas were abandoned and the regime became committed to
rapid development and modernization at a forced pace. The drive
towards total control went into high gear, the individual came to
be viewed as a tool of the state, and the main duties of the citizen
came to be performance, submission and obedience.
As far as the Pioneer Organization was concerned, this meant
that its organization, activities, goals and methods had to undergo
an "agonizing reappraisal" to bring them into line with the new aims
of the regime. Learning became the primary duty of every school-age
child, and the efforts of the youth movement became focussed on school
work.
1. Ibid., p. 60.
2. Ibid., p. 539»
In 1930, the first of the decrees appeared vhich were to
transform the educational system of the Soviet Union and restore
the academic school. Entitled: "On Universal, Compulsory, Elementary
Education," it made it quite clear that the changes were required by
the imperatives of modernization and industrialization: "The develop
ment of socialist construction and the enormous tasks connected vith
it, of training cadres, liquidating cultural and technical back
wardness and the Communist education of the broad masses, requires
the most rapid possible institution of universal, compulsory elementary
education. . . ."1 Reforms vere not to be confined to elementary
education. A resolution of the Central Committee of the Party
entitled: "On the Elementary and Secondary School" followed in
September 1931* which stated: "the basic shortcoming of the school
at the present time consists of the fact that instruction in school
does not give a sufficient volume of general-education knowledge
and solves in an unsatisfactory manner the task of training fully

2
literate people for tekhnikumy and the higher school. . . . In
short, far from being too scholastic, the school was, in fact, not
scholastic enough. The resolution criticized "light-hearted schemes"
and untried methods introduced into the schools and condemned the
"anti-Leninist" theory of the withering away of the school. It
re-introduced school subjects to replace the broad "topics" studied
in the Soviet school of the twenties, and called for strictly defined
curricula and a plan for universal seven-year education.
1. H. I. Boldyrev, Sbomik rukovodiashchikh materialov o shkole (Moscow:

Ak. Ped. Nauk RSFSR, 1952), pp. 63-^.
2. Ibid., p. 539*
76
The Pioneer Organization could not remain unaffected by these
changes, and the Party took note of the fact in a resolution published
in honor of the tenth anniversary of the organization (April 1932):
The weakest spot in Pioneer work is the fact that

the enormous activity of children is not yet directed
in sufficient degree towards the most important task
of the childrens' Communist movement, which consists
at the present time in the struggle for the quality
of study in school, for the mastery of the basic
sciences, and for the strengthening of conscious
discipline in the childrens’ milieu and particularly
in school, without which the successful training of
builders of the Communist society from the rising
generation is unthinkable.
Condemning both the "left” deviation which expected the withering away
of the school, and the rightist-opportunist" deviation which advocated
liquidating the Pioneer movement and merging it with the school, the
resolution called on the Leninist Komsomol to "organize within the
shortest possible time the activity of the children themselves around
the central task of the present time . . . conscious, conscientious,
accurate and precise fulfilment by every pupil of his study obligations,
assignments in social-practical work and of the rules of intra-school

2
order must become ‘a matter of his honor’.”
Argument with the decisions of the Party was, of course, out of
the question. Only one year after the Ninth Komsomol Congress had
voted to abolish the Pioneer foreposts in the schools and to concentrate
Pioneer work in the plants and factories, a Komsomol Conference heard
one of its leaders state: "The basic task of the Pioneer Organization
is to concern itself with the school . . . . To unite Pioneers and all
1. Dir, i dok., p. 47.
2. Ibid., p. 49.
77
children around the problems of the work of the school, to mobilize
them for the struggle for knowledge, this is the main task."1 Others
stressed that the need for children to acquire "stable" knowledge was
so overriding, that the Pioneer movement's concentration on this task
was the best way in which it could advance the cause of socialism.
It is doubtful, however, that children saw the same challenge and romance
in vorking conscientiously at their lessons, as they had seen in working
to fulfil the plan in partnership with their elders.
The Pioneer Organization seems to have been concentrated in the
schools almost Immediately after the Ninth Congress. Although the
resolutions of this Congress were not publicly repudiated until the

2
Tenth Congress (held in 1936) it seems evident from a report given
at that time that they were never implemented. "Beginning in 1931#"
stated V. A. Muskin, describing Pioneer work, "the most important base

„3
of the Pioneer Organization became the school. The program of the
Youth League vhich was adopted at this Congress leaves no doubt of the
role of the Komsomol in the schools. In the section entitled: "In
the Field of Work in School and With Children" the first point stresses
that the Komsomol "helps the organs of public education and the teachers
b
to strengthen study discipline and organize all school work."
1. Sed'maia vsesoiuznaia konferentsiia VLKSM, (Moscow: Molodaia Guaraiia,

1933), P. 263.
2. The speaker on Komsomol work in the schools hesitated to attack the
resolutions of the preceding Congress until loudly encouraged by the
General Secretary of the Komsomol: "Do not be afraid— attack."
Komsomol'skaia pravda, 2b April 1936, p. b .
3. Ibid.
b . Ibid.
Despite repeated protestations that the Pioneer Organization
continued to be an organization independent of the school and run for
and by the children themselves, the movement in effect lost this status
during the ensuing period and became an integral part of the educational
system. The reforms of the thirties had put all authority in the
schools firmly bach into the hands of the teacher. " . . . our next
task is to re-establish discipline in the schools," the Commissar of
Public Education told an assembly of educational officials in 1932;
"without planned discipline, properly imparted to the students, there

1
will never be a real Soviet education." A decree promulgated in
August of 1932 gave school directors and teachers the right to enforce
2
discipline and directors were empowered to expel the incorrigibles.
This deprived the Youth League of its authority in the schools and
of much of its former political role there. The Komsomol seemingly
found it hard to give up its traditional distrust of the teaching staff
and to bow to the Party’s decision. As late as 19^0, a Party Central
Committee Plenum admonished the Komsomol for harboring"incorrect" atti
tudes towards teachers, and four years later the Central Committee of
the Youth League had to follow this with further strictures against
Komsomol interference with the teachers' work. The leading role of
the school was emphasized in the strongest terms: "Taking into account
that the school and the organs of public education carry the full
responsibility before the state for the education and upbringing of
the younger generation and the most important role in this belongs to
1. G. Z. F. Bereday, W. W. Brickman and G. H. Read, op. cit., p. 71*
2. Boldyrev, Sbornik rukovodiashehikh materialov o shkole, p. 65.
them, the CC VLKSM considers that the vork of school Komsomol and
Pioneer organizations constitutes an integral part of the entire up
bringing vork of the school carried on by directors and teachers. . . .
Komsomol members were forbidden to criticize teachers; the latter, on
the other hand, vere given permission to attend any Komsomol meeting,
regardless of vhether or not they vere members of the League.
As the school vas assigned the main role in the upbringing and
education of children, it new became part of the duties of the teachers
and the school directors to participate actively in the vork of the
Pioneer Organization. The above-mentioned resolution issued in
April 1932, called for "direct and practical participation" in the
vork of the Pioneer Organization by teachers of the elementary and

2
secondary schools. It seems that teachers were somewhat reluctant
to take on these additional duties. More than ten years later the
RSFSR Narkompros found it necessary to issue an order (Ho. 592,
February 19^3), requiring directors and teachers as veil as public
education departments to concern themselves directly vith Pioneer

3
vork "for vhich they are responsible." A handbook for students in
training to be Pioneer leaders, issued in 1950, described the role of
the teacher and director in Pioneer vork in more detail. Both the
director and the home-room teacher were required to attend Pioneer
assemblies. The senior Pioneer leader of the school became a member
1. Dir, i dok., p. 8^. Italics mine.
2. Ibid., p. 52.
3. A. M. Danev (Comp.), Haroanoe obrazovanie; osnovnye postonovleniia,

prikazy i instruktsii (Moscow: UchPedGiz, 19^8), p. 1^5*
80
of its pedagogical council (made up of all the teachers under the
chairmanship of the director), which discussed the plan for Pioneer
work for the school. Plans for the work of every Pioneer detachment
had to be approved by the home-roan teacher. The last quarter of
every school year was to be devoted to preparation for the final
examinations and Pioneer activities concentrated almost exclusively
on this task during this period. Pioneer work was guided by the
teaching staff. Control by the director over Pioneer work was so
minute, that his approval was required before the school wall-
newspaper (frequently a Pioneer enterprise) could be displayed.^-
Very little was left of the independence of the Pioneer Organization
when a school director could give this account of her duties in
guiding the work of the movement: "I, personally, cannot imagine the
work of a school director without close contact with the pupils.
I always look in on all corners of the school, prompt pupils with
the correct solution of difficult problems, and set them on the

2
correct road and prevent the possibility of mistakes."
The new Stalin Constitution of 1936 marked the "victory of
socialism" and the disappearance of all "antagonistic" classes from
Soviet society. "The new Constitution," said Stalin, "proceeds from
the fact that there are no longer any antagonistic classes in society;
that society consists of two friendly classes, of workers and peasants;

3
that it is these classes, the labouring classes, that are in power.
1. Pionerskaia organizatsiia imeni V. I. Lenina (Moscow: Uchpedgiz, 1950),

pp. 41-42, 69, 172, 18^-185. Hereafter cited as Pion. org. im. Lenina.
2. R. D. Brusnichkina, Uchitel1 i pionerskaia organizatsii (Moscow:
Molodaia (Jvardiia, 1950), p. 11. "
3- M. Fa insod, How Russia is Ruled (Cambridge: Harvard University Press,
1955), P. 31^.
81
These doctrines of Stalin affected the policies of the
childrens' movement. If society was made up of friendly classes, it
was no longer necessary to discriminate in favor of children of workers
and peasants. "We are entering into a period of building the classless
socialist society when the task of the Communist education of children
of all social strata . . . becomes of first importance. This is why
we must admit all children into the ranks of the Pioneers. It is time
to stop dividing children into children of workers, employees,
intelligentsia, or 'alien classes,*" Muskin told the Tenth Keansomol

1
Congress. He demanded that all children be admitted, without any
2
kind of political test. However, as late as 1951, the Central
Committee VLKSM noted that admission to the organization was often
made unnecessarily difficult and that candidates were still being

3
asked to pass a probationary period before final admission.
4
For these and other reasons, growth of the Pioneer Organization
in the ensuing years vas fitful at best. The Tenth Komsomol Congress
had announced a membership of 6,839*000. As the work of the Pioneers
became an integral part of the school program, pressure increased on
all pupils to join the movement. By 1939* the membership figure had
jumped to 13 million, a truly remarkable increase. Here, however,
1. Komsomol1skaia pravda, 2h April 1936, p. 5-
2. See A. Herzer, Bolschewismus und Menschenbildung (Hamburg: Verlag

Gesellschaft der Preunde des Vaterlaendischer Schul und Entiehungswesens,
1950), p. 1^0, for a description of admission procedures in the 1930's.
3 . Dir, i dok., p. 101.
4. See below, Chapters V and VI.
82
growth was halted for about ten years. When the Eleventh Komsomol
Congress met in 19^9> Pioneer membership still stood at the 1939

1
figure. It was natural, perhaps, that the Organization should
experience difficulty in expanding in the hardship war and postwar
years. The years following the Eleventh Congress were again a
period of rapid growth, and, by 1951, the Central Committee of the
Komsomol could note with satisfaction that the Pioneer organization
now had about 19 million members. However, the Committee stressed
that further efforts were needed to encourage growth, as a "significant
part" of eligible children still remained outside the Pioneer Organi-

2
zation, especially in rural areas.
With the decision to shift the base of the Pioneer Organization
from the factories to the schools, it became necessary to provide
new organizational forms for the movement. These forms were laid
3
down by the Komsomol immediately following the Tenth Komsomol Congress
and in general remain in force to the present day.
All Pioneers of a school form a Pioneer brigade (druzhina),
which elects from its membership, a brigade council of 7~15 members
to plan and direct Pioneer work in the school. If the school is big
enough, Pioneer detachments are formed in every class. Detachments
1. Fisher, op. cit., pp. 362 and 239*
2* Dir, i dok., p. 98~99»
3. Ibid., pp. 82-83.
4. Classes had been re-instituted in the schools in 193^* Detachments

could also be formed in orphanages.
are to have no more than forty members, and are subdivided into links
of 8-10 children. This, it was hoped, would facilitate work with the
individual child. Under this arrangement, detachments are homogeneous
groups, composed of children of the same age, all engaged in the same
school work. Links are to be formed on the basis of friendship and
common interests. Every detachment elects its own council, which
works under the leadership of a detachment leader selected by the
Komsomol (until the sixties, the leader was usually, but not
necessarily, a student in the upper classes of the school). Links
are led by link leaders elected by the children.
Ideally, every school is supposed to have a part-time or full
time senior Pioneer leader— a Komsomol with some pedagogical training,
who is in charge of the Pioneer work of the brigade. However, there
has always been a shortage of such cadres, and very often a teacher
is assigned to fill the place of the senior leader.
Admission to the Pioneer Organization is open to all children
who have reached the required age and membership is voluntary.^ A
pupil who desires to join must apply to the detachment leader and the
chairman of the detachment council. After he has learned the basic
facts about the organization— what it stands for, the meaning of the
Pioneer symbols, and the significance of the Solemn Promise— his
candidature is discussed at a public assembly of the detachment, where
the issue is then decided by open vote by all members.
The admission ceremony is a solemn affair. The detachment
assembles and is drawn up in formation. On this day, all Pioneers are
1. The age of admission was lowered to 9 in 1 to introduce

detachments into elementary schools, set at 10 again in 1957» During
the forties and fifties, the Octobrists were quietly abandoned, but
the organization was revived in 1957*
1
required to wear their holiday uniform. The banner of the
detachment is unfurled, and the new members repeat after the senior
Pioneer leader (or another representative of the Komsomol) the words
of the Solemn Promise. During the period of Stalin's absolute rule,
the text read: "I, a Young Pioneer of the Union of Soviet Socialist
Republics, promise in front of my comrades that I will firmly stand
for the cause of Lenin and Stalin for the victory of Communism. I
promise to live and study in such a way as to become a worthy citizen of

2
my Socialist Motherland.n The Pioneer leader then awards the
candidates their red kerchiefs, and pronounces the Pioneer motto:
MIn the struggle for the cause of Lenin and Sbalin, be readyI" With
the reply: "Always readyI" the admissions ceremony is concluded and
the candidates become full-fledged members of the Organization.
While the Pioneer symbolism (salute, badge, kerchief) was
taken over unchanged in the form in which it was established by the
1928 rules, the laws of the Organization were abandoned by the Tenth
Komsomol Congress. Muskin disclosed at that time, that Stalin
himself had declared that the Young Pioneers had no need of an elaborate
set of laws; it would be quite enough to set simple standards of

3
behavior for them to follow. No formal list of rules was issued
until the publication of the Rules for Pupils in 19^3J it is a
significant indication of the status of the Pioneer Organization at
1. See above, p. 59*
2. Hon, org. im. lenina, p. kl.
3. Komsomol'skaia pravda, 2k April 1936, p. k.
85
this time, that these rules were designed to apply to all school
pupils, whether or not they were members of the Pioneers.
Few changes were made in the ensuing years. During the war
a measure was passed which provided for the abolition of Pioneer
councils and of the elections of the Pioneer aktivi Detachments
were to be led by "staffs" designated by the teachers, and orders

1
(prikazy) from above replaced"'decisions formerly taken by vote.
This however, was merely a temporary measure inspired by war conditions.
It was revoked the year after the war ended, and the previous system
was re-established.
Throughout the forties and fifties, Pioneer work concentrated
very heavily on the school program. The Organization*s activities
were designed to review material studied in class and to provide
enrichment for those pupils who were ready to go beyond the level of
their groups. The Pioneer code of values constantly stressed the
need for exemplary study. Both Komsomols (in the schools) and
Pioneers were urged to organize socialist competition for the best
marks, and Pioneer assemblies and discussions centered around this
school theme.
Those activities which had formed the most important part of
Pioneer work in the past, now rated a poor second. As the school
retired behind its walls and gave up all active contact with the
community, Pioneers also abandoned participation in the life of adult
society. Academic work took precedence over all other concerns.
1. Pion. org. im. Lenina, pp. 32-33> 35 •
86
While socially useful work was still considered a part of the Pioneer
program, a series of decrees and resolutions (beginning in 193*0

1
deplored the fact that pupils were overburdened with such tasks.
Finally, in 19*^8* the Phrty resolved to put all childrens* activities
•under the control of the school and so assure the absolute precedence
of the latter. "The Central Committee VKP(b) stressed that a
correctly organized social and extra-curricular work of pupils must
be subordinated to the study and upbringing tasks of the school,
help pupils to study successfully . . . I&rty, Soviet, Eomsomol and
other public organizations are obliged to take measures for completely
ending the practice in which school pupils are taken in school hours
2
to fulfil social assignments." This decree gave the director "full."
responsibility for the correct organization of socially useful and
extra-curricular work and left all "mass meetings" in school to his
discretion.
This almost exclusive preoccupation with academic work
necessarily transformed the entire character of the Organization.
Although lip service continued to be paid in this period to the old
goals of forming the new man and developing active, well-rounded
builders of the new society, and although the Pioneer Organization
continued to be referred to as the "third shift" and the auxiliary
of the Party and Komsomol, the political role of the movement virtually
disappeared. Bolsheviks who had helped form the organization and had
formulated the goals for it were distressed at this "new look." The
1. Dir, i dok., pp. 55> 57»
2. Ibid., p. 58.
87
premium which was placed on excellence tended to reserve the best
Pioneer facilities for the privileged and gifted. Krupskaia complained
just before her death in 1939# that the Pioneer Ihlaces were reserved
for the elite and that one had to have a ticket to be admitted.
Pioneer work, she says, should be for all children, even for hooligans
and those who had to be expelled from school. To reserve membership
in the organization for the gifted makes them think of themselves as
a privileged group. "It is necessary that a boy or girl is impelled
to join the Pioneers not because Pioneers are some sort of ‘privileged
stratum,* but because their life is much more interesting and meaningful,
1
more sensible, and more organized^" Instead, Krupskaia notes,
children are told what to do, when to do it and how to do it. Pioneer
activities are transformed into "lessons." "This is simply a pro
longation of school lessons, but not such an organization of leisure
time as would help children to learn to live in a new way, to work
collectively, to discuss problems, to look at life [and] to make

2
contact with it."
Warnings such as Krupskaia*s remained without effect as long as
the insistence on the overriding importance of academic work was
maintained and the organization remained completely subordinate to the
school authorities. Under such conditions it proved difficult if not
impossible to capture and hold the childrens* interest in Pioneer work.
1. Krupskaia, 0 Icommunisticheskora vospitanii, p. 4l6.
2. Ibid., p . kl5•
The "internal contradiction"— as Marxists would say— of an
attitude which called for complete subordination of the Pioneer Organi
zation to the school authorities, while at the same time continuing
to insist that the movement develop the spontaneous activity of the
young, was revealed in the report of the work of the Komsomol in
the schools at the Eleventh Congress (19^9):
The work of Pioneer links, detachments and brigades

must be carried on on the basis of the activity and
self-activity of the Pioneers themselves, developing
their initiative in all possible ways. The self-
active character of the activity of Pioneer detachments
and brigades does not exclude, but, on the contrary,
presupposes, that the work of Pioneers be directed
and developed by experienced, pedagogically trained
leaders. It is extremely important that teachers
[and] homeroom teachers should be more engaged in the
activity of the Pioneer Organization, should help
leaders and should work as leaders.
The Eleventh Komsomol Congress was the last to be held in
Stalin's lifetime. Before the next one convened in 195^, important
changes had taken place in the educational system of the Soviet Union.
It will be remembered that the Nineteenth Party Congress, held in 1952,
had revived the call for polytechnic education, and the first changes
in the school curriculum had been introduced in the following years.
The effects of these changing attitudes on the Pioneer Organization
first became evident in a CC VLKSM resolution of October 1951* While
the Central Committee reaffirmed the need for close collaboration
between the Pioneer Organization and the school authorities and again
"forbids Komsomol or Pioneer organizations to distract Pioneers and
pupils from their studies for the fulfilment of any kind of social
1. T. I. Yershova, 0 rabote komsomola v shkole (Moscow: Molodaia

Gvardiia, 19^9), pp. 17-18*
assignments," it went on to say: "Bie Plenum directs Komsomol
organizations and Pioneer brigades to improve the labor education of
Pioneers and pupils, to accustom children from the earliest years to
conscious and disciplined labor and to develop in them respect and
love for physical labor, habits of self-service, and the ability to

2
fulfil any work which is within their strength. While most
assignments for social work were still to be performed within the
walls of the school— such tasks as work on school allotments,
beautification of the school grounds, and manufacture of visual and
other teaching aids are specifically mentioned— it is urged that
every Pioneer and pupil should participate in some form of work useful
to society (although care must be exercized that the children should
not be overburdened). All children, it was stressed, should learn
to apply in practice what they learn in school.
This trend was to increase in the following years. Changes in
the Pioneer Organization reflected the needs of Soviet society and of
the post-war economy, and were intensified by political developments
after Stalin’s death.
The deliberations of the Twelfth Komscarol Congress, held in
195^ already showed clearly the impact of the new thinking. In the
main report to the Congress, the speaker (A. N. Shelepin) discussed
shortcomings in the work of the Pioneer Organization. The list is
formidable: although the Pioneer Organization must continue to concen
trate on the important task of helping the school, said Shelepin, it
1. Dir, i dok., p. 104.
2. Ibid., p. 105.
90
should find its own methods, rather than simply duplicate the work
of the teacher. Moreover, Pioneer activities are regimented and
monotonous, the children are not allowed to organize the work in
their own way, and good old Pioneer traditions (such as campfires,
competitions or excursions) are forgotten. Finally, and most
important, the Pioneer Organization is neglecting education for labor—
"one of the basic principles of Communist education."
Another speaker, Z. P. Tumanova, elaborated on these points.
Echoing Krupskaia's earlier strictures, she deplored the fact that
the Pioneer movement has lost the romanticism of its early days.
Pioneer work today is merely auxiliary school work. Self-government
by the children has been replaced by simple commands from the leaders.
Above all, the organization has lost its contact with society. "The
work of the organization of Young Pioneers is indissolubly linked with
our Soviet school," she stated. But "the struggle for knowledge is
combined with the involvement of Pioneers in social and political life,
with acquainting children with labor which is within their strength."
It is no longer enough to concentrate on studies in school, continued
Tumanova. It is equally important to teach children how to apply
what they have learned, "The Pioneer Organization must show children
the force of knowledge, show them the link between science and
practice, the significance of science for socialist construction
[and] help pupils apply in practice the knowledge which they have
2
acquired." Every Pioneer, she insists, must learn to work for the
1. Komsomol *skaia pravda, 20 March. 195^, p. 3*
2. Ibid., 2k March 195^> p. 2.
good of society and should have at least one assignment of socially
useful work. Some of these assignments may he done in and for the
school, hut others should he performed for the community at large.
All this meant that the Pioneer Organization was to regain
some of its political role. This was made quite clear in the com
ments on the Congress published in the pedagogical press. "The
Pioneer Organization is a mass, self-active, political organization
of children," editorialized the leading education journal. "The
most important factor in Pioneer work is the Communist idea-content
of upbringing which is being carried on by the application of forms
and methods of work peculiar to the Pioneer Organization. The
measures carried on with Pioneers, in their entirety, must be aimed
at making as understandable and close as possible for Pioneers the
general goals for which are struggling the Communist Party, the Kom
somol, and the Soviet people. . . . If the political essence of the
Pioneer Organization is forgotten, there inevitably follows loss of
perspective in the work. . . . " In other words, the Pioneer
Organization is more than a tool to be used by the teacher: it is a
political movement which trains citizens for the Soviet state and
prepares children to join the Komsomol and even, eventually, the
Party (this is what is meant by the reference to "perspective" in
the work of the organization).
The political goals of the movement are linked with the aims
of "polytechnic" education and both trends act to reinforce each other.
1. "Vysshe uroven' pionerskoi raboty," Sovetskaia pedagogika, No. 4,

May 195^, p» 5* Italics mine.
92
The active participation of pupils in productive labor,

in socially useful work, establishes exceptionally favor
able conditions for their political development and ideo
logical growth. However, the experience of the school
shows convincingly that labor alone, without continuous
attention to the ideological education of young people
cannot yield good results. . . • The reorganization of the
school poses ths urgent question of the ideological
upbringing of pupils, of developing in than firm Communist
convictions, a high morality and social activity,1
wrote a group of Soviet educators a few years later.
The first concrete steps towards changing the orientation of the
Honeer movement were not taken until three years after the Twelfth
Komsomol Congress. Although some changes in the vork of the organization
were introduced after the Congress— Pioneer assemblies were held in plants
or farms instead of schools, leaders for detachments were selected from
workers rather than students, and practical work was intensified at the
expense of academic— a Komsomol Central Committee meeting, held in Hovember
1957* still discovered "serious shortcomings" in the work. First and
most important, the Plenum noted that: "In a number of cases the Leninist
principle of Communist education— the principle of the link with life,
with the general national struggle for the building of Communism in
our country— is forgotten. Many Pioneer detachments and brigades often
in their work shut themselves up within the walls of the school, do not
use all available possibilities for educating Pioneers in socially useful
labor. . . . Progress was equally slow in other areas. Old habits were
1. Osnovy kcmmunisticheskogo vospitani ja (Moscow: Gos. Izd. Pol. Lit.,

I960), pp. 45
2. Dir, i dok., p. 138.
A
93
proving hard to break: teachers and Pioneer leaders had not learned
how to develop the self-activity and initiative of their charges
and were persisting in doing most of the planning and organizing of
the work themselves.
All these strictures had been voiced many times before,
seemingly without much effect. Clearly something more than criticism
was needed. The Central Committee accordingly recommended several
measures to remedy the worst of these evils.
The age of admission was raised to ten, and membership in the
organization was to be open to all between the ages of ten and fifteen.
Younger children would be organized in little Octobrist groups, which
were to be revived in the schools. Every Pioneer should find
activities to his individual taste in the organization, and he should
also be required to master a definite volume of knowledge and number
of skills during his stay in the movement. Leading Pioneer workers,
educators and public health officials were told to work out a series
of "steps" adapted to different age groups— reminiscent of the
requirements of the Boy Scouts— a list of tasks of gradually increasing
difficulty which every Pioneer would be asked to fulfil. This, it was
hoped, would make every member an active participant in Pioneer work.
Finally, it was considered necessary to draw up a new set of rules
and laws for the organization, so that every member would clearly know
and understand his duties and obligations.
These recommendations were embodied in a new statute for the
Pioneer Organization which was issued in the following year, and which
still forms the basis of Pioneer work at this writing.
The Pioneer Organization, begins the statute, is a "mass
childrens’ Communist organization" for pupils. Its goal is the
development of citizens for a Communist society. "In the Pioneer
Organization millions of Soviet children pass through the first school
of Communist upbringing, become accustomed to social life, and prepare
to become active builders of Communism." It must: "develop in
Pioneers the high moral qualities of a person of the Communist
society, bring them up as convinced fighters for the cause of the
Communist f&rty, fiery patriots of their Motherland, conscious, labor-
loving, cultured, healthy, life-loving, bold builders of Communism,
unafraid of difficulties, bring up children in the spirit of friendship
among nations and proletarian internationalism." The requirements
of the school are mentioned only briefly and then only incidentally
to other goals: "The Pioneer Organization develops in Pioneers love
of knowledge, a searching mind and curiosity, the drive to study well."
A list of eleven "laws" expresses these basic duties of the
Pioneers in clear and simple form. Only one concerns the life of the
Pioneer in school: "A Pioneer studies diligently, is disciplined and
polite."
Ho change was made in admission procedures or in the Pioneer
symbolism; however, in deference to the "de-Stalinization" policies
decreed since the Twentieth Pferty Congress (1956), the text of the
Solemn Promise was changed to read: "I, a Young Pioneer of the Soviet
1. Akademiia pedagogicheskikh nauk; RSFSR: Bo pionerskim Stupeniiam

(Moscow: Izdo Ak. Bed. Nauk, RSFSR, 1959)* pp.132-195> gives the
complete text of the statute.
95
Union, solemnly promise in front of my comrades, to love my Soviet
Motherland passionately, to live, study and struggle as the great
Lenin bade us, as the Communist Party teaches us.” Organizational
forms of the ELoneer movement remained almost untouched; however, the
statute did permit detachments to be formed in apartment houses as
well as in the schools.
Simultaneously with the statute, the Central Committee of the
Youth League approved a sample list of the knowledge and skills which
a ELoneer would be expected to acquire during his stay in the

1
organization. Three "steps" were established— each one designed for
the ELoneers of two school classes, ranging from the fifth to the
eighth. Each step consisted of several groups of tasks, which increase
in complexity with every age group. These concerned: political and
civic education (learning about Lenin, singing revolutionary songs,
studying local history and understanding the goals of the Komsomol);
practical and socially useful work (cleaning up in school or at home,
helping younger children, repairing school equipment, bringing in
the harvest); and physical training and esthetic education (hiking,
sports, music, dancing, drama). Every ELoneer is issued a "personal
booklet" in which his detachment council records his achievements as
he passes up the "steps."
These measures represent the first real change in the work of
1. Ibid., pp. 196-207. A similar list of "steps" had been introduced

in 1928, but its effect on Pioneer work was never properly tested, as
the changes of the early thirties intervened.
96
the Pioneer Organization since the thirties. It vas hoped that they
vould serve to revive childrens1 interest in the Pioneers and
encourage than to take an active part in Pioneer work. As in the
late twenties, such reforms seemed necessary, as the organization
seems to have been experiencing some difficulties prior to the Twelfth
Komsomol Congress. Although there could be no comparison with the
membership "crisis" of the latter twenties, the Twelfth Congress was
the first one not to announce a membership figure for the Pioneer
Organization. Both Shelepin and Tumanova merely noted that "the
majority" of eligible children were now members. This warding was
changed to "the overwhelming majority" in the resolution passed by
the Congress at the close of its session. Although there seems to
be no reason to doubt the validity of this statement,^ Pioneer leaders
stressed the importance of further growth and the need for improving
the work; if the interests of children are not captured, they warned,
children will begin to form their own groups, which might easily stray
from the correct path.
By the time the new statute was issued, it had become even
more important to devote increasing attention to the Pioneer Organiza
tion. The Thirteenth Komsomol Congress met in April of that year
(1958); although it discussed Pioneer work only in the briefest of
terms, it proved important for the movement in a way reminiscent of
the Third and Eighth Congresses in an earlier period.
like his predecessors, Krushchev, by now complete master in the
1. Fisher, op. cit., pp. 226-267# 3^9# discusses this.
A
97
Soviet Union, chose a Komsomol Congress as the forum for a major speech
on the aims of education. In an address to the Thirteenth Congress
entitled: "Bringing up Active and Conscious Builders of the Communist
Society,” he outlined the problems facing the Soviet school and called
for drastic reforms: "While reaffirming the importance of study— the
Leninist behest— to study,— even today remains the lav for our youth,”
— he quickly passed on to the main problem:
Principally, I want to talk about labor. . . . In

this connection I vant to share vith you, comrade
Komsomols, some considerations on problems of public
education and the training of specialists for our
secondary and higher educational institutions. . . .
There are substantial shortcomings in the vork of our
school and higher educational institutions. Our
ten-year school prepares young people only for entrance
into higher educational institutions. . . . These young
boys and girls (i.e., those vho are not admitted to
higher educational institutions), because of the
divorce of the secondary school from life, do not knov
production. . . . In addition, some young boys and
girls vhen they finish secondary school, go to vork
unwillingly in factories, plants, kolkhozy and sovkhozy,
consider this somewhat of an insult to themselves. . . .
I think that the time has come to decisively reorganize
the system of upbringing of our growing generation in
the schools. . . . The preparation of our growing
generation for life, for vork, developing in young
people profound respect for the principles of socialist
society— this task must become the most important task
of our school. And the Komsomol and Honeer Organiza
tion can find a place to apply their forces in this
matter.1
Krushchev called for changes both in the established system
of public education and in the ideological education of the young.
Both would serve to enhance the importance of the Honeer Organization.
1. N. S. Khrushchev, Vospityvat1 aktivnykh i soznatelfnykh stroitelei

kommunisticheskogo obshchestva (Moscow: Molodaia Gvardiia, 1938),
pp. 12-15:
98
The reorganization of the school system left the Pioneer
Organization as the only youth organization of the basic school.
Upon the Pioneers now devolved almost the entire burden of preparing
the Soviet school child for citizenship in the new society. This
task became increasingly complex and difficult as old authoritarian
methods were condemned in Soviet society (and in Soviet schools), to
be replaced by reliance on "persuasion" and a desire for willing and
even enthusiastic cooperation by the population. Today, the school
is expected to concentrate on academic training, and all extra
curricular and socially useful work of pupils are under the exclusive
control and direction of the youth organizations.
The organization of extra-curricular activities is becoming
increasingly important today with the regime's mounting concern with
the problem of juvenile delinquency. Club and "circle" work has
always been a feature of Pioneer life. It seems however, that little
has changed since the time when Krupskaia complained that these
activities were reserved for the privileged and the gifted. Even
today, facilities are far from adequate to accommodate all children,
and only those with special aptitudes are admitted.^ Soviet educators
and youth leaders are now calling for a concerted effort to provide
organized activities for school-age youngsters in order to keep
unsupervised children off the streets and out of trouble.
1. See S. Obraztsov, "Ot prospekta do stadiona," literaturaaia gazeta,

23 December 1965> P» 2. The author cites evidence that, even in
Moscow, facilities fall far short of existing needs, and deplores the
fact that club leaders suffer from "laurelomania" and will admit only
the most promising youngsters.
The ELoneer Organization today occupies a position about
midway between the one it held in the twenties and its subsequent
status as a part of the school* Although the organization is, for
the most part, still based on the school and is expected to collaborate
closely with the teaching staff, Honeers are required to take an
active part in the concerns of their community and in the plans of
their government. They are to be involved in the same causes as
their elders, not as part of a "vanguard" as of old, but as Junior
helpers in the common effort. The Honeer Organization today is to
serve above all as a preparation for life and a training ground for
the future citizen. Finally, as the pendulum is swinging a part of
the way back to the ideas and attitudes of the twenties, and as the
Honeer Organization is freeing itself somewhat from the tutelage of
the school authorities, political leadership by the Komsomol is being
reasserted.
\
I
\
100
CHAPTER IV
KOMSOMOL AND PARTY CONTROL
The principle of political control by the Komsomol was asserted
early and was not revoked even during the period of the ascendancy of
the school. When it established the Komsomol in 1918, the Party expected
it to take over the political education and organization of all young
people. Carefully avoiding the impression that the New League was to be
an organization for Communists only, the First Komsomol Congress declared
that membership was open to the "broad masses of still uncommitted
worker and peasant youth. It soon became apparent however, that
students and school pupils belonged in a category by themselves. True
to Marxist doctrine, the Bolsheviks considered only working youth— and
especially those engaged in industrial production— to be politically
reliable; young people studying in the secondary schools were suspect.
Accordingly, when the Orgbureau of the Party decreed in 1919 that the
Komsomol was to take over the indoctrination and education of both

2
students and working youth, it laid down special safeguards for work
with secondary school pupils. While peasant and worker youth could
be admitted to the League while still "uncommitted," in the schools
the Komsomol was told to admit only applicants who were already
"Conaaunist by conviction" and who were recommended by two Party or
Komsomol members. The Komsomol in these schools, said Lunacharskii
1. Fisher, op. cit., p. 11.
2. KPSS o komsomole i molodezhi, p. 3^.
101
in a speech to the Fourth Congress, was to become the "spiritually

1
aristocratic" center for all other organizations formed in the schools.
As far as young children were concerned, the feud of the Komsomol with
the school authorities made leadership more of a problem than it need
have been, as it made collaboration with pedagogues extremely difficult.
The Komsomol, as the channel of transmission for party ideas
and policies, was given a monopoly of influence over the young very
early in its career. Not only was the Barty opposed to letting rival
groups grow up, which might develop as an opposition to the League;
it also discouraged the formation of additional youth groups under the
sunervision and guidance of the Komsomol, even if they were proletarian

2
oriented. But when the need for a separate childrens* organization
became apparent in the early twenties, it was natural for the Komsomol
to take over its direction.
The Youth League, as we have seen, had begun to organize work
with children even before it was formally authorized by the Fifth
Congress to establish the Honeer Organization. By the end of 1921,
the Moscow Komsomol committee had set up a bureau for work among
3
children, and raion and uezd bureaus were organized shortly thereafter.
The Fifth Komsomol Congress, in establishing the ELoneer
movement, firmly put the Komsomol in control: "All local groups [of
Pioneers] are subordinate to and under the control of the corresponding
1. IV s" ezd BKSM (Moscow-Leningrad: Molodia Gvardiia, 1927), p. 22.
2. See Fisher, op. cit., pp. 17-28 for a discussion of this early period.
3. Kasha smena, pp. 35-36*
102
RKSM committees, the general leadership is carried out by the higher

1
councils [of the Honeer Organization] through the RKSM committees,”
its resolution stated.
However, it had become apparent that, in work with children,
a correct political approach alone was not enough to ensure success.
The Congress recognized the special problems involved: "The
organizational forms of the movement are determined by two factors:
the requirements of pedagogy and the necessity of maintaining the
leadership of the new movement (in the hands of) the Communist League
2
of Youth.” Here lay one of the greatest difficulties of the organi
zation: Komsomols, thinking in terms of political control and influence,
very rarely had the required pedagogical knowledge and skills to
transmit their ideas to the children in their care. Honeer literature
abounds in criticism of leaders who apply the methods used with an
adult audience to children of Honeer age, who have no conception how
to handle children, and do not have the background for their work.
One of the most constant problems of the Organization, from its
establishment to the present day, is the question of providing the
necessary training for Komsomol leaders. So acute was this difficulty
in the early period of the Honeer Organization's existence, that the
Fifth Congress authorized the Komsomol to employ as Honeer leaders
those of the former Boy Scout leaders who "sincerely and completely
stand on the platform of the new movement." However, the Komsomol
1. Dir, i dok., p. 69*
2. Ibid., p. 63.
103
was warned that these leaders could not be trusted too far; even if
they were sincere in their support of the new regime, they could not
bring up children in the correct spirit, tainted as they were with the
values of the old system. The Komsomol was therefore told to exercise
constant and practical control over the work of the Honeer Organization.
If Komsomols were often not suited for the work, they were still
to be preferred to older people, however politically reliable. "One
must not think that, if a person is a Communist, this means that he is
suitable for leadership in the childrens* movement," Krupskaia told a
gathering of Honeer workers in 1925. "I know many Communists who
often do not have the slightest conception of pedagogical problems and
the approach to children. In this respect, Komsomols are much better,
because children naturally are drawn towards the age closest to them.
-1
±
A Komsomol can influence children because he has a natural authority."
In accordance with this generally accepted view, the Barty was
at first content to let the Komsomol carry on by itself, while offering
only guidance and indirect aid from the sidelines. "The growth of the
childrens’ movement under the leadership of the Komsomol, in the form
of the ’young Honeer s’ poses for ibrty organizations the task of aiding
by all possible means the development of this work," resolved the
Twelfth Ihrty Congress, the first one to take note of the childrens*
2
movement. xhrty help however, was not to go very far. The Congress
resolution confined it to a requirement to help the Komsomol recruit
1. Krupskaia, Bedagogicheskie sochineniia, V, 166.
2. Dir, i dok., p. 7®
104
"revolutionary pedagogical forces" for work in the childrens* movement.
The following Party Congress had to recognize that this was not
enough; it deplored the fact that the growth of the ELoneer movement
had been held back by— among other reasons— "lack of the necessary
attention on the part of the Thrty." However, the leadership still
did not consider it necessary to intervene directly in the control
of the childrens* movement: "As to the organizational forms of the
movement," said the Thirteenth Congress, "the ihrty must guide through
the RKSM which, in turn, must carry on the work in full agreement with
1
the organs of social education.” In view of the unsatisfactory
relations between the Komsomol and the educational officials, the
outlook for such wholehearted cooperation was not very good. Neither
can the school authorities have welcomed the resolution of the Third
All-Russian Komsomol Conference which, in evaluating the first year
of work of the Pioneers, defined as one of the most urgent tasks of
the movement: "The strengthening of the revolutionary influence of the
League through the Young Pioneers on the schools by gradual conquest
(zavoevanie) of a leading position in the organs of school self-

2
government, and the involvement of the schools in political campaigns."
With the extremely rapid growth of the movement in the years
immediately following its establishment, the problems of Komsomol
leadership increased proportionately. The Ihrty soon had to recognize
that direct intervention would be necessary, if the movement was to
2. Ibid., p. 74.
105
develop as desired. An Orgbureau meeting in the summer of 1924,
discussed ELoneer problems at some, length and concluded that the time
had come to help the Komsomol cope with the most important of them.
The Orgbureau listed a number of tasks which could not be
accomplished without direct help from the Party: The first one
mentionedwas the ever-vexing question of recruiting the necessary
number of leaders and giving them the training which they would need;
others which required action of the Party, were procuring financial
and other material aid from trade union and government organs, and
establishing a closer tie between Pioneer organizations and the school.
General directives from the Party could no longer be considered
adequate in solving these problems. Party organizations— especially
bureaus of cells— were now asked to observe Honeer work closely and
to receive reports and accounts of their activities directly from the
detachments themselves, rather than through the intermediary of the
Komsomol committee. However, it was stressed that Party leadership
was to confine itself to ideological guidance; the actual practical

1
direction of the work was still the task of the Komsomol.
This is only the first of many party and Komsomol decrees and
resolutions noting the difficulties of effective leadership under
prevailing circumstances. The Party henceforth abandoned its attitude
of approving and benevolent bystander and called on its members to
1. Ibid., p. llo There seems to have been a deviation from this

practice in the Ukraine, where Honeer detachments were under the direct
supervision of the Party for some time. See Shestoi Sêzd, p. 342.
106
intervene ever more actively in the work of the Pioneer movement.
In a resolution published in the summer of 1925* ^ was decided to
involve the party masses in this task, and to assign party forces to
help the Komsomol cope with Pioneer problems. Hot content with
guidance of Komsomol groups, the Party further resolved to send
qualified propagandists from the staff of the Agitprop to work directly
with Pioneer bureaus on the oblast, guberniia and uezd levels.1
Nevertheless, we find the Fourteenth Party Congress complaining at
the end of this year, that: "the Party devotes little attention to the
Komsomol and almost none at all to the Pioneer Organization. . . . ”
while the Komsomol "is weakening its attention" to Pioneer organizations.
"The most urgent problem of the Pioneer movement is the training of
qualified leaders, not only politically educated, but with the most
2
elementary knowledge in medical and pedagogical respects."
This problem was particularly serious in rural areas, where the
influence of the "working class" was non-existent and schools were few
and far between. In villages with a non-Russian population, where
particularly strong resistance to the new system might be expected,
Pioneer leaders, if available at all, were often Russians, ignorant of
the native language and national customs. All these factors repre
sented a serious handicap to the movement.
Reasons for the continuing conflict between the drive for total
control and the problems involved In its implementation are not difficult
1. Ibid., p. 28.
2. Ibid., pp. 30-31.
107
to find. One was the perennial shortage of cadres. Leaders of
Pioneer detachments were expected to take on these additional duties
for no extra pay on top of their regular work. Only leaders of
very large detachments and, later, of "bases, were full-time paid
Pioneer workers. Even then, their salaries were pitifully small.^
However, even if funds had been available to pay all leaders, this
would not have been a solution to the problem. Ideological con
siderations required in this period that the Pioneer Organization
maintain a close contact with the factory. A leader who was not
linked with the world of industry would, ipso facto, be a bad leader.
Pioneer work had no prestige in a society devoted to the glori
fication of industrial production. Both the Party and the Komsomol were
inclined to despise or, at the very least, underestimate the importance
of Pioneer work. " . . . very often (the Party and the Komsomol) look
on Pioneer work with contempt and indifference (naplevatel *ski), " stated
another delegate to the Eighth Komsomol Congress. He cited a case where
a Party secretary refused to assign a leader to a detachment, offering
the excuse that the cell had already bought the detachment a drum.
2
Will a drum then provide Party leadership? asked the delegate. Party
and Komsomol leadership was often a matter of organizational forms
1. Vos *1801 s"ezd, pp. 502-503; the figure 25-50 rubles monthly was
mentioned.
2. Sed*11101 s"ezd, p. kf8.
108
rather than of practical guidance. Moreover, Komsomol leaders
frequently did not wish for active Ihrty leadership; it transpired
from comments made at various Komsomol Congresses, that the Komsomol
often did not bother to inform the Thrty about Pioneer affairs, but
merely asked for material assistance (presumably such as drums for

1
detachments).' The result of all these attitudes was persistent
difficulty in recruiting new leaders and an alarming rate of turnover
in these positions. The situation was described in these terms by
a Soviet writer of the late twenties:
The majority of leaders last from three months to a

year, and many divisions [a different translation for
"detachmentsH] change leaders from four to six times
in a single year! . . . There are several reasons for
this reluctance on the part of Young Communists to
engage in Pioneer work. Few of then have any proper
understanding of the significance of the work with
children. Then too, they are confronted with many
difficulties, such as meager help for the Pioneer
movement from the social organizations, the weak
financial condition of the divisions, a lack of
preparation for their work, overloading with other
work, and weak directorship in the bureau of Young
Pioneers. A third reason lies in their uncertainty
of advancement from the division to other social work
in the Thrty; a leader does not always see promotion
in that direction, so he tries to get out of Pioneer
work as soon as p o s s i b l e . 2
The situation seemed to be the same on al 1. levels of Pioneer work.
Zorin disclosed to the Eighth Komsomol Congress that even in the
Central Bureau of Young Pioneers, members usually do not stay in their
jobs for more than six months.
1. Ibid., p. W34 and Vos'moi sêzd, p. 51^*
2. Trow, op. cit.j pp. 102-103.
109
Indeed, neither the Komsomol nor the fhrty liked to see their
1
best workers "buried” in Pioneer work; if a leader proved competent,
he -was soon assigned to other work. Those who remained were often
2
quite unfit for political (let alone pedagogical) work.
Even the Central Committee of the Hrty was powerless to change
this situation. Evaluating the result of the first Honeer Rally in
1929, it noted the lack of leaders yet once again, and called for the
"mobilization” of 50,000 of the "most active and politically literate

.3
Komsomols for work as detachment leaders. It is an indication of
the general attitude towards Honeer work in the Komsomol, that, by
1931* not one single Komsomol organization had assigned enough cadres
for this, and those who were assigned worked for two or three weeks
and then went off to other work.
1. Chaplin, reporting to the Eighth Congress, repeated a current phrase:

"Honeer work is the grave of a Komsomol." One speaker noted that when
the Honeer report came up, the speaker faced empty benches.
2. One leader taught his charges that Zinov*ev struggles with the
opposition, while Stalin is an oppositionist. Vos*moi sêzd, p. 514.
Honeers often proved more educated and "cultured" than their Komsomol
leaders during this period.
3. Dir, i dok., p. 4l.
4. Deviatyi s"ezd, p. 364. Here are some figures on the shortage of

leaders given at varying times: the Sixth Komsomol Congress heard that
there were 1014 leaders for 200,000 Honeers (Shestoi s"ezd, p. 164); it
was disclosed at the Eighth Congress that even one quarter of all Komsomol
cells were not operating Honeer detachments at all (Fisher, op. cit.,
p. 168); and the Twelfth Komsomol Congress heard Tumanova complain that
50 per cent of senior leaders stayed in their jobs less than one year
(Komsomol*skaia pravda, 24 March 1954), p. 2. Not all leaders in the
early years were Komsomols, although by the Ninth Congress 88.4 per cent
were; Sever*ianova gave this Congress a breakdown of the social back
ground and age of detachment leaders (Deviatyi a1*ezd, p. 364). See also
Fisher, op. cit., p. 134.
A
V
t'-
110
When all was said and done, it was impossible for the
Party or the Komsomol to devote more attention and resources
to the Pioneer Organization during this period. The leader
ship was faced with tasks of far greater and more immediate
importance than the upbringing of the younger generation.
Confronted every day with the staggering problems posed by
the need for reconstructing the economy while keeping absolute
power in its own hands, the Party had little time or personnel
to devote to the organization of Young Pioneers. Neither
the Party nor the Komsomol— which was called on to aid the
Party in all these pressing tasks— could give what they did
not have. The constant exhortations to greater effort and
the calls for more "forces" and material aid must be viewed
more as the setting of desirable goals for the future than
as realistic planning for the present.
If little help for the Pioneer movement was forth
coming from the Party and the Komsomol, it was not because of
an underestimation of the importance of the organization.
Quite the reverse was true. Bolshevik leaders realized very
clearly that the Pioneers represented a unique weapon which
must be controlled by the Party: "If this mighty and in the
highest degree revolutionary generation escapes our grasp,"
Bukharin told the Thirteenth Party Congress, "we will deprive
Ill
_1
ourselves of possibilities the loss of which borders cm a Barty crime.
It seemed for a vhile however, that children would not be quite
as easy to "grasp" as might be expected. There was, of course, never
any doubt that the Honeer Organization should be the only political
organization for children. This became quite clear when the Fifth
Komsomol Congress "cleared the ground" for the new movement by con
demning all existing "bourgeois hostile" childrens' organizations and
charging the Komsomol committees to "make sure carefully that old
bourgeois childrens' organizations should not be revived or establish

2
strong points for themselves under a new name. The question very
soon arose however, whether additional childrens' organizations or
groupings could be formed for other purposes. Should clubs and "circles”
formed for a specific objective be allowed to exist, or would they tend
to compete with the Pioneer Organization, even though they were not
political? Krupskaia discussed this problem in her address to the
Second Pioneer Workers' Congress in 1925. " . . . is it possible to
permit other childrens * organizations, besides the Pioneer movement, to
exist— the organization of young naturalists, etc., which include both
Pioneers and non-Pioneers ? Baturally, this is a question of great
importance, and a question which many young comrades are inclined to
answer that there should be no other organizations aside from the
Pioneers, even if these are organizations pursuing narrow, limited and
1. Detskoe konaunisticheskoe dTlzhenie, p.22.
2. Dir, i dok., p. 69*
\
112
„1
special goals." The solution of these young enthusiasts is not the
right one, continues Krupskaia* She finds the answer in standard
Party practice; speaking of naturalist organizations, she says: "Among
Pioneers there will he very many children who will he interested in
natural science, who will have to enter such an organization and strive
on their way to perseate this organization with their Pioneer spirit
. . . and, as it is presupposed that a Honeer is a good organizer and
knows how to defend his point of view, then it is understood that he

„2
will bring in his spirit. It is not made clear in what way the
"Pioneer spirit" should influence a group of children organized for the
study of natural sciences, hut it is quite obvious that the Bolshevik
leadership viewed with the greatest distrust any group not under their
direct control, even it if was made up of children and was admittedly
unpolitical.
The fear of organizations of children formed outside the
childrens' movement was shared by most Party and Komsomol members
engaged in Pioneer work. An Orgbureau meeting discussed this problem
in the summer of 1925; the danger said one participant, lay not in the
aims of such organizations. "Young naturalists" clubs or clubs of
agriculturalists are harmless in themselves. However, they may be led
by adults who are hostile to the Pioneers and who try to build these
organizations up into an opposition movement. They can, said the
speaker, be allowed to exist in individual schools, but under no
1. Krupskaia, PCdagogieheskie sochinenlia, V, 170.
2. Ibid., pp. 170-171.
113
circumstances must they be allowed to form broader-based groupings
or to establish a central organization.'1'
The only true and "safe" solution however, must lie in the
organization of the work of the Pioneer Organization itself: if the
activities offered are varied and interesting and satisfy all the
needs of the children, there will be no temptation to organize out
side the movement. This point was stressed by Gorlov, reporting
on work in the childrens' movement to the Seventh Komsomol Congress.
He reminded the delegates that children will not stay in detachments
if they are not interested in the activities offered. At this
time, several other groups had formed— they ranged all the way
from political organizations like Zionist groups, to groupings
based on social background, pickpocket associations, and clubs for
sex experimentation— mainly because the Pioneer movement had shown
itself incapable of capturing and holding the interest of its
■embers.2
Here lies the basic problem vhich was to plague the Organiza
tion to the present day: if the drive for total control was carried
to its conclusion and all activities were decreed and prescribed
by the powers that be, this very success defeats the purpose of the
movement: activities in the Organization become stiff, formal and
boring, and the children lose interest and turn to other occupations,
1 . Detskoe kommunisticheskoe dvizhenie, pp. 68-69*
2. Sed'moi snezd, pp. ^0-461.
114
and the effect of effort* at political socialization and in
doctrination is lost.
When the Central Committee of the Party evaluated the
first ten years of the Pioneer movement’s existence, it had to
admit that the problem of effective leadership had not yet been
solved, neither by the Party nor by the Komsomol. The Central
Committee commanded the VLKSM to "work out special measures for
strengthening the leadership of the Pioneer organizations, beginning
from the cell and ending with the Central Committee VLKSM, strength
ening especially the raion bureaus of the childrens* Communist
organizations. . . as for Party organizations, they were
enjoined to: "ensure the selection of leading cadres of the
childrens* Communist movement, and the training and re-training

_1
of these cadres. This,like so many other resolutions and
decrees on this subject,was destined to reitain a dead letter
judging by the unabated flow of complaints in the ensuing period.
With the school reforms of the thirties, however, the problem of
Komsomol leadership of the Pioneer Organization lost some of its urgency
With the increasing pressures for conformity, the danger of teachers
engaging in subversive activity had abated. From the first it
was clear that the school and the Komsomol were henceforth to
share the task of directing the work of the Pioneers. The 1930
decree "On the System of Public Education" called for the strengthening
of Komsomol leadership of the organization, but concluded that: "The
1. Dir, i dok., p. 5.
115
strengthening of the leading political role of the childrens* Communist
organization, must not, however, in any degree weaken the attention to
the school, which is responsible to the Soviet state for the correct
1
Communist upbringing of children*11
As the reorganization of the schools progressed, educators
gained more authority over the Pioneer Organization. A resolution of
the Phrty Central Committee decreed in 193^ that the Central Bureau of
Young Pioneers should no longer issue any directives on the work of the
Organization in the schools without the prior knowledge and consent

2
[vedom] of the school authorities. As most of the work of the
3
Organization was by this time, concentrated in the schools this amounted
in effect to subordination of the central Pioneer authorities to the
education officials.
Nevertheless, the Party continued its efforts to strengthen
Komsomol leadership in the Pioneer Organization. At the beginning of
1935> acting on proposals of the Party Central Committee, the Komsomol
decided to reorganize the apparatus of the Pioneer Organization to
attach it more firmly to the League. Kosarev, General Secretary of
the League, reported on the changes to a plenary session of its Central
Committee:
The old level of Pioneer work can in no way satisfy

us and does not correspond to the demands of the present
day. The Y.C.L. has not concerned itself with the
1. Ibid., p. 1+3.
2. Ibid., p. 56.
3. See above, p. 78.
116
Pioneer Organization as it should have done, and it

gave over the education of children to a special
Pioneer apparatus. . . . Sometimes . . . people were
•promoted* for Pioneer work as [sic] were not trusted
on a branch of Y.C.L. work. . • .
We have now created Pioneer departments in the C.C.

of the Y.C.L. and in regional, city and district
committees. . . . Following the instruction of the
C.C. of the fhrty we are taking all work among the
Pioneers into our own hands. . . . In contradistinction
to what obtained in the recent past departments for
work among the Pioneers are becoming an inseparable,
component part of the whole Y.C.L. apparatus.!
This reorganization was expected to tighten Komsomol control over the
organization; like so many other corrective measures, it produced no
visible results.
It will be remembered that the Tenth Komsomol Congress only one
year later firmly anchored the Pioneer Organization in the schools and
dissolved Its link with the factory and the farm. At the same time,
it resolved to establish nstrong Komsomol organizations, capable of
work" in the schools and to strengthen the sections for work with
2
school pupils in Komsomol committees. The Komsomol was now required
to cooperate closely with the teaching staff in the education and
upbringing of children.
It is not surprising that this dual authority did not work out
very well in practice. Indeed, the conflict between the Komsomol and
the school persisted stubbornly, in the face of official disapproval, even
1. A. Kosarev, On Reorganizing the Work of the Young Communist league

(Moscow-Lsningrad: Cooperative Publishing Society of Foreign Workers
in the USSR, 1935), PP. 50-51.
2. Dir, i dok., pp. 80-8l.
117
at the height of Stalin’s absolute rule. "There are cases in schools,"
complains a senior Pioneer leader "-where the director reasons thus:
’The salary of the senior Pioneer leader is paid by me, and this is -why
he must be subordinate to me and not to the ralkom.’ While the senior
leader reasons thus: ’I am the representative of the raikom here and I

1
will not subordinate myself to the director.’" A Komsomol leader in
the late thirties deplored the fact that the Komsomol still harbors
hostility towards the teacher: "Unfortunately, Komsomol organizations
do not understand the enormous role of the teacher. The teacher does
not meet with the necessary support of the Komsomol, does not enjoy the
necessary esteem and respect in the Komsomol. . . . More, an indifferent,
off-hand, hooliganistic attitude is at times shown the teacher."
Discipline in the school is so bad, that it is still possible for pupils

2
to present their teacher with an "ultimatum." Moreover, the Komsomol
has little contact with the Pioneer organizations and usually selects
leaders from outside the school. The.Central Committee Plenum which
heard this report resolved to require Komsomol organizations to supply
leaders who are in some way linked to the school in which they are going
to work; in practice, they were henceforth selected from the upper classes,
a measure which could only increase the Pioneer organizations* dependence
on the teachers. The lack of training of most Komsomols for this job is
revealed in the requirement that leaders of detachments in classes 3-^
1. Uchitelia-komsomol’tsy of avoei pedagogicheskoi rabote (Moscow:

Uchpedgiz RSFSR, 1 9 3 9 P* 200. See above, p. Si.
2. N. A. Mikhailov, 0 rabote komsomola v shkole (Moscow: Molodaia Gvardiia,

1939), P. 12.
118
must have at least six to seven years of schooling, -while detachment
leaders for the higher classes must have at least seven and preferably
eight years of education. Senior leaders should have a complete

1
secondary education and some pedagogical training.
The pendulum in the dispute betveen teachers and the Komsomol
for control in the schools swung farther over in favor of the former
when the work of the Pioneer organizations and the school Komsomol was
2
declared an integral part of the work of directors and teachers.
Although Komsomol committees on the raion and city level still had
nominal control over Pioneer work, the chances that they would exercise
it effectively were slim indeed, in view of their previous record. In
fact, school authorities soon became so secure in their position of
leadership in this sphere that they could afford to ignore the Komsomol.
But at the same time, it must be said that the short

comings of many Komsomol organizations are explained
by inattention on the part of the school directors
and organs of public education. There are such directors
who "do not notice" the Komsomol organizations, who do
not see in them their closest aides. . . . Many raion
and city departments of public education . . . under
estimate the significance of Komsomol organizations in
the matter of the Communist upbringing of pupils. . . .
notes a Soviet writer on the occasion of the thirtieth anniversary of

3
the establishment of the Komsomol. It seems clear that the ideal
balance and cooperation between the Komsomol and the educators was
still far from a reality.
1 . Danev, op. cit., p. 138.
2. See above, At this time also, the senior Pioneer leader was
made responsible to the school director as well as to the raion Komsomol
committee.
3 . T. Nikiforovskaia, "Komsomol i shkola," Narodnoe obrazovanie, No. 10,

19^8, PP» 22-23. The chain of command was further confused by the fact
119
Within the League itself, the question of organizing control
over the Pioneer organization continued vexing. The system established
in 1935 did not remain in effect for very long; during the war, control
over the Pioneers was vested in commissions for work with school
children and Pioneers within Komsomol committees. When the war ended,
the Central Committee of theKomsomol established Pioneer councils on
the republic, oblast, krai, raion and city levels. These were tobe
made up of experienced Pioneer workers, teachers, school directors,
scientists and artists, and persons engaged in extra-curricular work
with children. They were headed by the secretary of the Komsomol
committee department for work with school pupils and Pioneers and were
to guide and organize the work of all Pioneer brigades under their
1
jurisdiction. Over-all control lay with the Central Committee of the
Komsomol. It is difficult to see a substantial difference between this
system and the two preceding ones; judging by the continuing complaints
on the lack of adequate Komsomol leadership and control in the Pioneer
Organization, these changes represented little else than changes in form.
When, the Pioneer Organization was linked to the schools,
increasing efforts were made to ensure a steady influx of Pioneers into
the Komsomol. "The childrens' Communist organization has as its
immediate goal to prepare cadres for the Komsomol and further--through
that Ihrty membership among teachers and directors was on the increase,
while many young teachers were Komsomol members.
lo Pion. org. im. Lenina, pp. 292-299* The commissions were introduced
in 19k) and replaced by the old "departments" in 19k6. See Pravda,
h July 19k), p. 3} and Komsomol*okaia pravda, 25 January 19k?, p. 1.
120
the Komsomol— for the Party," states a textbook for teacher training
of this period. A resolution of the Central Committee of the VIK3M
in 19^4 established a direct link between membership in the Pioneers
and admission to the Komsomol by granting Pioneer brigades the right
to recommend its best members for membership in the League. Three
years later, the Central Committee again called for intensified efforts
to recruit Pioneers into the school Komsomol. Older Pioneers were to
be permitted to attend Komsomol meetings and were to be given assignments
by their older comrades. Pupils who were members of both organizations
were to work with younger Pioneers and helo nrepare them for the
1
Komsomol.
The Pioneer Organization entered the fifties with the most
persistent problems of Komsomol leadership still unsolved. A Central
Committee Plenum in 1951 accused leading Komsomol workers of under
estimating Pioneer work, noting that many committees "transfer" leader
ship of Pioneer organizations to the sections on work with school pupils.
Committees were to devote more time to discussions of Pioneer problems
and establish direct contact with Pioneer brigades. Recruitment of
leaders was still difficult: the Central Committee sought to provide
some incentive for them by introducing "honorary documents" as a reward

2
for those who did the best job.
Resolutions of the Twelfth Komsomol Congress bore witness that
these exhortations had proved as fruitless as all which had preceded them.
1. Diro i dok., pp. 84, 88.
2. Ibid.j p. 111.
Reproduced with permission ofthe copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
121
Repeating the now all too familiar list of "shortcomings" in the
Komsomol1s leadership of the Pioneer Organization, the Congress urged
more direct participation in Pioneer affairs by Komsomol organizations

1
in plants and factories. This initial attempt to respond to the
increased emphasis on polytechnic education and a closer tie with
"production" was followed two years later by a decree requiring that
detachment leaders be assigned from Komsomols working in enterprises;

2
older pupils in the schools henceforth were to act merely as helpers.
Shelepin could report to the Thirteenth Congress that 115,000 such
leaders had already been assigned to Pioneer work. While it is
doubtful that this measure made Komsomol leadership more effective, it
helped to free the Pioneer Organization to some extent from the
tutelage of the school.
In an attempt to put a stop to the excessive rate of turnover
within the ranks of senior Pioneer leaders, the Twelfth Congress had
provided for a medal to be awarded to senior Pioneer leaders who had
successfully worked in the same school for more than three years.
Nevertheless, the shortage of such cadres continued. In the early
sixties an effort was made to alleviate the need by training senior
leaders in the upper classes of secondary schools, as part of the new

3
program of vocational training. Furthermore, Phvlov, reporting to the
Fourteenth Komsomol Congress, and noting that senior leaders still
1. Ibid., p. 117.
2. Ibid., p. 148.
3. See Narodnoe obrazovanie, No. 5* 1962, pp. 21-23 for a description

of this training course.
122
regarded their job as merely a stop-over on the way to a better career,
suggested that the schools appoint a special official who would be in

1
charge of upbringing and Honeer work.
The relationship between the school Komsomol organizations and
pedagogical authorities is being re-examined at the present time. While
the authority of the teacher and the director within the school is being
preserved, a new trend is becoming apparent towards restoring to the
Komsomol some of the status which it lost during the school reform of
the thirties. The faculty of secondary schools is being urged to let
Komsomol organizations run their own affairs without constant supervision
by adults, and League members are told to show more independence from
the supervision of the teachers. The Komsomol, comment the editors
of one leading educational journal, should no longer be regarded by
teachers as merely an extra-curricular activity of older pupils. The
League charter is as valid for the school Komsomol as for the rest of
the organization. "And if, for example, the charter says, a Komsomol
member is obliged to discover shortcomings in the work and ensure
that they are abolished then this means that a school Komsomol must
2
also act in this way." The Komsomol, the article continues, should be
allowed to participate in the administration of the school and League
members should be invited to attend the meetings of the pedagogical
council. On the other hand, teachers and directors should no longer feel
1. XIV S ’ezd 7IKSM (Moscow: Molodaia Gvardiia, 1962), p. 68. There is

no indication that this was ever followed up.
2. Editorial, "Komsomol i shkola," Harodnoe obrazovanie, Ho. 8, 1962, p. 3.
123
obliged to attend Komsomol meetings. This seems to show that, while
there is no question of restoring to the Komsomol the position vis-a-vis
the teacher which it held in the early days of Bolshevik power, there
is a distinct desire to grant it an independent existence within the
schools. This should have its effect on Komsomol leadership of
Pioneer activities.
As the Pioneer Organization increased in importance in the
fifties, and its activities became more diversified and more independent
of the academic program, its leading organs were greatly expanded, thus
restoring the "special Pioneer apparatus" condemned by Kosarev in 1935*
A decree promulgated in 1957 established a Central Council which was to
take over from the Central Committee VLKSM department of Pioneers the
over-all leadership of the organization. It was to be made up of
numerous sections, one for every aspect of Pioneer activity; too large
to work as a unit, it was to elect a bureau to run its day-to-day
business. It was to function as a methodological center for Pioneer
work, administer all extra-curricular institutions, organize training
courses for Pioneer workers, and be responsible for Pioneer publications.
The corresponding councils on lower levels were also considerably

1
enlarged and were to perform the same functions in their territory.
All councils work under the supervision of the Komsomol committees on
their level.
In the winter of 1963 an All-Union Conference on Pioneer problems
was called in Moscow to discuss tasks facing the organization at this
1. Dir. i dok., pp. 183-185.
12k
time. The chairman of the Central Council of the Pioneer Organization
reported on problems of leadership and organization.
The councils of the Pioneer Organization must come

even closer to the daily life of Pioneer brigades,
activate all aspects of the activity of the Pioneer
Organization, raise its role in the upbringing of the
young shift. The main shortcoming in the leadership
of Pioneer collectives still continues to be that we
do not reach the detachments and brigades, the Pioneers
themselves. Numerous meetings, conferences and
seminars are held with adults, while children remain
on the side-lines. . . . Often the councils concen
trate their efforts on compiling papers and recommen
dations which . . . do not reach those for whom they
are intended. . . . It is necessary to raise the
responsibility of all primary Komsomol organizations
of industrial enterprises, kolkhozy, sovkhozy, con
struction projects and schools for the state of
affairs in the Pioneer Organization. By this is
meant not sponsorship of Komsomol organizations, but
leadership by them, real responsibility for the work
of a concrete Pioneer brigade, so that there should
be a detachment leader in every detachment. . . .K3-
If Komsomol organizations do not concern themselves intensively
enough with the Pioneers, teachers are showing a tendency to abdicate
their responsibilities. Although all teachers today understand the
problems of the Pioneer Organization, said the RSFSR Deputy-MLnister
of Education at this same conference— after all most of them were once
Pioneers themselves— there is still considerable misunderstanding of
their role in guiding Pioneer work. If, in previous years, the
teachers made the mistake of almost entirely taking over the organization
of Pioneer activities, today there is an inclination to think that they
1. Eroblemy pionerskogo dvizheniia (Moscow: Molodaia Gvardiia, 1965),

pp. ^3-^5. One of the problems discussed at this conference was the
division of the Pioneer apparatus into urban and rural branches, in line
with the 1962 reorganization of the Party. Heedless to say, this was
abolished when the Party reinstituted the status quo ante in its ranks.
need not do anything for the Pioneers. "Some school workers can think
that, with the increased importance of the Pioneer Organization, the
role of the teacher in upbringing is somehow lowered. These comrades
are profoundly mistaken. What is meant is not a lowering but an
important rise in the role of the teacher and the director of the
school and in their responsibility for the results of upbringing and

1
for the work of the Pioneer Organization.” In other words, the
reinstatement of the Pioneer movement as a political organization does
not mean that the school should give up its role in the development of
the Soviet citizen.
Collaboration between the youth organization and the school
was furthered by the re-establishment in 1963 of the "laboratory" on
Pioneer work within the RSFSR Academy of Pedagogical Sciences. Here
educators are to carry on research based on practical experience with

2
Pioneer work.
Although Khrushchev's school reforms have been all but abolished
by his successors, and although the school program is in the process
of reorganization today, there is, at this writing, no evidence that
significant changes are being planned in the relations between teachers
and youth leaders.
The Pioneer Organization today is restored to an important role
1. Ibid., p. 67»
2. I. A. Kairov, "Bsdagogicheskaia nauka i problemy pionerskogo

dvizheniia," Sovetksaia pedagogika, Ho. 4, 1963* P» 13• This sector
on Pioneer work which existed in the early days, was abolished under
Stalin.
126
in the upbringing of the "new Soviet man .a With the Komsomol still
in over-all charge, friction between the League and educators has
been all but eliminated. It remains to be seen whether the Komsomol
will develop effective methods of collaborating with educators,
whether the expanded Pioneer bureaus will take over more effective
leadership, and whether the ideal balance between political and
pedagogical leadership will be found. The most important problem
which the Komsomol must solve in the future however, is the contra
diction between the desire to make the organization so attractive
to children that they will not stray elsewhere, and the pressures
for stringent controls from above which lie implicit in the Party's
conception of its leadership role.
The first part of this dissertation has traced the evolution
of the Pioneer Organization and its changing role in Soviet society.
Established in a period when the Leninist ideas of control and
development co-existed with the liberal and humanistic ideals con
tained in Marxist thought, it began as an organization designed both
to establish the Party's control over youth and to develop the fully
developed individual envisioned by Marxists for the socialist society.
In this early period, it was hoped that control could be effected
through indoctrination and that devotion to the cause would provide
sufficient motivation for approved action. Pioneers at this time,
were viewed as part of the vanguard in the battle for the new society,
even if they were not consistently so used.
When "Leninism/Stalinism" won out over "Marxism** and when
127
rapid modernization was decreed, interests of state took precedence
over the interests of the individual, and the citizen became a tool
of the regime. Control was now exercized through emphasis on
obedience, conformity and performance, and the Pioneer Organization
had to adapt its goals to the educational requirements of the regime.
Since Soviet society has reached a new level of economic
development, and since Stalin’s death, efforts in the organization
are again concentrated on developing the dedicated "conscious"
citizen, as the need is felt by the regime to recapture the enthusiasm
of young people and channel it into directions useful to the state.
The following chapters will investigate how these changes
affected the image of the "new man" and the methods and procedures
used in the Pioneer Organization to form the ideal citizen.
- PART II: A5ALISIS
THE PIOHEER OBGAHIZAIIOH'S BOI£ II

POKMUG THE HEW SOVIET MAH
via
128
CHAPTER V
THE MODEL OF THE NEW MAN (l): THE EARLY YEARS
The first model for the new Soviet man was provided by the
Party. Marxist doctrine, it is true, held that a new man would
develop only after a favorable environment was established; but Lenin
could not afford to wait patiently for this evolution to take place.
The vanguard of society, who set the goals and showed the way, had
to produce immediately the new type of man who could lead all the rest.
This new type was to be the ideal subject-participant
individual. Lenin built his party on the basic concepts of purpose,
organization and discipline. The Party’s clearly defined goal was
derived from Marxist theory— there can be no revolutionary practice
without a revolutionary theory, said Lenin— which assured Bolsheviks of
the absolute and inevitable rightness of their cause. This knowledge
endowed them with "consciousness, " the realization of necessity which
made organization effective and discipline voluntary. It was expected
also that their convictions would inspire Party members with the desire
to serve the cause, disregarding their own personal interests, and make
them eager to overcome all obstacles and do battle with all opponents.
From these basic attributes— purpose, discipline, organization
and consciousness— followed all other requirements for the ideal Bolshevik.
He was to be strong-willed, courageous, militant, persistent and tenacious;
above all, he had to be active. No one could be a member of the Party
129
who did not actively participate in its work.
Much the same demands were made on the Party* s youth auxiliary.
This was made quite clear by a speaker at the Third Komsomol Congress:
There are some comrades among us who say that there

is one discipline in the Party and another in the
League. They say that, since our organization is
an educational one, we can somewhat loosen the reins
with which the leading bodies must hold their sub
ordinate Komsomol organizations in check. This
opinion must be refuted root and branch. . . . We
must finally establish the most unconditional and
unquestioning subordination of all active workers
to the leading bodies of our organizations and the
personal responsibility of each responsible worker
for each member of our League, for that which these
members are performing. 1
To discipline and organization were added qualities needed by a soldier:
"Battlefield virtues predominated. -The Komsomol was to create *staunch
fighters for Communism. ’ Bravery and self-sacrifice were much
demanded. . . . Self-sacrifice demanded self-control Alertness and
vigilance were needed to forestall attack by hostile forces. A third
set of requirements concerned virtues needed to build a m o d e m society:
"Komsomolites were exhorted to develop strength, endurance, toughness,
and dexterity, along with such traits as rapidity, precision, accuracy,

„3
industriousness and a sense of responsibility.
If these were the demands made on the leading elite, Lenin was
well aware that in the modernized and industrialized society he planned
for, discipline would be required of all citizens:
1. Fisher, op. cit., p. kO.

2. Ibid., p. 41.
3. Ibid., pp. k±-k2.
130
all large machine industry--'which is the material,

production source and foundation of socialism— requires
the unconditional and strictest unity of will, directing
the joint labor of hundreds, thousands and tens of
thousands of people. . . . But how can the strictest
unity of will be assured? By the subordination of
the will of thousands to the will of one.
This subordination can, with ideal consciousness and

discipline of the participants in the common work,
recall the soft leadership of a conductor. It can
take on the harsh forms of dictatorship if this ideal
discipline and consciousness does not exist. But in
one way or another unquestioning subordination to one
will . . . is absolutely necessary.-1-
If, during working hours, organization and discipline were
primary requirements, in political affairs the initiative and independence
of the masses were to be carefully fostered. The society of the future
would be based on the principle of direct democracy and self-government:
"It is not enough to preach democracy," said Lenin, "it is not enough
to proclaim and decree it, it is not enough to entrust its realization
to ’representatives1 of the people, in representative institutions.
One must build democracy directly, from the bottom, on the initiative
of the masses themselves, with their active participation in the whole

2
life of the state, without ’supervision’ from above. . . . " "We must
learn to combine the unruly . . . overflowing all banks, meeting
1. V. I. Lenin, 0 kommunisticheskoi nravstvennosti (Moscow: Gos. Izd. Bol.

Lit., 196l), p. 1^3. Etophasis is Lenin’s. This can be compared with
the description of a capitalist factory in the Communist Manifesto:
"Modern industry has converted the little workshop of the patriarchal
master into the great factory of the industrial capitalist. Masses of
laborers crowded into the factory, are organized like soldiers. As
privates of the industrial army they are placed under the command of a
perfect hierarchy of officers and sergeants." Communist Blueprint For
the Future, p. 17.
2. V. I. Lenin, Works (llew York: International Publishers, 192$), XX, 221.
13 1
democratism of the toiling masses with iron discipline during work.
Although Lenin was frank in admitting that this ideal combination
would be difficult to achieve, he was in no doubt that it could be done.
The factor which would make it possible was again "consciousness11— i.e.,
ideological indoctrination. Once the masses were brought to understand
the laws of the development of society, which work towards the establish
ment of the best possible system, they would willingly subordinate them
selves to the necessary discipline, would accept leadership from above,
and would volunteer their best efforts to promote this evolution. It was
consciousness, in other words, which would transform the subject into
the subject/participant.
Consciousness could be attained only through knowledge of Marxist
doctrine; this knowledge would also equip the Soviet citizen with certain
intellectual convictions which would become part of his sake-up. He would
become class-conscious through realization of the leading role of the working
class; he would understand that the interests of the proletariat transcend
national barriers; and he would have a "scientific" world outlook, free from
prejudice and religious belief. This completes the image of the new
Soviet man:
The new citizen believes in and can justify by Marxian

dialectic, the dictatorship of the Communist Party, or,
as is generally said, the dictatorship of the Proletariat.
He is militant in his defense and advocacy of it. He
must be an activist. Though it may seem a paradox at
first glance, he is to be class conscious; yet his is
to become, at the same time, a classless mind. . . . He
believes in universal labor, holds the laborers in high
regard, and the exploiter in the greatest contempt.
His mind must be secular (dominated by science) and
atheistic, political, collectivistic, non-nationalistlc,
and positively international. It must be healthy in
1. Lenin, Q kommunisticheskoi nravstvennosti, p. ll3.
132
the physical sense, a sound mind in a sound body.

It is to he a sexless mind, i.e., recognizing no
preference based upon sex. He who possesses these
is the new man.4
It was the task of the Pioneer Organization to shape the new

2
generation in this image, and the Pioneer press translated these
ideals into terms which the children could understand.
Early Pioneer literature sought to propagandize the virtue of
organization as such: it drew a vivid picture of the joys of group
life, as contrasted with the sad and meaningless life of children who
did not belong to the Pioneers.
Vanya is lonesome; there is no one to play with him,

so he mopes at the window. On the other side of the
street he sees a group of Pioneers and wishes he could
be with them. Are there many children thus inactive
and unhappy like Vanya? Jfeny indeed I In order not
to be so, they must organize. . . . Children will live
happily, interestingly, fully, when they are o r g a n i z e d . 3
However, the purpose of organization is not merely to be happy
and to lead an interesting life. Pioneers must "be ready" to help.
Indeed, they are happy because they are prepared to participate in
the work and the struggle of their elders.
1. Woody, op. cit.j p. 42. Italics mine. It must be emphasized once

again that the focus of this dissertation is on the formation of the
citizen. Soviet educators, like their Western counterparts, teach their
charges to be truthful, honest, considerate of others, polite and well-
behaved, but only the civic virtues will be discussed in the following
chapters.
2. She Pioneer Organization has its own newspaper, PLonerskaia -pravda,

which appears three times weekly. In addition, there is a monthly
journal, Pioneer, and one for younger children, Murzilka.
3. Woody, op. cit., pp. 113-114. Exact dates for these and following
excerpts from this work are unavailable, but all deal with the period
of the twenties.
133
With youthful strength

A happy throng
We shall ’he ready1
For labor or battle;
We shall be first
In labor and strife
Hark the Pioneer's cry:
'Always be readyl*
With joyous step

And blithesome song
We join the ranks
Of the Komsomols. . . . -
Pioneers sang as they marched.
Where the goals of the party were at stake, even theyoungest
member of the "vanguard" had his duties. Consider the story of Vitia,
the "little Communist." Vitia is in elementary school, and he has the
greatest difficulty in getting to school on time. He dawdles and day
dreams and he is hardly gone, when he is back at home: too late to go to
school today, he reports to his mother. The other children were already
in class and he is ashamed to go in. His mother reminds him that this
is Sunday:
"And what did they tell you in school about lessons

on Sunday? Vitia blushed, looked down and forced
himself to say: "I forgot that today is Sunday, forgot
that we go to school now for four days and rest the
fifth." "And why is this so?" "In school they
said that in this way the workers of the USSR will
more quickly build many machines, make many goods,
more quickly rebuild everything in a new way. And
also we won't have Church Sundays and holidays."
"Nu, and what did you do? How Maria Ftetrovna [the
teacher] will report that on Sundays children don't
come to school— even the children of C*anmunists."
1. Ibid., pp. 115-116.
13h
Vitia understands that he must go to school after all.1
Anti-religious propaganda held an important place in the
literature of the early Soviet period. In their desire to eradicate
forever the belief in God, Soviet writers were often extremely crude
and primitive; at times, it will he recalled, the party itself had
to call a halt to rude and overhearing methods of atheistpropaganda.
Thefollowing poem is only one sample of the kind ofliterature which
was offered to Pioneers at this period:
Holy God
God lived in heaven

He lived and did not reach manhood [ne muzhil]
He loved vodka very much
And of course, he drank
Suddenly a thief appeared in Ihradise

And of course was not lazy
He stole the vodka from the cellar
And drank it all at one go
God thought long, hut could not figure out

Who had dared steal his vodka
Without leaving any for him
It was no one else
But the Archangel in a gold chasuble^
Priests were depicted as allies of the class enemy. A Pioneer wrote
in a wall newspaper: "The priest is a kulak, the Fascist of the Soviet
power. How the Soviet power took the reins into its own hands. The
kulaks are uncomfortable just like centipedes under boiling water. . . .

3
Away with kulaks and away with priests of all religions."
1 . Murzilka, Ho. 3, 1930, pp. 10-11.
2. 0. Shillinger (Comp.), Antireligiozmaia kampaniia sredi pionerov

(Leningrad: Lengiz, 1926), p. 19. This tie-up between drunkenness and
religion is very frequent in the anti-religious literature of the period.
3 . Woody, op. cit., p. 92.
135
If Pioneers were taught to hate priests, kulaks and "bourgeois,
they were to develop feelings of friendship for the toilers of all the
world, for all nationalities of the Soviet Union.
Having only Russians in it

Gives our group a narrow limit
There are many more "besides us.
Let them come and sit amongst us.
Let them visit and inform
How they work in shop and farm.
so runs a contemporary poem.
The image of the Pioneer of the early period of the Organization
— an organized collectivist, involved in the affairs of his country,
committed to the ideology, responsible atheistic and internationalist—
was rounded out by attempts to develop sophisticated manners. Comments
in contemporary wall newspapers calling for "cultured" behavior; they
urged Pioneers not to pierce their ears (this is a throwback to the
savagery of wild people) or wear earrings, not to smoke, not to "wave
her hair with her fingers during lessons . . . and not to be thinking
of getting married [! ]," and not to shout loudly, but behave in a

2
dignified and disciplined manner.
This s t e m model of the disciplined "Leninist," an organized, ded
icated citizen of a collectivist society coexisted in the field of child
education with the theories of free individual development stemming
partly from orthodox Marxist doctrine and partly from Western theories
of progressive education. Only a socialist society, it was believed,
could provide the environment in which the individual could develop
1. Ibid., p. 76.
2. Ibid., pp. 128-129.
136
his abilities to the fullest extent. The aim of Soviet socialist
education, stated the Ground Rules for the Unified labor School, is
to Mforge strong collectives" without supressing the individual.
The individual is, also in the socialist culture, the

highest value. This individual personality however,
can develop his abilities to the full only in the
harmonious and solidary company of equals. . . . Socialist
education combines the attempt to form spiritual collectives
with differentiated individualization and leads to a
situation where the individual feels pride in the
development of all his abilities in service to the
whole.1
In other words, the individual must be brought to realize that his
efforts are meaningful only if exercised for the good of the group.
The Soviet concept of the "collective" goes far beyond the
Western one of the "peer group": a collective is an organized group,
working together for a definite purpose. Characteristically Krupskaia,
in explaining the concept, finds it necessary to resort to an example
from industrial production:
To work collectively does not simply mean to work

together in one place, doing the same kind of work.
Collective work is work which has a common goal.
But, achievement of this common goal usually permits
and even requires a certain, usually very complex,
division of labor. A locomotive is the product of
the collective work of workers, but it is the result
of a very complicated organization of labor. Every
worker fulfils his definite part of the work. But
he knows that, without accurate, rapid fulfilment
of the part of the work which he is doing, the whole
matter would come to a stop. This continuous con
sciousness of himself as part of the whole has an
enormous educational and disciplinary s i gn i f i c a n c e . ^
1 . 0. Anweiler and K. Meyer: Die sowjetische Blldungspolitik seit 1917

(Dokumente und Texte) (Heidelberg: Quelle and Mayer7 1961), pp. til-82.
2. Krupskaia, 0 kommunisticheskom vospitanii, p. 117*
137
It is this kind of collective life which will combat the harmful
aspects of individualism. "In the countryside," says Krupskaia
elsewhere, "where . . . the very method of the economy develops ownership
instincts and develops individualism, it is particularly important to
establish Honeer detachments, which must promote by all possible means
the development of collective forms of work, give [children] the habit

1
of uniting and of collective experiences."
Even the very young were taught the value of collective action.
Murzilka reports on a discussion in a kindergarten group on the meaning
of the strange new word, "the collective." Children are making fun of
this unknown word, when the teacher joins them and asks them what it
means. No one can explain.
Silence. The children try not to look at aunt IApa.

[Kindergarten teachers were addressed as "aunt."]
. . . "Nu, and you, Vova," aunt lipa turns to Vova.
"Do you know?" Vova looked triumphantly at the
children and called out loudly: "I know. A collective
is when many people are together." "No, Vova, that
isn't quite it. That is not enough. I can't even
explain this difficult word to you in words. The
word 'collective' must be shown in action. . . . "
The teacher then takes the group out into the yard and proves to them
that a snow fort can be built much more quickly in concerted action by
2
a group than by one child alose.
The concept of collectivism includes realization of the place
of the individual in society and of the priority of public over private
interests. No collective effort moreover, is possible without discipline.
1. Krupskaia, Itedagogicheskie sochineniia, V, 119.
2. M. Belikouskaia, "Kollektiv," Murzilka, No. 3> 1930, PP* 23-25.
138
Soviet educational theory however, rejected the idea of "external"
discipline. "The old form of discipline which hinders . . . the free
development of the child’s personality can have no place in the Labor
School. However, the toilers themselves will develop in children that
inner discipline without which rational collective work is impossible."'1'
Pioneer discipline as well as school discipline must be based on internal
convictions: "The Pioneer detachment is the childrens’ organization
which wants to carry the cause of Il’ich to its conclusion. This is
why Pioneers must develop in their ranks not coercive, but voluntary
discipline.
"How can this be done? From where comes voluntary discipline?
From the clear realization that things must be done just in this way
and in no other."
Here again is the difference between a subject and a subject/
participant. Soviet educators did not want to develop an individual who
would be merely an efficient cog in the state machine. On the contrary,
their aim was to produce a citizen who would freely and voluntarily
exercise his initiative in independent action for the good of the cause.
"In fact, the activity and initiative of the children is the first require
ment of Pioneer work. We are concerned about a new type of man, one who
will not be a slave. This man can be created only in an environment in
which he will not be a mere obedient executor of somebody else’s orders
1. Anweiler and Meyer, op. cit., p. 69.
2. Krupskaia, 0 kommunisticheskom vospitanii, p. 168. It will be remembered

that Scout methods were rejected by the Komsomol partly because of their
belief in "discipline of the cane." See above, p. 93•
139
and directions, a talking domestic animal: he must act on his own

1
initiative." Children should be taught to act for themselves, with
only the most necessary guidance from the adult in charge. If, in
school, their activity is directed towards the acquisition of know
ledge, in the KLoneer movement it must be aimed at building the new
society.
Self-activity in the Honeer movement is a matter of

vital concern to us, for it is one of the fundamental
principles of our work. Communistic education of the
growing generation is unthinkable apart from the
actual participation of the children in social con
struction in the revolutionary struggle of the working
class. And we directors should keep before the child
the aims and problems of this class in such a way as to
transmute them into actual substance;we should put them
in such a form that they come close home to him, that
they lure him on and inspire him to participate in the
struggle for the realization of those aims and the
solution of those problems. If this is not done, if
he has no such clear realization, of the life which
surrounds him, there is no self-activity; and conse
quently, there is no Honeer Organization.2
Closely related to the concept of self-activity is the Soviet
idea of self-government. Children were expected to organize their
activities themselves, with the participationof all members of the
group.Self-government organs were not seen as a ruling elite, or as
an auxiliary to the teacher or the adult leader, to help him exercise
"police” functions. They were rather to concentrate on distributing
the work which had. to be done and see to it that it was properly
performed.
1. Trow, op. cit., p. k-5o
2. Ibid., p. 138.
Iko
we strive to organize . . . such a self-government

which will he, in substance, a school of social work,
in which al1 children will he organized along various
lines and all children will he involved in the work,
every one carrying one responsibility or another.
Such an organization of self-government will arouse
in children the greatest initiative, children will
together look for ways in which to carry on this or
that social work, will discuss together what kind
of social work to select.
explained Krupskaia. It was this kind of self-government which she
had advocated as the means for transforming the Yuki into a truly
2
Communist organization. One of the most prominent Soviet educators
of this early period agrees with her: "The performance of socially
necessary work, moreover, is the natural integrating factor in every
childrens1 organization, and provides the most desirable basis for

3
the development of self-government," he writes. It is important, he
continues, that the children themselves make the rules which apply to
the entire collective and that they themselves enforce them. The
educationally significant factor is that they act on their own— not
that they necessarily act correctly. If they make mistakes, they will
learn from experience. Self-government organs established along these
lines, he expected, would teach children habits of organized work,
develop social instincts, help children to work out a socialist ideology,
and stimulate their creativity and initiative.
1. Krupskaia, Bedagogicheskie sochinaniia, V, 163 •
2. See above, p. ^2.
3. PLnkevich, op. cit., p. 216.
Ikl
These then were the ways in which Soviet educators sought to
combine education for the collective life with individual development
in the process of forming the future Soviet citizen. Children were
to be accustomed to live and work in a group, devoting theij: efforts
to a common cause; they were to organize their activities themselves,
each one performing the task for which he is best suited, but all
working to reach the goals which have been set for them. The
individual was to be encouraged to develop all his abilities, but
taught to find satisfaction only in using them for the good of the
whole of society; and the necessary discipline must be based on
realization by every member of society of the only correct way of
doing things. Above all, the over-all goal of society must never be
forgotten. "The organization of Pioneers," stated the Central
Committee of the Phrty, "must be constructed on the principle of the
healthy self-activity of children from below, and firm practical

1
guidance from above. . . . ”
In the early years of the Pioneer Organization’s existence,
there was considerable debate over the correct methods which were to be
used in forming the new Soviet citizen. Work with Pioneers in this
period was difficult, as a large part of the membership of the organi
zation was passing through the period of adolescence, when they were no
2
longer children but not yet fully adult. Krupskaia warned the
Komsomol in its early years (before the Pioneer Organization was founded)
1. Dir, i dok., pp. 12-13.
2. Pioneers’ ages ranged from 10-16. See above, p. 61.
Ik2
that its younger members could not be treated in quite the same way
as the rest of the Komsomols.
The specific trait of the psychology of the transitional

age [she mentions the age span 12-18 ] consists in the
fact that it is the psychology of half a child and half
an adult. The adolescent,like a child, still greedily
absorbs all impressions, grows both, spiritually and
physically, feels this growth and draws from it strength
and courage, but does not yet know the measure of his
strength, must still try it out. Activity— the need
freely to apply his strength, even if in play— is a
sharply felt need at this age. But, at the same time,
an adolescent is no longer a child. He already has
a quite considerable life experience. . . .
Youth at this age is capable of wholehearted enthusiasm .

. . but . . . this enthusiasm . . . quickly dies out if
it cannot be expended in some action.3-
Pioneer activities thus should provide an outlet for the energy
and enthusiasm of the members, while taking into consideration both
the childish and the adult characteristics of this age group.
Krupskaia found much that was useful in the activities of the Scouts.
While their over-all aims must be condemned, she felt, their methods
of gaining and keeping their members’ loyalty, devotion and interest
were to be admired and imitated. Addressing the Komsomol on the
subject, she listed the activities of the Scouts which particularly
impressed her: Scouts gain the loyalty of their adolescent members
by inculcating in them devotion to an adult ideal (devotion to the
King, to God and to the country); they understand that youth at
this age is very impressionable and volatile, and for this reason,
they introduce daily repetition of the Scout laws; these laws set
1. Krupskaia, Pedagogicheskie sochineniia, V, 29-30.
1^3
concrete and easily understandable behavior standards; membership
status is not freely granted but must be deserved; the uniforms,
badges and banners of the Scouts develop loyalty to the organization;
finally, the Scouting organizations give their members opportunities
to be active by setting concrete tasks of gradually increasing
complexity, thus challenging them to progress, while at the same
time developing loyalty to the general goal. Even the games which
Scouts play are not merely childish games undertaken for their own
sake; all have a purpose and develop some skill or character attribute.
1
Above all, Scouts are taught to work together in an organized way.
Most of these ideas were reflected in the first Fioneer
program adopted by the political education section of the Fifth
Komsomol Congress, which had been told to work out a "reorganized”
Scouting system. The over-all goal of the new organization, it was
stated, was the "class upbringing" of children, while at the same
time, promoting the "all-around development of the childrens’ nature,

2
character and intellect." The organization was to maintain close
contact with the Komsomol and other "workers’ organizations," to
give ELoneers a feeling of class solidarity and of involvement in
the cause of their elders.
The link— a group of no more than ten children— was to be the
basic unit for training children in the "socialist cooperative life.”
1. To i d . , pp. 37-^9*
2. ELatyi vserossiiskii sgezd PiKSM, p. 3^4.
3M
Here every member would learn to work and play with his comrades,
subordinating his personal life to the life of the group. Collect
ivist habits were to be supplemented by collectively experienced
emotions: the group would be strengthened by sharing its joys and
sorrows«
Every group selected a hero whose name it would bear and
who would serve as an example for al 1 members. Loyalty to the
organization was fostered by the list of laws and customs which
every Pioneer had to promise to obey. Banners and flags were
provided as symbols for the organization.
Pioneer activities were to range from political education
to the development of labor skills. Every Pioneer had to acquaint
himself with the political and practical life around him, improve
his knowledge of nature and society, and perform some socially
useful work. Every detachment was obliged to train its members in
a manual skill. Physical exercises were designed to develop
fitness, endurance, patience and persistence, and art education
was to complete the well-rounded development of the personality.
The basic method of Pioneer activities, said the program,
was to be based on play. This, it was expected, would satisfy the
needs of children while serving at the same time to draw them into
more serious activity. "The proletarian childrens* movement must
be based on prolonged play of children, based on the attributes of
the childrens’ age and thus influencing the emotions of children
and involving them in social life, in the struggle and construction

1
of the working class. . . . " The program was calculated to
1. Ibid., pp. 3^-3^5«
1*5
stimulate independent activity and encourage learning through doing:
'’Everything which the hoy [sic] should learn in the organization, he
must do himself.""*” It was stressed that the child would not he
forced into anything against his will; his natural inclinations and
energy would merely he directed into the right channels.
This first program of the Pioneer Organization was carefully
designed to respond to the needs of children of this age group, and
focussed on the Pioneers themselves. It soon proved however, that
it was almost impossible to maintain this "pedagogical" approach.
As the organization developed, pressures increased to regard it
as an adjunct of the Party and the Komsomol, an additional tool for
the transformation of society. Komsomol organs tended to forget that
the purpose of the organization was educational and that they were
dealing with children. Pioneers were treated like adults and were
often expected to perform as full-fledged helpers of their older
comrades. Above all, in an authoritarian society, the Marxian ideal
of the freely acting, well-rounded citizen-participant inevitably
conflicted with the Leninist image of the disciplined, dedicated man
and the established practice of command from above and obedience from
below.
The Pioneer Organization had not been in existence for two
years, before it was found necessary to change its forms of work.
Komsomol leaders found the Pioneer activities concentrated excessively
on games and play. If a contemporary publication is to be believed,
1. Ibid., p. 3*6.
l46
the typical link spent 75 per cent of its time in drawing— and
aimless drawing to hoot. The rest of the time was spent in
marching, singing, physical exercise and games. Pioneers were
not taught to take part in the life of society. "The detachment,
which had such a rich social environment instead of actively

1
participating in it, shut itself up in the walls of its clubs."
There was general consensus that the Pioneer Organization
had erred in overemphasizing the play factor in its activities.
Even before the Sixth Komsomol Congress convened, a radical
transformation had taken place. "The basic change in its [Pioneer
work] content," reported Vasiutin to the Congress, "is from the
method of prolonged play as the basis of the childrens1 movement
to socio-political work as the pivot around which all of the content
will be constructed. During this serious socio-political work

2
Pioneers will develop into true Communists."
It became apparent almost immediately that this new "serious"
approach could also become self-defeating. The Orgbureau of the
Party noted in 1924 (only two weeks after the Sixth Komsomol Congress
closed), that the change from "organized play" to general political
and labor education, while correct in principle, had produced
serious defects in the work of the Pioneer Organization. Children
were being overburdened with organizational activities, socio-political
work and military drill, and methods were being introduced which were
1. I. Aleksandrov, Obshchestvenno-politicheskaia rabota pionerov

(Hovaia Moskva, 1925), PP. 8-9.
2. Shestoi s?ezd, p. 336.
147
copied "blindly from adult organizations and sometimes even verged

1
on the comical. However, the tendency persisted to treat the
childrens* movement like its adult counterpart: one year later
the iferty noted that work in the Pioneer Organization still
suffered from "banality” and "dryness" as well as from a pre-

2
occupation -with external forms.
While some of these difficulties and mistakes were caused
by the inexperience and lack of training of Pioneer leaders, a
large part must be blamed on the impossibility of reconciling
the avowed aims of the movement with the practices prevalent
throughout Soviet society and with the urgent needs of the regime.
Socially useful work, complained the Party, was carried on
in "campaigns," which had no educational value and served merely

3
to exhaust the children. Instead of selecting the work themselves,
Pioneers were given assignments by the leaders and were used for
work which had no meaning for them.
A leader does not understand that the work of the

division is not carried on for the sake of the
work, and even that it is no great practical help
in Socialistic construction. This is his misfor
tune. Hot a single member of the Iterty would say,
for example, that the important thing about the
participation of Pioneers in grain-storing is
that the children should gather in more grain; it
is more complicated than that. It consists in
1. Dir, i dok., pp. 9> 14.
2. Ibid., p. 25.
3. Ibid.
148
getting the children vho participate in grain-

storing to learn to see the class foe and learn
to fight with him.l
Political education suffered from the same basic defect.
Children were taught to mouth important sounding phrases, without
a clear conception of what they meant. Krupskaia tells the story
of a little girl "no higher than the table" who, when asked what
they did in the childrens’ home where she lived, solemnly answered:
2
"We study Leninism." Another Pioneer leader reports on a "project"
for the celebration of the Day of the Woman Worker in a Pioneer
detachment, where the members were sent to the factory to "study
the working class."
In their eagerness to produce the "correct" results,
Pioneer leaders forgot about encouraging the self-activity and
self-organization of children and tended to act as commanders
instead of advisors to the Pioneer organs. One writer was "struck
by such negative occurrences as [leaders] acting the commander or

3
guardian, and playing the chief or the superior officer." He cites
the example of a Pioneer link which was not allowed to do any work
by its leader, as he was afraid that it would turn out "mussy."
The children watched while the leader did all the work. Instead
of cultivating conscious discipline, leaders used all kinds of
punishments without consulting the members of the link or detachment.
1. Trow, op. cit. p. 149.
2. Krupskaia, Pedagogicheskie sochineniia, V, 156.
3* Trow, op0 ext., pp. 111—112.
149
"We talk a great deal about the self-activity of children," said
one Pioneer worker at the Eighth Komsomol Congress, "but in
actual fact we do not trust children, we do not have faith in
their strength. In addition, he stated, leaders are afraid
of letting their charges criticize them, as they fear that this
would undermine their authority; leaders feel that they should
be above criticism and think of themselves as "little gods."
While Pioneers were taught to repeat sonorous political
slogans and the formulae of Marxist tenets, their real education
was neglected. They parroted internationalist phrases, but did
not notice prejudice in their own detachment; they talked about
"collectivism" but worked only for their individual benefit;
believing themselves to be atheists, they held deep-seated religious

2
convictions; in short, as an educational institution which was to
3
form the "new man," the Pioneer Organization seemed to be a failure.
Faulty methods in Pioneer work contributed to the rising
drop-out rate. In the jargon of the times, the main defects were
1. V o s ^ i s"ezd, p. 502.
2. A foreign visitor tells the story of a little girl interviewed

on this subject who said: "Of course I know that there is a God,
but then I don*t believe in him." H. Spaull, The Youth of Russia
Today (London: Nicholson and Watson, Ltd., 1933)> P» 1^5•
3. A contemporary researcher found that " . . . Pioneers, as a rule, do

not stand out from the mass of children by their political consciousness."
V. N. Shul’gin (ed.), Deti i oktiab *rskaia revolutsiia— ideologiia
sovetskogp shkol'nika (Moscow: Rabotnik Prosveshcheniia, 1928), p. 14-5.
For a contradictory evaluation, see Woody, op. cit., pp. 117-119. This
book also gives some examples of the literature published for children
at this time to teach them Marxist ideas.
150
defined as: excessive "politicism" and "barabanomania"— obsession
with the drum, i.e., a preoccupation with external forms, to the
detriment of real educational work.
These criticisms were taken up by the Seventh Komsomol
Congress in the following year (1926), where Pioneer difficulties
were discussed in more detail. "Barabanomania," said one of
the speakers on Pioneer affairs (Gorlov), produces "jump-up
Pioneers" [vyskochki-pionery] who are exhibited on the table like
toys, and who, at the age of eight, recite speeches at meetings,
which begin: "Comrades, we have struggled with the landowners."'*'
Krupskaia told the Congress that Pioneers really do not know what
they are working for: "But if today we ask our Pioneers the question
what the content of the work should be, I don’t doubt that every
Pioneer will answer: ’We are ready for the struggle for the cause
of the working class. We want to be fighters and builders of
socialism. We want to go along Lenin’s road.* But we should
think about what this means . . . all questions axe not as simple
p
as that." Instead of teaching Pioneers to sound like their elders,
1. Sed’moi s"ezd, p. ^57. "There have been cases," reported a

Komsomol to a League meeting, "when a group of Little Octobrists
talks for three hours at a raion bureau meeting about the tasks
of communist education, on morals, etc. . . . And a Little
Octobrist . . . when given the floor to say the concluding words,
gets up and, confused, says: ’Comrades, I want to go to sleep!
I want to go home!" Sed’maia vsesoyuznaia konfcrentsiia VLKSM, p. 203.
2. Krupskaia, Pcdagogicheskie sochineniia, V, 17^-175.
15 1
she continued, the Komsomol and the Party would do better to
concentrate on the children!s milieu and make the members of the
movement understand its aims in terms of their own life. The
most important tasks for the Pioneers, in her view, should be:
learning to live together as comrades within the detachment and
link, developing social attitudes in their daily life, and learning
to work collectively and to acquire knowledge. Other Pioneer
leaders agreed that the movement should concentrate its efforts
on the childrens* sphere. " . . . we often do not know how to
direct the social activity of the Pioneers into the most important
channel," stated Gorlov, "not along the channel of service to
adults, but into the channel . . . of the organization of children

1
themselves. . . . "
It proved to be easier to pin-point the difficulties of
the movement than to remove them. Two years after the Seventh
Congress, the situation had not changed for the better; in effect,
the problem had become even more urgent. This was the period
of the "heightened class struggle," when indoctrination and the
correct upbringing of the growing generation was more important
than ever before. But instead of gaining new members and creating
a "shift" worthy to succeed the Party and the Komsomol and able to
build the new society, the Pioneer movement was actually losing
members and failing to accomplish its aims with those who remained.
1. Sed*moi s yezd, p. 462.
152
The organization, said Krupskaia, was in danger of turning into
a cultural institution (apparently in its eagerness to avoid
"politicism") instead of a movement organized for "struggle."
Both the Ihrty and the Komsomol (in the debates of its Eighth
Congress) decided that a new system of work must he worked out for
the organization, to infuse it with political purpose and restore
its educational significance. Activities should he adapted
to the ages of the children, while:
making the general goals for which the VKP (h) and
the Komsomol and the Communist parties of the world
are fighting understandable and close to the children;
. . . developing habits of public spirit and collect
ivism . . . by setting socially useful tasks which the
children can do and which will interest them; • . .
teaching them to work collectively and develop in
them the ability to organize the work and work according
to plan; . . . and make the elements of political
education a part of the entire upbringing work and
give them in the forms which correspond to the age
of the children.
" . . . to strengthen even further this educational influence, it
[the Pioneer Organization] must give children bright experiences. .
. . All this work must be so organized that it unites children
and develops people who cannot imagine their life outside of the
collective and feel themselves tied with indisoluble bonds to the

2
collective."
1. Dir, i dok.j pp. 35-37•
2. Vbstmoi s"ezd, p. 586. The basic conflict within the leadership of the
Pioneer Organization became apparent at this Congress. Zorin saw the
Pioneer movement confronted with an important task: "The first question is
how to organize childrens’ socially useful work to help our state." Ibid.,
p. 50k, Italics mine. Other speakers disputed this, stressing the need
of the movement to concentrate on the childrens’ interests and needs.
153
These deliberations and resolutions resulted in the publication
of a set of directives for the future organization of Pioneer work.
The new regulations outline the plan of work for a detachment and
a link (emphasizing that these can be adapted to local conditions),
differentiating between older and younger units. Activities
include the acquisition of useful skills and knowledge, socially
useful work, political education, gases and physical education;
it is stressed throughout that they oust be planned by the children
themselves, should correspond to their interests and needs, and
should be adapted to the age of the Pioneers and concerned with
the Pioneers1 own experience. A system of "steps" was introduced
which defined a list of accomplishments which every Pioneer should
acquire during his stay in the organization. They were graded
according to age and resembled somewhat the tasks set for the Boy
Scouts. (it was stressed however, that competition for awards
should be organized on a collective rather than an individual basis.)
This measure, it was hoped, would arouse the interest of every
Pioneer and prevent members from being bored by constant repetition
of the same activities. Self-government organs of the Pioneer
detachments and links were to become truly effective and self-

1
organizing, with only advice and assistance from the leader.
1. For a full description of the regulations see Tsentral'nee

biuro iunykh pionerov pri Tsk VliCSM, K rabote po-novomu (Moscov-
Leningrad: Molodaia Gvardiia, 1929)*
15*
This new program, although well-intentioned, -was never
given a chance to prove whether it would have accomplished its
aim of revitalizing the pedagogical work of the Honeer Organization.
The Soviet Union was entering into the period of upheaval of the
first Five Year Flan; this was no time to concentrate on the needs
of children. It will be remembered that the new Statute for the
Honeer Organization, published in 1928, had envisaged the movement
as playing a vital part in the transformation of society planned by
the regime. It became quite clear in the ensuing years that the
activity of the Pioneers was not to be confined to the childrens’
sphere. Young Pioneers now concluded "socialist agreements" with
their parents in which both sides obligated each other to accomplish
certain tasks for the country.
"I challenge my mother to compete," announced one Honeer.
"I, a Honeer of the Moscow-Kazan’ Railroad base, imeni

Rudzutak, member of the 51st detachment, I. Shubenkin,
conclude an agreement for socialist competition with
my mother Ye. Ye. Serganova. For my part, I promise
l) to raise discipline in school; 2) to raise the quality
of study; 3) to be an active Honeer; k) to support all
*PP’ campaigns which are held; 5) to help my mother in
her housework."
She, in her turn, promises: l) to be a good worker at

the plant; 2) to learn well how to read and write;
3) to be a delegate and to attend actively all public
circles at her place of work; 5) [sic] to join the
VKP (b). . . ."1
They went into the factories and checked on absentee or drunken
workers, helped repair machinery, and held truants up to shame.
1. Honer, No. 6, 1930; P» 12.
155
In the villages, they "unmasked" kulaks, urged peasants to join
the collective farms and dismantled chapels; they checked on the
work of village soviets, organized agithrigades and struggled for
the fulfilment of the plan.
We quite openly announce that the Honeer Organization

is class-oriented in its goals, that it is an organi
zation of proletarian dictatorship," said Sever*ianova
at the Ninth Komsomol Congress. "And this is why we
involve children in the class struggle. . . . We bring
children up in concrete participation in construction,
in the struggle for socialism. . . . The basic con
dition of Communist upbringing is the transformation
of existing conditions, the transformation of these
conditions by the hands of millions. . . ."1
She went on to describe the "mobilization" of children in the
struggle for the plan and against survivals of the past.
There is no doubt that this approach (combined with the
increasing pressure to conform characteristic for this period in all
of Soviet society) contributed to the renewed growth of the Honeer
Organization. It is impossible to say however, whether it
improved conditions as far as the "formation of the new man" is
concerned. It can well be imagined that Honeers enjoyed checking
on their elders and feeling involved in the concerns of the entire
country. How much the activities described above contributed to
their character education may always remain an unanswered question.
Throughout the period of the twenties, youth leaders and
educators clung to the ideal of all-round individual development
and the formation of the freely acting individual, in spite of the
1. Deviatyi svezd, pp. 35^ 356.
156
increasingly authoritarian atmosphere. Most of the difficulties of
the movement as far as methods were concerned, stemmed from the con
flict between this ideal and the sterner traits of the Leninist model.
The image of the "new man" would not come clear. If children were
to be helped to develop all their abilities, it was good for them
to engage in drawing; if, on the other hand, they were to become
single-minded, devoted builders of the new society, "aimless" drawing
was positively harmful to their development. If they were to become
dutiful citizens, spurred on to greater effort by "consciousness,"
it was good for them to memorize the tenets of Marxism and Leninism;
if, on the other hand, they were to become individuals, acting freely
upon their own initiative, they must be taught to make up their own
minds and to think about what they hear. If they were to become
well-rounded individuals, the work of the Pioneer Organization should
be centered around the child and the pedagogical requirements of
every age group; if, on the other hand, they were to become helpers
of the regime, dedicated to the cause, work must be concentrated on
political activities.
It was not until the establishment of the Stalinist system
that this conflict was resolved. In the period starting in the
thirties until the years following Stalin’s death, a more clear-cut
Leninist/Stalinist model of the "new man" was set up and methods
and procedures were adapted to fit the new image.
157
CHAPTER VI
THE MODEL OF THE HEW MAH (2)
Changes in the ideal of the new Soviet man in the
thirties were neither dramatic nor immediately striking. There
was no sharp break with the preceding period, hut rather a
shift in emphasis to those traits of the contradictory Image
which had become particularly important to the regime. Al
though the image as a whole was not abandoned or repudiated, the
"subject” characteristics were now stressed at the expense of
the "participant”; in addition, pressures on the regime from
outside the country helped to bring about an antirely new
emphasis on patriotism and the military virtues.
Most striking of the changes was the new insistence
on the importance of character and will power. Once embarked
on the course of rapid modernization and industrialization,
the regime needed citizens who would be willing to exert
all their efforts for the cause. Paramount among the
demands made on Soviet educators in this period was the
development of a strong-willed, responsible, purposeful,
efficient and dedicated worker, who would overcome all
difficulties in performing the tasks allotted to him.
1 58
"The development of character is an integral part of communist
education. . . . In studying the problems of discipline, we have
already approached closely the question of the training of the
will. The chief volitional qualities of man are purposefulness,

1
resolution, persistence, initiative, courage, and endurance."
"To rear Soviet patriots means, at the same ;time, to rear people
who clearly understand the purpose of our construction, people

2
of indomitable will, people of purpose."
This strong-willed citizen was expected to devote his
efforts to the service of the Motherland. 'While the citizen of
the twenties was expected to stand ready to defend his country,
he was taught to regard it not as his "Motherland," but as the
stronghold of socialism and international revolution. With the
advent of the thirties, and particularly after the outbreak of the
Second World War, "Soviet patriotism" became a basic trait required
of the Soviet citizen. This concept combined devotion to the
Motherland with dedication to the cause of the Communist Party and
to its leaders. The patriotism of the Russian people was to become
1. G. P. Yesipov and If. K. Goncharov, I Want to be lake Stalin (New

York: John Day Company, 19^7)> p« 124. Italics mine. This book is
a translation of the sections on moral education in a Soviet textbook
written for students in pedagogical schools (which train elementary
school teachers), and published in 19^6. It is a convenient English-
language source for the aims of Soviet educators in this period and will
be quoted extensively in the following pages. Although addressed to
the school teacher, its theories apply with equal force to the Pioneer
Organization. The same general statements can be found in any other
Soviet publication on the subject of moral education in this period.
2. Ibid., p. 39. Italics mine throughout, unless otherwise stated.
159
fused with feelings of loyalty to the regime:
The cultivation of the spirit of Soviet patriotism

in the younger generation is the most important
task of moral education in our country.
Duty to the Motherland is duty to the people; the

feeling of love for one's Fatherland is the feeling
of devotion to the people. Our best men and women
are banded together in our Communist fhrty, which
directs the entire life of the country. Soviet
patriotism is expressed in devotion to the Communist
Barty and supreme readiness to serve the cause of
Lenin and Stalin. 1
Children of Honeer age were expected to manifest their
strength of character and their devotion to the Motherland and to
the cause of Communism by persistence in their school work. Lenin's
career was cited as an outstanding example of strong-willed
determination in the acquisition of knowledge. Honeer literature
of the Stalin period abounds in stories from the life of young
Ulianov showing him to have been the very model of what a young
Honeer should be. When excluded from the university, for
example, he persisted in his studies until he was successful in
the end. "Thus, while still a youth," concludes one story,
"Lenin found in himself enough will, persistence and purposefulness
so as to persist in the face of difficulties, to struggle with
them and to overcome them. When the Tsarist government attempted
to close the road to higher education to him, he did not become
fainthearted and, not afraid of work, he went independently along
1. Ibid., p. 36.
l6o
1
this road to knowledge.”
Both Lenin and Stalin were depicted in the Pioneer
literature and activities of this period as model pupils, not
only outstanding in their own scholastic achievements, "but always
ready to help their less successful comrades. "Volodia Ulianov
was the first pupil in the gymnasium and finished with a gold
medal," reports the chairman of a detachment council at an assembly
on the theme: "To Be Like Lenin and Stalin.”
"Comrade Stalin advanced from class to class as the

first pupil. . . ."He [the chairman] told how
attentively Volodia Ulianov listened to explanations
in class, how thoroughly he prepared compositions,
using much supplementary literature. "Remember
children," said Rakcheev [the chairman] "how
Vladimir Il’ich’s cousin, Kolia Veretennikov,
asked Volodia Ulianov wonderingly: ’Didn’t it ever
happen that you didn’t prepare a lesson?*" "It
never happened and never will happen,” answered
Volodia. . . ."It is related that Lenin came to
class long before the beginning of lessons, so as
to help his comrades solve problems and explain
the material taken up in class. Comrade Stalin
also was an excellent comrade to all his fellow-
pupils. . . ."2
It seems to have been difficult sometimes for children to
realize that they could serve their country better by being good
students than by performing great deeds of valor. One youth
leader related a conversation with a group of RLoneers during
the war: they were asked what they would do if they were endowed
with the magic power of being invisible. All thought of something
1. A. Dorokhov, "Lenin na ekzamene v universitete," Pioner, No. 1,

19^, p.
2. M. Astakheva and A. Gureva, "Sbory i besedy o V. I. Lenine i I. V.

Staline," Vozhatyi, No. 1, 1951* P» 3«
l6 l
which woiold be useful for the Motherland.
I see that the greatest desire of our children is

to be useful to their Motherland. Only, it seems
to me, not all understand that they possess a
weapon far mightier than any fairy-tale magic.
With its help it is possible to work wonders which
were undreamed of by magicians and story tellers.
That is science, knowledge. . . . And one begins
to get angry when he sees that a boy or girl who
was ready to do so much for the Motherland is
lazy and careless in his studies and at the same
time does not understand that without knowledge
absolutely nothing will come of their wonderful
resolutions.-*-
Children were taught that, if it is necessary to acquire
knowledge so as to be useful to the Motherland, it is also positively
harmful to society if school work is not properly done. This is
the moral of a story about two boys who hurried through a mathematics
examination, did not bother to check their results, and ran off to
play. Both of them got the answer wrong and they were called to
the director's office. Instead of giving them the expected
scolding, the director told them the story of a smith who notices
a flaw in his work just as he is about to go home and does it over
again so as to avoid harm to other people. "*Nu,' said Kbstia,
’after all, we . . . only solved a problem and it didn't come out
right. From that, after all, no harm will come to anyone but
ourselves o’ 'Is that what you think?’ replied the director, 'But
2
is it really true?’”
1. L. Si Shchedrova, "Samoe sil’noe,” Konerskaia pravda, 2 April

19ll8, p. lo
2. Iu. Andreev, "Bogovorim o trudoliubii," loc. cit., 1 April 19^7, p. 1.
162
A bad mark in school, Pioneers were told, was inevitably
the result of inadequate effort, A strong character and a firm
will can overcome all difficulties. Honeer literature was full
of examples; one of these is the story of a boy who "did not believe
in his strength, he had no willpower, and he studied with less
success than he might have. Zinaida Nikolaevna [the teacher]
stubbornly gave him a 4 for effort. Once the boy asked her:
•Why do n.n pupils get 5 for effort, while I get 4?* The teacher
replied: *You could get a 5 in all subjects, but you don*t want
to.’ And the boy, in an effort to improve his grade for effort,
1
began to study much better. . . . "
Although individual achievement was important, the Honeer
was told to remember always that he was a member of a group.
A successful pupil who did not participate in the concerns of his
detachment was not a good citizen. In such cases, the Honeers
themselves were urged to act upon their comrade. A much performed
play about the Honeer Organization, for example, related the story
of Valerii, an excellent pupil, who got the best possible marks in
school. However, he refused to use his considerable talents for
the good of the group: when asked to do some work on the school
wall newspaper, he declined. It then transpired that he had been
expelled from the Honeer Organization for refusing such assignments
in the past. When he applied for readmission, the detachment
1. V. Tc Obolenskaia, "Vospitanie kharaktera," loc. cit., 23 Nkrch 1948,

p. 4. A "5” is the highest grade in the Soviet marking system, a "1”
is the lowest.
163
deferred its decision until he had proved that he had reformed»
In the last act we see him helping his sister with her school
work, making drawings for the newspaper, and awaiting anxiously
the moment •when he will he readmitted to membership in the

1
Honeer Organization*
Being an active Pioneer however, was not a valid excuse
for not doing well in school:
Vitia was a bad pupil but as a Pioneer he is active,

he always fulfilled the assignments of the brigade,
and he is good in physical education and handicrafts.
So we, members of the brigade council, decided to try
and entrust Vitia with an important job— to tell the
little ones about the best Pioneers of the brigade.
We thought, he will tell about them and will begin
to feel ashamed of letting his detachment down with
2*s. But Vitia fulfilled our assignment but did
not change his attitude towards studying. And the
teachers corrected us. We understand that it was
necessary to act upon Vitia in a different way, and
we told him this: "We can no longer entrust you with
important assignments of the brigade. We can not
rely on you. You will let us down with your 2*3."
Vitia gave this some thought. It was a very
difficult thing for him to be deprived of the trust
of his comrades. We observed him and saw that he
began to study more seriously.2
It was the Honeer* s duty to be responsive to the needs of
his comrades, even if there was no "deviant" behavior to alert him
to a problem. A true Honeer had to notice when another pupil was
in trouble and offer his help, as he was asked to feel responsible
1. 8. Mikhalkov, "Krasnyi galstuk," Honerksii teatr, (Moscow: Molodaia

Gvardiia, 1950), pp. 5-29*
2. V. Romanova, "Kak my zhivem seichas," Honerskaia pravda, 11 January

1955, P. 3. -
164
for the performance of all his comrades. When a group of Pioneers
decided to help a sick pupil with his studies, the newspaper
commented: “Real Pioneer concerns are thrown up by life itself.
Pioneers have bright eyes, responsive hearts, and they donrt let
1
a chance go by to give friendly help to those who need it.”
Conscious discipline continued to be emphasized in the Stalin
period as an outstanding trait of the new man. In this era, however,
it acquired a rather different meaning. While consciousness was
still a factor, emphasis was now on submission, obedience and
An extremely important component part of moral education

is the education of children in conscious discipline.
Without discipline and habits of organization one cannot
study, one cannot work. But it is not merely a question
of ensuring the discipline of pupils during their school
years. Before the teacher stands a much deeper task:
the cultivation in children of a state of discipline
as a high quality of communist morality and one of the
most important traits of character. The development
of this quality in children is linked with the task of
preparing future citizens of the Soviet state who will
act from a sense of public duty and will possess a feeling
of responsibility before the socialist Motherland*^
Consciousness, based on the recognition of necessity, is basic to
the development of discipline, and the resulting desire to fulfil
an assigned task in the best possible manner is a second necessary
trait: "In the third place, discipline is firmj that is, it is
unquestioned obedience and submission to the leader, the teacher, or
1. Ye. Rubtsova, "Chutkie serdtsa," loc. cit., 2k January 1950, p<> 3°
2. Yesipov and Goncharov, opo cit., p. $k<,
165
the organizer. Without this there is no discipline; submission
to the will of the leader is a necessary and essential mark of

1
discipline.” When we recall that Soviet educators of the
twenties wanted to reduce the influence of the adult to a minimum
and deplored blind obedience to higher authority, it will become
clear that an important shift had taken place. Krupskaia and her
colleagues would have been more at home with the idea that
discipline is important because it acts as a spur to achievement:
" . . . discipline is organ!zational that is, it is a discipline
which prompts and habituates the pupil to the precise organization
of individual and collective work, to organization of games and
life . . . discipline is resolute, that is, it surmounts difficulties,
prompts the completion of every task, subjects conduct to high

2
purposes, and conquers motives of low degree.”
Willpower, Soviet patriotism, discipline and a sense of
duty and responsibility— these were the basic traits of the new
Soviet man in the Stalin era. In addition, he had to learn to
live his life as a collectivist; but while early Soviet educators
taught their charges to subordinate their own interests to those
of the group, if they were at variance with each other, the ideal
Soviet citizen of this period was expected to have no interests
which might conflict with those of society. "To educate a member
1. Ibid., p. 95*
2. Ibid. Italics mine.
166
of our Soviet society means to educate a person who understands
the interests of this society and who has no oersonal interests

1
opposed to collective interests.” Every individual was to be
trained to devote his entire life to the group of which he formed
a part. Private concerns were deemed unimportant at best; at
worst, they endangered the interests and the cohesion of the
"collective." Thus, in the classroom, teachers were asked to
watch carefully over a n personal friendships which are formed
among children, and to permit such relationships only if they
are useful or "healthy."
But if the teacher desires to create a fruitful

friendship in a class between certain children, he
can gradually prepare the conditions for it. . . .
Sometimes friendship between children is formed on
the basis of negative interests or even harmful
mutual "enterprises." On noticing such a development,
the teacher should take measures either to destroy the
friendship by dispelling the halo of the "friend-leader,"
or to redirect it by diverting the friends from their
evil ways and leading them towards useful deeds. . . .
Friendship between children should not be allowed to
develop at the expense of the general comradeship of
all members of the collective.^
Pioneers also were warned against the dangers of acts of
"false friendship." A true friend was one who saw and acknowledged
his comrade’s faults and tried to correct them. It was emphasized
that it is no service to a comrade to overlook or condone his
1. Ibid., p. 37*
2. Ibid., p. 83. While comradeship is desirable, teachers were

frequently warned against supporting "false comradeship," i.e.,
solidarity of a group in defiance of authority.
167
mistakes. Besides, tolerance of his shortcomings may hurt the
interests of the group. The Pioneer press cited many instances
such as the friendship of two Pioneers, Fedia and Vania; Fedia
was assigned a task by his link, but he was lazy and had no sense
of responsibility. He kept putting off fulfilment of the
assignment until it was too late. His best friend, Vania, knew
about this situation, but did nothing about it. When the link
found out that the assignment has not been fulfilled, an assembly
was held: "You will already have guessed," the account concludes,
"that both Fedia and Vania had to blush at the assembly. Fedia
because he let down the children. Vania because he did not have
the courage to make Fedia fulfil his assignment and for not having
T_
turned to his link for help."
The "collective," or the group— in the case of children,
the class or the Pioneer detachment— is the basis of the Soviet
educational system. While Soviet educators of this period agree
with their predecessors in defining a collective as a group
engaged in joint labor for a common purpose, they take the concept
a step farther.
The class, the Pioneer link, the Pioneer detachment,

the pupils’ circle [a group of pupils engaged in
extra-curricular activities], and other childrens’
groups and organizations may be regarded as collectives
only if the members are aware of common tasks, devoted
to common purposes, conscious of complete mutuality of
1. Unsigned, "C ^noroshei i plokhoi usluge," Pionerskaia pravda,

10 February 1950, p. 3*
168
interests, and willing to direct their strength and

work toward the general good. A distinctive nark
of a collective is its organizational form— -the
presence of guiding and executive organs, good
management and subordination, and distribution
of obligations and responsibilities.
In other words, a collective is a group engaged in joint labor
for a common purpose, and organized and directed by constituted
authority, to which all members owe obedience. Only when it is
so organized can it become a useful unit in the society at large;
it becomes, in fact, a tool of the leadership: " . . . a pupil
collective, if correctly organized, is, in the first place, an
aid to the teacher and the school director in the achievement of
the tasks of communist education and in the struggle for a high

2
quality of knowledge." The fulfilment of the tasks which were
considered primary in the preceding period— "the formation of
social habits," "the preparation of citizens who will be able to

. . 3
put social above personal interests" and the organization of
the self-activity of children— now take second place.
For this concept of the collective and its functions,
Soviet educators are indebted to one of their most famous colleagues:
Anton Semenovich Makarenko. The ideas of this outstanding pedagogue
have come to form the basis of Soviet theories of citizenship education
and an understanding of them is indispensable to any study of this
1. Yesipov and Goncharov, op. cit., p. 84. Italics mine.
3. Ibid.
169
subject.
Makarenko was an obscure school teacher in the Ukraine, who
developed his pedagogical theories and methods when he undertook to
rehabilitate a group of the unsupervised and often delinquent youngsters
who roamed the countryside in the unsettled conditions of the twenties.
He established and directed two colonies for such children, where he
introduced his own regime and achieved remarkable results. His
ideas often conflicted sharply with the educational theories accepted
in the Soviet Union in the early period, which stressed the free
development of the individual, condemned the use of discipline and
attempted to reduce to a minimum interference by the adult in charge.
Makarenko probably owes the success of his ideas'*’ to the fact that
he attempted to reconcile in one pedagogical theory humanist ideas
and concern for the individual with the requirements of the Stalinist
period.
Dealing as he did, with homeless and neglected children,
Makarenko was forced to create for them a new background and set of
values, with which they could feel secure and for which they could
develop feelings of loyalty and allegiance. The basis of his system
was his concept of the "collective." The youngsters in his colonies
lived in a tightly knit community, where every member was responsible
for all others. Strict rules and rigid standards of behavior gave
1. Makarenko’s fame as an educator began to spread during his life

time, and has grown ever since. His ideas were much studied and
discussed throughout the forties and gained even greater renown
throughout the post-Stalin period.
17 0
the children both a sense of values and a feeling of being "protected.”
Combined with the strict discipline and the rigid regime was a consider
able degree of genuine self-organization and self-government.
Makarenko's ideas on education in a collective went far beyond
the aim of bringing up a socially-minded individual and represent the
"Leninist” aspect of these pedagogical theories. For him, the collective
was a social organism, organized for a certain task and moving toward a
set goal. The goal could never be reached, as a new and more distant
one was set even as the immediate goal was attained. It was through
such "perspectives," as Makarenko called them, that each small collective
was tied in with the larger one, with the community (in Makarenko's case,
the whole colony), and, finally, with the society as a whole and the
goals of the entire country. Movement forward— in other words, develop
ment— was an essential attribute of the collective and gave it its
optimistic, lively and Joyous "tone."
The purpose for which a collective is organized is labor. In
both of Makarenko's colonies, this meant productive labor (at first
agricultural, then industrial), but he conceded that, in the case of
school children, this could also be study. A definite rate of progress
towards the set goal must be maintained at all times, and every member
of the collective must be taught to feel responsible for the success or
failure of the group.
Strict discipline was an essential attribute of the true
collective. Discipline, Makarenko held, helps the collective reach its
goal more quickly, and teaches the individual how to overcome difficulties
and fulfil his tasks (discipline, he points out, is manifested not when
17 1
things are going veil and everything comes easily, but when problems
arise and work becomes harder); it represents true freedom for the
individual within the collective, as it defines his rights and his
responsibilities; and it "beautifies" both the collective and every
individual in it. The discipline prevailing in Makarenko's colonies
was almost like that maintained in an army. Uniforms were worn by all
members, armed sentries stood guard, flags and banners vere displayed,
salutes vere required, and orders vere issued in the form of commands,
which had to be acknowledged with a set formula. Infringements of
discipline vere severely punished.
A true collective could not be formed overnight; Makarenko
distinguished four stages in its development. In the first stage,
the educator himself sets the goals and makes the necessary demands
on the children; in due course, a number of individuals begin to
stand out from the group, vho make the demands of the teacher their
own and vho support him in enforcing them on the rest of the group.
This is the second stage, vhen the educator can rely on the help
of an aktiv. The third stage has been reached vhen the group as
a whole has understood the demands made on than and helps to enforce
them on every individual member. At this point a "public opinion"
has been formed, which is an important factor in control of the
group. Recognizing the fact that the judgment of the peer group
can exert powerful pressures on the young, Makarenko stressed the
importance of imbuing this group with the "correct" values so that
it could be used as an additional influence on the individual.
(Makarenko called this technique the use of "parallel action.")
In the fourth stage in the formation of a collective, every member
172
of the group has internalized the right values and makes the
necessary demands on himself; pressure from outside presumably
becomes unnecessary.
Makarenko believed in allowing his charges a considerable
degree of independence in administering their own affairs.
However, he insisted that true self-government could not be
instituted until the third stage in the development of a collective
had been reached. In the first stage, the educator alone is
responsible for the group; in the second stage, he may assign
members of the aktiv to positions of authority; but only when a
reliable public opinion exists in the collective, which can be
trusted to enforce the approved rules, can elective seIf-government
be introduced. At this point, however, it is an extremely
effective instrument and should be entrusted with broad powers.
Members of the collective elected to authoritative posts
were accorded a high degree of respect, authority and prestige
in Makarenko's colonies, and enjoyed certain privileges while
they held their positions. They vere not, however, to be regarded
as an elite. Leadership posts were frequently rotated among
those worthy of the honor, and all members of the collective
were expected to submit to authority as well as to assume it.
The "Marxist", humanist element in Makarenko13 ideas was
expressed in his high regard for the individual. Outstanding pedagogue
that he was, it was impossible for him not to see the unique personality
in every one of his charges. However he could not conceive of
173
individual existence outside the collective and of individual
values which had no relevance to social goals. Unorthodox behavior
disturbed him (any sign of introspection, for example, was considered
a danger signal), and he had no hesitation in subordinating
personal considerations and private relationships to the good of
the collective. He himself sums up his idea of "socialist
humanism," i.e., his belief in the value of the individual in a
socialist society, in the often quoted dictum: "Combine the greatest
possible demands on an individual with the highest possible respect
for him."
The best idea of ivhkarenko's ideas can be gained from a
summary in his own words:
The collective which must be the first aim of our

upbringing, must have completely definite attributes,
which follow clearly from its socialist character. . . .
A. A collective unites people not only in a

common goal and in joint labor but also in the common
organization of this labor. The common goal here is
not an accidental coincidence of private goals, as in
the streetcar, or in the theater [where people have
accidentally congregated for a common purpose], but
just this— the goal of the entire collective. . . .
Every act of the individual pupil, every success or
failure, must be evaluated as failure against the
background of the common cause, as the success of
the common cause. . . .
Bo A collective is a part of the Soviet society,

organically linked with all other collectives. Its
first responsibility is to society, it takes upon
itself first of all a duty towards the whole country,
only through the collective is every member a member
of society. From this flows the Soviet idea of
discipline. In such a case, every pupil will under
stand both the interests of the collective and the
concept of duty and honor. . . .
17^
C. The achievement of the goals of the collective,

the common labor, duty and honor of the collective
cannot become the plaything of the accidental whims
of individual persons. A collective is not a mob*
The collective is a social organism, and consequently
possesses organs of administration and coordination,
agents [vho] in the first place, represent the
interests of the collective and of society. . . .
D. The Soviet collective stands on the principle

of the vorld-vide unity of toiling humanity. It is
not simply a combination of people in daily life, it
is a part of the militant front of humanity in the epoch
of vorld revolution. . . .
From these theses on the collective follow also all

the details of the development of the individual.
We must graduate from our schools energetic and
convinced [ideinye] members of the socialist society,
able without hesitation, always, and at every moment
of their life, to find the correct criterion for a
personal act, capable at the same time, of demanding
from others correct behavior. Our pupil, whoever he
may be, can never act in life as the carrier of some
sort of individual perfection, only as a good and
honorable person. He must always act first of all
as a member of his collective, as a member of society,
responsible not only for his own acts, but also for
those of his comrades.1
"A collective is possible only under the condition, if it unifies

2
people for tasks of an activity clearly useful for society."
1. A. S. Makarenko, 0 kommunisticheskom vospitanii- (Moscow: UchBedGiz,

1952), pp. b6-h8, Makarenko’s ideas on personal morality seem to have
been ambivalent. Although the highest standards of honesty, truth
fulness and integrity were maintained in the colonies, thievery, lying,
deceit and violence are condoned in the face of the "class enemy," i.e.,
the kulaks of the neighboring villages. In one case, the Soviet
government itself is defrauded of its tax in kind from a kulak, while
Makarenko looks the other way in the interests of the colony.
2. Ibid., p. 129. I«h.karenko’s colonies are described in his two books,

The Road to Life and Flags on the Towers. For Western evaluations of
his theories, see L. Adolphs, A. S. tfakarenko: Brzieher im Dienste der
Revolution (Bad Godesberg: Verlag Duerrsche Buchhandlung, 1962), or
F. Lilge, Anton Semyonovitch Makarenko: An Analysis of His Educational
Ideas in the Content of Soviet Society [Berkeley and Los Angeles:
University of California Press, 1958)*
175
It is not difficult to see why ideas such as these
appealed to the Soviet leadership of the Stalin era. The basic
concepts of Makarenko's pedagogical theories— the collective,
strict discipline and high demands on the individual, constant
activity and constant striving towards a distant goal, the
importance of work, and self-organization under leadership from
above— all seemed designed to develop Just the kind of citizen
needed by a regime bent on rapid development and stringent control,
without forcing it to give up the ideals contained in the doctrine
it professed to live by.
Systematic work in developing the new Soviet man according
to the revised blueprint began with the introduction of universal,
compulsory education and the incorporation of the Pioneer Organiza
tion into the school. With the model of the ideal citizen
firmly in mind, Soviet educators and youth leaders worked out
a system of procedures and methods to attain their goal.
The work of forming the Soviet citizen was— and is today
— carried on at two levels: forming "Communist convictions",
and developing "habits of Communist behavior."
A large pert in the development of the "correct" convictions was
played by political indoctrination. Ihe ideas of Marxism and the
\
\
176
prevailing official view of the world permeated every hit of
information or entertainment offered to children. During the
Stalin period, for example, textbooks, school lessons, movies,
children’s literature, all hammered home the same set of ideas:
the world is divided into two camps, irreconcilably opposed to
each other. In one camp— the Soviet Union and (after World War
II) the other socialist countries— life is good and the future is
bright. Soviet children are the luckiest children in the world.
They live under the paternal guidance of wise and all-seeing
leaders, who are inspired by the only true theory— Marxism. Only
children in the Soviet Union have a happy childhood and are allowed
to go to school. In the other camp— the capitalist countries— the
class struggle rages between the exploiters and the exploited, with
the former firmly in the saddle and determined not to give up one
iota of their power. In these countries, children are sent to
work as soon as they are able, and only the children of the rich
can go to school. The Soviet Union is the champion of the oppressed
all over the world, and Soviet children owe complete loyalty to
their government and must learn to hate all its enemies.
Techniques of inculcating tferxist ideas and “Communist
convictionsn in children in the course of their studies in school
are outside the scope of this dissertation. A few examples from
Pioneer activities and the Pioneer press should suffice to give an
idea of the tone of the campaign under Stalin, Thus, for instance,
one issue of Pioner, the monthly magazine for children, carries a
st o r y of three French boys who run away to sea to go to America,
about which they have heard many good things. They are found
on the boat on which they stowed away, made drunk by the captain
and forced to sign a three-year contract to work for the captain
for twelve dollars a month. They are ill-treated and overworked,
until one dies, one jumps ship in port, and the third one— desperate-
jumps overboard to escape his tormentors. He is saved by Soviet

1
sailors and brought to the Soviet Union to live a happy life.
In the following month, in the same magazine, a Soviet reporter
describes a trip to Pakistan, where he sees how Americans and
Englishmen despise the natives and teach their children to despise
them. Conditions for the poor in the country are described— people
dying of hunger in the streets, all because of the effects of
British rule— stressing that the Pakistanis feel friendship and
admiration for the Soviet Union. When the son of one American
tries to take a Soviet flag off a car, he is prevented by a "tall
strong” Pakistani, at the command of the Soviet chauffeur (who,
incidentally, speaks the language, -while the Westerners do not).
A portrait of Stalin hangs on the wall of even the most miserable
hovel. The climau of the story comes when the American consul
tries to end a conference of "progressive” writers by hiring a band
of ruffians to break it up. "Too bad that this is not America,
and they canft shoot,” he says. "3ut never mind, sticks are a
1. A. Batrov, "Zhak-Iasenok,” Pioner, Wo. 9> September 1950; PP« 7~kL
178
1
good weapon too. . . . let them beat all, but the women first.”
The greatest hero of the Pioneer Organization before the
Second World War was Pavlik Morozov: a boy who denounced his own
father to the authorities during the collectivization campaign of
the early thirties, for "kulak" activities, and was killed in
revenge by the outraged villagers. During and after the war,
Pioneers were taught to admire and emulate the heroic members of
their organization and the Komsomols who had died in defending
their country. Many Pioneer assemblies centered around the life
of Lenin or Stalin and events of the Bolshevik revolution.
At Pioneer assemblies in the third and fourth classes,

pedagogues and Pioneer leaders, with the help of
bright stories and readings of excerpts from artistic
works, paint for the children the images of our leaders,
their high moral qualities, which were developed in the
early years. Such stories capture the childrens*
interest [and] influence them profoundly: they will
become more organized, upstanding and disciplined.
In the fifth and sixth classes, Pioneers can already

participate actively themselves in the preparation
of such talks and assemblies. The children read
books, undertake excursions to museums and historical
localities, prepare short speeches, learn poems,
songs and stories devoted to Lenin and Stalin, make
models, albums, organize exhibitions, [and] watch
movies about our leaders.
More profound work in this direction is done by the

older Honeers of the seventh class. They prepare
and discuss short reports and papers, make a map of
the places of exile and the revolutionary work of
V. I. Lenin and I. V. Stalin, make a model of an
underground Bolshevik printing press, [and] make a
1. N. Tikhonov, "Easskazi o Phkistane," Honer, Ho. 11, November 1950,

p. 32.
179
glowing map of the Leninist plan for the electrification

and of the Stalinist Five-Year Elans. . . .
Significant dates of the revolutionary calendar are

marked by telling Pioneers stories about the important
stages of the revolutionary struggle of the toilers
under the banner of the party of Lenin and Stalin.
In preparing to celebrate in the detachment the 22

(9th) of January, Pioneers must be acquainted with
the heroic episodes of the revolutionary struggle
of the party in the year 1905. . . . This is how they
organized this work [celebrating the anniversary of
the Bolshevik revolution] in one of the brigades of
Leningrad.
The Pioneers of the second link, fifth detachment,

at a brigade assembly, told and showed illustrations,
how, beginning with April 1917, the Bolsheviks pre
pared an armed uprising. The stories were called
‘Day after Day.’ Before the assembly, the Pioneers
had read and discussed the book by L. Savel'ev:
The Storming of the Winter Palace. [Shturm Zimnego]
Reading about the meeting of the Central Committee

of the party in house No. 32 on the embankment of
the river Kaprovka, the link decided to spend some
time there. One girl Pioneer1 made a drawing
which showed how Lenin approached the house.
Another made interesting notes on why Vladimir
Il'ich thought it necessary for the rising revolu
tionaries to take first the telephone, telegraph
and railway stations. Some Pioneers were engaged
in collecting drawings for an exhibition: "The
History of October.**
**Eour by Hour,”— this report was prepared for the

brigade assembly by another link. In one of the
books, Pioneers read how, in the course of the 2b
hours of the 25 October, revolutionary events
developed hour by hour in Petrograd, acquainted
1. For a time during this period, coeducation was abandoned in the

schools and thus also in Pioneer detachments.
180
themselves with a plan and a map, and with a

detailed list of the streets along which marched
the workers and the Red Army and sailor detachments.
The U n k spent some time on these streets. They
"began their march from the Smel’nyi, where at that
time the Military-Revolutionary Committee— the staff
of the revolution— was housed, and ended at the palace
square, where the fight for the Winter Fhlace took
place. . . .1
Much of the activity of the Pioneers in this period was
devoted to the glorification of Stalin. In a link of one of
the older classes, for example:
The 1ink prepared for a solemn assembly of the

detachment devoted to the birthday of comrade Stalin,
a model of the Avlabarsk printing press. . . .
The leader told of the revolutionary activity of

Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin in the Trans Caucasus,
about the underground printing press, which was
organized under the leadership of comrade Stalin.
In the printing press were printed for a number
of years fiery leaflets— appeals to the workers
and peasants, Bolshevik pamphlets and even entire
books by Lenin and Stalin [there follows an account
of the desperate attempts of the Tsarist police to
discover the press]. . . .
But when the police entered the printing establish

ment, no one was there any more. The pupils of
the experienced Bolshevik and conspirator, comrade
Stalin, had noticed that the house had been kept
under observation, and had gone away. . . .
In conclusion [of the assembly], every one read

his favorite poems on the great leader of the party
and the people, comrade Stalin.^
Other activities promoted "proletarian internationalism"
by acquainting the Pioneers with the stories, dances or customs of
1. PLon. drg. im. V. I. Lenina, pp. 7^-76.
2. Ibid., p. 212.
l8l
the other Soviet nationalities, or demonstrated the nature of
religion by "unmasking" superstitious belief through scientific
experiments.
Such examples could be multiplied indefinitely; enough
has been said however, to show that the Pioneer Organization vas
one of the important channels of the political indoctrination of
the young. When it is remembered that children were exposed to
this intense propaganda during almost every waking hour, without
a chance to hear conflicting ideas or dissenting views, it is not
surprising that they developed "Communist convictions*"
It proved immeasurably more difficult to accomplish the
development of "habits of Communist behavior" required by the
program for the formation of the new Soviet man.
Here, the Pioneer Organization served as an important
helper to the teacher.
Pupils are brought up in the spirit of Communist morality

in the process of the entire work of the school. Ibis
is promoted by the content of the academic subjects and
by the entire organization of the study and upbringing
process. An important role in this belongs also to the
Pioneer Organization. Demanding of every Pioneer that
he be an example to all children in study, social work
and behavior, the Pioneer Organization develops every
day in its members Communist consciousness, a sense of
duty and responsibility, comradeliness, honor, courage,
and directness. Daily creative socially useful activity,
organized by the detachment [azsd] the brigade serve as a
practical school of moral education.!
1 . Ibid., p. 83.
182
The center of Pioneer work was the detachment, which, as
membership in the Pioneer Organization increased, became, to all
intents and purposes, identical with the class. Very often, the
home-room teacher was, at the same time, responsible for the
supervision of the Pioneer detachment; a great deal of the work
of the Pioneers concentrated on improving the academic achievement
of the organization’s members. Thus, common concerns during
leisure activities as well as during school hours, tended to weld
the class into a strong "collective."
A large measure at the pressures used to achieve conformity
and acceptable behavior came from the group. The Pioneer detachment
was charged with developing in its members the feeling that they
were responsible to the collective for their successes or failures:
"In a closely knit Pioneer detachment the success in learning of
every Pioneer is an occasion for joy and pride, for the whole
childrens’ collective. While failures in learning and the misdeeds
of individual Erioneers are felt by the collective to shame the

1
honor of the whole detachment."
To promote such feelings of collective responsibility,
specific measures were provided for the encouragement or censure
of Pioneers by their own units. A Pioneer who distinguished himself
in any way could be thanked publicly, in front of his detachment
or in front of the entire brigade; an even higher form of praise was
1. Ibid., p. 5^»
183
public expression of the gratitude of the brigade in front of the
unfurled banner of the brigade. Censure of Pioneers who have
committed a misdeed, or who have not shown satisfactory achievement
in school, could be expressed by the detachment council, the
brigade council, or, for more serious infringements, before the

1
assembled link, detachment, or brigade. The ultimate punishment,
to be used only in truly desperate cases, was expulsion from the
Pioneer movement. Such measures were not only designed to develop
a feeling on the part of the individual that he is responsible
for his actions to the group, but also served to form the nubile
2
opinion without which effective group manipulation is impossible.
A true collectivist will not rejoice in personal success
for its own sake; all that matters to him is the success of the
group. Thus, although individual achievement was encouraged in
the Pioneer Organization, the successful Pioneer had to stand
ready to help his less fortunate comrades. If he got good marks
in a school subject, he had to help weaker pupils with their
homework, if he has a special skill, he had to teach it to someone
else, and if he owned a piece of special equipment, he had to share
1. This is a concept developed by Makarenko, and called in his

colonies: "the middle.11 A colonist was made to stand in the middle
of the room at a general assembly, preferably under the overhead
light, the center of all eyes, while his behavior was evaluated by
his peers. Shaming is a method widely used in Soviet educational
practice.
2. Another such device is the wall newspaper, in which children are

praised or shamed as the need arises.
184
it with the group.
The Pioneer learned habits of collective work in participating
in the activities of his link or detachment. If the work in these
units -was organized as it should he, every member had an assignment
which he had to fulfil conscientiously and on which he had to

1
report at the group assembly. Although activities in the links
and detachments were to be planned with due regard to the special
interests of their members, it was not considered necessary or even
desirable, that all of the work be interesting. If the Pioneer
learned to finish a job even though it is distasteful or boring,
he would develop the qualities of persistence and perseverance so
necessary to him in later life.
The development of disciplined behavior was an important
part of Pioneer work. The procedures which were followed for
detachment and brigade assemblies were•designed to stress this
quality. For assemblies of the entire brigade, for example,
Pioneers, wearing their uniforms, were drawn up at attention behind
their detachment leaders. The elected council members marched in
at the head of the brigade, preceded by the unfurled banner of the
brigade and announced by a bugle call and the roll of the drum,
link and detachment leaders made their report to the brigade council,
1 . links, detachments and brigades hold assemblies at regular

intervals. They may be organized for various purposes: elections,
for revolutionary or other holidays, or around a special topic.
185
while the brigade stood at attention. Reports began and ended
■with a salute. Pioneers elected to positions of responsibility
wore the stripes of office on their sleeve to enhance their
authority.
A Pioneer was also expected to set an example in obeying
the "Rules for Pupils" which were promulgated by the Party in 19^3,
and which applied to all school children. These rules vere designed
to ensure the strictest discipline in the classroom and in the
school, and to develop in children respect for higher authority
and for their elders.'1’
Other aspects of "Communist behavior," inculcated by the
Pioneer Organization, vere designed to develop those qualities which
would make its members efficient workers in an industrialized society.
First and foremost, in the period since the thirties, was the
requirement- to study veil and achieve the best possible performance
in school.
The stress on educational achievement is not primarily

a question of knowledge for its cwn sake; on the
contrary, it aims at the creation of the technical
competence necessary in the industrial world. Its
instrumental nature is made amply evident by the
lessons taught in the Pioneers and the Komsomol.
A major theme is that basic aphorism of modern
1. For the text of the rules see Yesipov and Goncharov, op. cit.,
pp. 149-150. They vere slightly modified in the 1950}s. For a
detailed description of the military procedures followed during an
assembly, see PLon. org. im. Lenina, pp. 178-179*
186
industrial society: time and knowledge are money

(or perhaps more appropriately in the Soviet
context, socialist wealth). Just as the twin
concepts of efficiency and productivity have been
infused with the force of categorical imperatives
in the classical capitalist society, so too they
occupy a central place in the morality taught to
Soviet youth. A sampling of topics discussed at
typical Komsomol and ELoneer meetings, as described
in the official literature, illustrates this
emphasis:
Knowledge is strength
Knowledge is as important as a rifle
in battle
Study is your Job
Learn how to study
If you lose an hour you will not make
up the time in a whole year
The price of a minute
Save each minute.-*-
Many of the articles devoted to the problems of developing
a strong will stress the importance of drawing up a strict time-table
for a n activities and then sticking to it. Other virtues to be
cultivated are accuracy and attentiveness. "Imagine what might
happen," asks one article, "if people were absentminded during work.
An engineer would forget . . . to put on the brakes, to blow the
whistle. And a seamstress would probably sew the sleeves on wrong,
and put pockets where they don*t belong. . . . Jfeny of us dream of
developing a strong will in ourselves. Here is your first task for

2
developing your will: become attentive. . . . "
Efficient and disciplined behavior is necessary to save
1. Kassof, op. cit., ppi 9k-9ke
2. Unsigned, "Kak uchit*sia na chetverki i piaterkj,11RLonerskaia

pravda, 31 January 1950, p. 1.
187
precious time. One detachment learned this in the course of a
visit from an airman. Hie detachment had taken some time to
straighten out in orderly ranks in honor of the guest. "But the
sj-mwm said nothing about this. Only -when jet airplanes were
discussed, he drew a diagram on the board for the boys, told them
how fast a plane can fly, and added: "Now you understand, children,
what one second means. You cam fly almost half a kilometre in
one second. Imagine how far behind its comrades a crew would be
1
who is undisciplined for five minutes I"
While the acquisition of knowledge formed a large part of
Pioneer activities (assemblies were devoted to such subjects as:
The river Volga, The theories of Michurin and Iysenko, the study
of insects and plants, or the study of the works of one of Russia* s
great writers), children were also taught to think of their "labor"
in school as only a part of the labor of the whole Soviet people.
A favorite subject for a Pioneer assembly was the often quoted
slogan: "labor is a matter of honor and glory." An assembly on
this subject in a detachment of the fourth class proceeded as follows:
The Pioneers collected illustrations from newspapers

and magazines on the heroic labor of Soviet people
in plants, factories, in collective farms, government
offices, scientific laboratories. With the help and
advice of the teacher, excerpts from artistic litera
ture were selected for reading at the assembly, which
described brightly the joyous creative labor of Soviet
people. . . .
1. N. Aleksandrov, "Ekipagh shestozd *A*," Pioner, No. 5, 1953j p* 21.
188
The leader, opening the assembly introduced to the

children the honored invited guest— a brigadier of
his collective farm, rewarded with the Order of the
Labor Red Banner for achieving a large harvest of
potatoes.
Reports and stories by Pioneers alternated with readings

of poems and excerpts from literary works, and with
singing of songs glorifying labor.«, At the end of
the assembly, the guest addressed a few words to the
children. He told how labor in the collective farm
had become a matter of honor, fame, glory and heroism,
and explained for what he was honored with a high
government reward. Turning to the assembled Pioneers,
the famed collective farmer asked:
"And you, children, how are you working?

Famously?”
The leader of one link was forced to admit that there

were some Pioneers in his link who studied badly.
In another link, on the other hand, all studied well,
and some received fives [the highest mark].
The famed collective farmer praised the second link

and expressed his confidence that all Pioneers
would take it as an example. The guest promised
to attend another detachment assembly in the future,
to check on how the Pioneers were studying.1
During the thirties and forties, military training and para
military drill and games formed an important part of Pioneer activ
ities. Physical, exercises were prescribed for all Pioneers, and

o
older members had to begin to compete for the BGTO medal. Pioneer
leaders were urged to arrange war games, and children were taught
1. PLon. org. 1m. V. I. Lenina, p. % .
2. The letters stand for the words: "Be Prepared for Labor and Defense."
Competition for the medal began at the age of 14, at the very end of
the Pioneer's stay in the Organization (special permission from a
doctor had to be obtained if the child wished to start at the age of
13).
189
techniques of the transportation of the wounded and first-aid.
During excursions of Pioneer detachments, members were instructed
in the skills of patrolling in enemy territory and in the art
of camouflage. Pioneer plays and skits centered around war
themes and circles were organized in schools, where Pioneers
could acquire special titles such as "sharpshooter" or "medic."
Finally, every Pioneer assembly, regardless of the nature of the
theme around which it was organized was required to devote 10-20
minutes to military drill and sports.'1'
All the activities described above were aimed at developing
the obedient, efficient, self-sacrificing, disciplined and
patriotic member of the new society. It will be remembered how
ever, that the ideal Soviet man was also expected to act independ
ently and on his own initiative for the good of the common cause.
Although this idea was net abandoned in the era of Stalin's
totalitarian regime, educators were left in no doubt that these
traits were to be kept under the strict control of the leadership.
In the pedagogical literature of the period, writers are careful
to point out that initiative must be carefully circumscribed and
directed into the desired channels:
1. For a description of all these activities see Khiga Vozhatogo

(Molodaia Gvardiia, 19^), pp. 56-59*
5he tasks o f C aflaunist education re q u ire th a t our
p u p ils leave school as people o f in it ia t iv e . C itize n s
o f our S o v ie t Chios a re expected not o n ly to execute
consciously and p ers ev e rin g ly th e w ill o f th e ir
le a d e rs , h u t also to show personal resourcefulness
o f th e ir own and to c o n trib u te a spark o f personal
creativen ess d ire c te d toward th e w e lfa re o f th e
M otherland . Cbly people o f in it ia t iv e a re a b le to
e x tric a te theaaelves su ccessfu lly frosi a d if f ic u lt
s itu a tio n under any conditions o r solve c re a tiv e ly
sone new prob lea presented by lif e *
In it ia t iv e Bust be developed along w ith th e

c re a tiv e tendencies o f c h ild re n fro o th e e a r lie s t
years* • • • I t is Im portant however, th a t in it ia t iv e
n o t be e x h ib ite d iB w u ls iv e ly . b u t th a t i t be d ire c te d
in to organized channels* Thus w ill th e development
o f th is va lu a b le t r a it go hand in hand w ith th e
c u ltiv a tio n o f o rg a n iza tio n a l h a b its in p u p ils * (ta t
o f c h ild re n o f in itia t iv e good organizers nust cone.
In it ia t iv e and s e lf-a c tiv ity can be developed o n ly under th e firm
le a d e rs h ip of th e te a c h e r, th e E leven th Koasomol Congress was to ld
Work in P ioneer lin k s , data elu en ts and brigades Bust

be c a rrie d on on th e basis o f th e a c tiv ity and s e lf-
a c tiv ity o f the Pioneers th easelves, developing th e ir
in it ia t iv e by a l l p o ssib le neans. The s e lf-a c tiv e
c h a ra c te r o f th e a c tiv ity o f P io n eer detachaeats and
brig ad es does not p reclu d e, b u t on th e c o n tra ry p re
supposes th a t the work o f P ioneers be guided and
developed by experienced, p ed ag o g ically tra in e d
le a d e rs .2
I t was im portant however, th a t th e P io neer le a d e r e r the
teach er e x erc is e th is lead ersh ip as u n o b tru s iv e ly as p o s s ib le .
W hile th e d e s ire d re s u lts Bust be achieved, th e c h ild re n should
b e lie v e th a t th ey have reached thea on th e ir own, w ith o u t h elp o r
orders froa th e a d u lt in charge*
1. Xesipov and Goncharov, op* c i t * , p* 128. It a lic s B ine*
2. Xershova, 0 xiabotc koasoBola v shko le, p p . 17-lS.
191
the leader must not undertake a single Pioneer

measure on his own, through his personal command.
He carries on his work through the brigade council
or the detachment council, through the Pioneer
aktiv, under no conditions supplanting the leading
organs of the Pioneer Organization^ It is necessary
tactfully and in a pedagogical! ly correct way to bring
the brigade or detachment council to one or another
decision, not forcing his own will upon them.l
There was no doubt however, that the will of the leader must prevail:
,rAt the same time, he [the leader] is a demanding leader. He
demands not for himself, but through him the Ihrty, the Komsomol
and the Pioneer Organization make their demands. This is why
every demand of his and every directive must be unconditionally

2
fulfilled."
Pioneer literature of this period depicts the organization
as invariably successful in all it does and contains no hint of its
complete subordination of the Pioneer Organization to the school
and the educational authorities. Pioneers who read their paper
or journal were asked to believe that detachments and brigades
acted freely upon the initiative of their members. Teachers were
shown offering advice occasionally, or setting the Pioneers straight
if they made mistakes, but the impression remains with the reader,
that the Organization was run by the members themselves.
In actual practice, it seems that even the pretense that
Pioneers were deciding matters for themselves was often abandoned.
The plan for the work of a Pioneer brigade was drawn up by the
1. Pion. org. im. V. I. Lenina, p. 282.
2. Ibid.
192
senior Pioneer leader and approved by the director of the school.
The activities for every quarter were coordinated with the school
program for every detachment, and were predetermined in some detail.
It remained for Pioneers to assemble to hear about the plan from
their leader and to formally approve it.
The same general principles were followed in Pioneer
elections of their "leading organs^" As the teacher or Pioneer
leader was to rely for management of the class and detachment on
the elected officials of the Pioneer unit, it was important to
get those pupils elected who would be most able and willing to
help. Candidacies for every post were discussed by the teacher
with the children, who were impressed with the fact that only the
most disciplined and "authoritative" of their comrades were fitted
for responsible office. "At the time of holding elections,
Pioneer leaders and teachers help Pioneers distinguish between the
suggested candidates, discuss them before the election, so that

1
they [the Pioneers] would be able to vote after careful consideration."
It was frequently stressed in Soviet pedagogical literature, that
leadership qualities in a child should be encouraged only if they
are directed towards officially approved goals. Too often, teachers
were warned, children gain the following and admiration of their
comrades for "false" deeds of heroism--for defying the teacher, for
1. Ibid., p. 45.
193
cheating in school, or getting good marks without studying— such
leadership must not he permitted in a classroom and the "heroes”

1
should he discredited. It should not he surprising that under
these circumstances many Pioneer leaders did net hold elections
at all, hut simply appointed their candidates to the supposedly
elective posts. Such practices were however unequivocally condemned
hy the Pioneer leadership on higher levels, who insisted— except for
the short interval during the war, when elections were not held— that
the elective principle he maintained.
The concentration on school work and rigid direction hy
adults which left hardly any leeway for the activity of the children
themselves, resulted in making attendance at Pioneer functions a
burdensome duty for the members. Formal, meaningless meetings,
presided over hy the teacher, convinced the children that there
was no distinction between the Pioneer Organization and compulsory
attendance at school. These shortcomings were freely recognized
hy the Komsomol authorities. At a Central Committee meeting in
October of 1951* leaders concerned with Pioneer work complained that:
Many Komsomol organizations when they carry out the

political education and cultural-mass work, do not
take into account the age characteristics of the
pupils. At times, materials are selected for talks
with pupils of the younger classes which were meant
for adults. In a number of places, lectures and
reports too complicated for children are given. . . .
1. See also above, p. 166.
194
Serious shortcomings take place in the preparation

and carrying out of Pioneer assemblies. Often a
leader determines the theme of the assembly without
taking the interests and desires of the Pioneers
into account, while Pioneer assemblies are carried
on like additional lessons during which material
learned in class is repeated. . . . In some brigades
and detachments a presidium is elected at the
assemblies, the Pioneers hold speeches according
to a memorized text written earlier by adults, and
adept long resolutions. • . .
Komsomol workers and Pioneer leaders often forget

about the self-active character of the Pioneer
organization, inadequately develop and support the
initiative and self-activity of Pioneers. Instead
of directing the efforts of the Pioneers towards
the independent fulfilment of various Pioneer
matters, leaders sometimes try to do everything
for the Pioneers themselves. Sometimes the elective
principle is infringed in Pioneer organizations.4
At a meeting of Pioneer and Komsomol workers in Moscow a
few years later, an example was cited of a Pioneer assembly which
consisted of sixteen prepared speeches, which the children endured
in silent suffering. The only lively moment of the assembly came,
said the reporter, when the children were released from bondage and
2
ran for their coats. In other instances, assemblies of academic
achievement were held, where good and bad pupils talked about their
marks, and all took an "oath” that bad marks would not occur
3
in future.
All such phenomena were deplored and condemned as inconsistent
with the true aims of the Pioneer Organization. If the existence
1. Dir, i dok., pp. 99-100.
2. Komsomol*skaia pravda, 15 April 1954, p. 2.
3. A. Sushan, "PLonerskaia organizatsiia i uchitel*," Vbzhatyi, Ho. 2,

February 1954, pp. 1-4.
195
of these shortcomings vere clearly realized however, the reason for
them was not; Komsomol leaders tended to put the blame on inadequate
training of Pioneer leaders and insufficient supervision by higher
Komsomol committees, instead of on the system of rigid leadership
from above end the authoritarian methods prevalent in Soviet society.
Self-activity and independent initiative were incompatible with a
system which recognized only one goal, only one answer to every
question, and only one authority in every situation. In other words,
a "participant” individual in the fullest sense had no place in a
Stalinist system. It remained to be seen whether he would find a
place in a system without Stalin and in a society which had evolved
to a new stage of development.
\
V " '
196
CHAPTER VII
THE POST-STALIN ERA
Stalin's death in 1953 marked the end of an era in Soviet
history. The resulting reappraisal of Soviet society undertaken
hy his successors, can he viewed, among other things, as a stock
taking of progress made and changes which had taken place since the
thirties. Progressive de-Stalinization, the relaxation of the
terror, and the increasing sophistication of Soviet society and the
Soviet economy, all required re-examination of the model of the ideal
citizen and of the methods used to produce him.
Changes in the prescribed blueprint, however, have been
neither profound nor radical. As before, Soviet educators see as
the most important traits of the Soviet man, Soviet patriotism,
internationalism, responsibility, respect for older people, a sense
of duty, and a strong will; the Soviet child must be a collectivist,
and should develop a "Communist" attitude towards labor and towards
socialist property; he must be an optimist and a humanist, without,
however, tolerating deviant behavior. The only change— and it is
a slight one— which can be detected is in the definition of
discipline: instead of calling for unconditional subordination to
the orders of a leader, Soviet educators in the middle fifties define
discipline as subordination to the established rules.^ This definitely
1. I. A. Kairov (ed.), Pedagogika (Moscow: UchPedGiz, 1956), pp. 2Y3-2jh.
does not mean, however, that respect and veneration for outstanding
leaders is to he abandoned. Although adulation of Stalin by the
Pioneer press ceased soon after his death,"1’ the cult of Lenin
continued unabated and is, today, even being intensified. A poem
written for elementary school pupils may serve as an example.
A Lesson
A lesson is going on
The class is completely quiet
Because the teacher is telling us about Lenin
We hear with shining eyes
How he lived for the people
How he led the Fatherland to victory
How he was friendly to children
We listen, and everyone wants
To harbor these traits in himself
And we decide to be like Lenin g
In study, in work, and in life.
Strength of will, of character, persistence, and the ability
to overcome difficulties, these are still the dominant traits
extolled by Pioneer literature in the post-Stalin period.
"Everything is possible for him who tries!" is the slogan of
the Soviet citizen. A discussion on character carried on in
successive issues of Pioner in 1958 comes to the conclusion that
there is no such thing as successful or unsuccessful people:
"Every one of us will have to cope with many of the most varied
obstacles. To overcome them, persistence and purposefulness
are needed. If a person goes firmly towards his goal and aims
at the same point all the time, he will inevitably succeed. . . .
1. A picture (without text) of Stalin in the December issue of Pioner

for 1955 is the last evidence of the cult of the dead ruler in this
journal.
2. V. G. Iakovlov (ed.), Pionerskaia rabota v nachal*nykh klassakh
(Moscow; Ak. Ped. Nauk RSFSR, 1956), p. 135.
A person with character will gain his ends." Any character
trait can be changed if a person has the necessary will and determin
ation and is willing to practice self-control, and the traits which
we called innate [in the preceding discussion] will be toned down.

2
Learn to give yourself commands and to master your will. . . . "
If you want to train your character, advises another writer, you
must establish a strict regime for the day and be persistent in

3
following it to the letter.
"God helps those who help themselves"; this might easily
be the title of Tolia's story. Tolia discovers the fascination
of astronomy and passionately wants to own a telescope. He
sets about making one, but finds he cannot make the lens. A
"good magician"— an adult interested in him— anonymously sends
him a lens, but, after the telescope is all but finished, after
much hard work, Tolia’s cat pushes the lens off the table and
it breaks. Undaunted, Tolia continues to work, confident that
another lens will materialize somehow. ";Magicians * do not
like idlers and those who rely on them. But in some cases
'magicians* will inevitably come. Because human hearts cannot
withstand real persistence and labor. . . .
1. Unsigned, "Klub pioneera,” pioner, Ho. 1, 1958, p. 34.
2. Pioner, Ho. 2, 1958, p. 51-
3. A. Markusha, "Otkrovennyi razgovor,” Pioner, Ho. 4, 19&5, PP* 21-38.
4. Iu. Hovikova, "Kogda prikhodiat volshebniki," Pioner, Ho. 6, 1939,

p. 63 .
199
While the outlines of the image of the new Soviet man
remained substantially unchanged after Stalin's death, some of the
changes taking place in Soviet society and in the educational
system do begin to be reflected in the later model.
Successful study in school is still the Pioneer’s basic
duty, but in the late fifties, stories about the educational value
of labor begin to appear in the Pioneer press. Atypical for these
is the case of Serezha, who was always in trouble in school for
his hooliganism." Then one day, a detachment leader comes from
the nearby plant (it will be remembered that Komsomols from
factories were assigned to such duties during this period), and
teaches the detachment the value of hard, physical labor.
Serezha's eyes are opened to what has been missing in his life;
his behavior and school work improve, and a "hooligan" is
transformed into a useful member of society.1
The campaign against religion has been revived and
intensified in recent years. During the war propaganda of atheism
was virtually halted and it is hard to find any mention of this
subject in the Pioneer literature of the forties and early fifties.
It is not until the end of the decade that it begins to regain
some prominence. In the discussion on character mentioned above,
for instance, the case of Zhanna is cited as an outstanding example
of strong will and persistence. Zhanna had a religious mother,
who tried by fair means and foul to force her to go to church.
1. L. Fridman, "Chego ne khvatalo Serezhe," Pioner, No. 10, 1958,

pp. 49-52.
/
2 00
When the latter refused, she beat her unmercifully and then tried
to starve her into submission. Zhanna did not give in, but
continued to go to school, even though fainting from hunger and
covered with bruises from her beatings. She remained steadfast
even when her mother asked her at least to go to church in secret
and to wear her cross at night when no one would know. She is
finally saved from her mother’s persecution when the teacher and
1
her class collective come to her rescue.
With the Party’s increasing concern with ideological
indoctrination in the sixties, articles on athei tm are becoming
more frequent in the Pioneer press. In their tone and approach
some of them recall the crude efforts of the early years of
Bolshevik rule. A discussion of the practice of taking
communion concludes: "Of course, even among those who go to
church on Sundays, only a few believe seriously that a wafer dipped
in wine is really transformed into a piece of raw meat. Otherwise
the majority of the communicants could probably not swallow such

2
a refreshment [ugoshchenie]." An attempt is also made, however,
to prove that religion has no basis for existence in Soviet
society today, by explaining the reasons for its development in
other periods of human history. A short explanation of the rise
of religion is followed by the statement: "Priests are finding
it increasingly difficult to deceive people who studied history,
are familiar with mankind’s past and know why and how belief in
1. Unsigned, "Klub Pionera," Pioner, No. 3> 1958, p. 11.
2. A. Dorokhov, "Mozhno-li v eto verit’," Pi oner, No. 5, 1963, P* 86.
1
gods originated among primitive peoples."
The changing times are also reflected in the new type of
"negative" hero depicted in Pioneer literature. The "deviants"
of earlier times were Pioneers who forget their duty to the group,
got bad marks in school, or behaved rudely to their elders.
While these are still grave faults, the "negative hero" of the
sixties is now also the prey of alien influences from abroad.
In a Pioneer play published recently, a city boy comes to spend
his vacation in the country, with his grandfather. He despises
country life and tries to impress the children of the village by
wearing blue jeans, chewing gum (obtained in the wicked city
before he arrived in the village), and speaking the latest slang,
larded with American words. He shows the local Pioneer detachment
that he finds their work ridiculous, and refuses to take part
in its activities. The climax comes when a busload of foreign
tourists arrives in the village. One of the foreigners offers
to sell his cowboy shirt to the boy; when the sale is made, the
tourist quickly focusses his camera and takes a picture of the
transaction. At lest the boy understands the dangers of succumbing
to the wiles of a foreign civilization: he has all but betrayed
the Soviet way of life, and, by letting the foreigner take the
picture, he has given bourgeois propagandists a chance to spread
more lies about the Soviet Union. He gives back the shirt and,
with the help of the Pioneer detachment, he returns to the good

2
and healthy life of a Soviet citizen.
1. A. Dorokhov, "Ob oloviannom krestike i proroshshom zerne," Pioner,

No. k, 1963, p. 10.
2. "Vetrianka," Pionerskaia Pravda. Nos. 1^, 15, IT, 18, 19, 20 and
22, 1962.
V '
20 2
Clearly there is nothing startlingly new about the present-
day image of the "new Soviet man." What is striking here is the
renewed emphasis on commitment and ideological conviction, rather
than, as in Stalin's day, on submission and unquestioning obedience.
While in the preceding period the result to be aimed at was con
forming behavior and performance, present-day Soviet educators are
asked to develop a genuinely convinced "builder of communism"
whose dedication to the cause will motivate his actions.
Nevertheless methods and procedures used in the Pioneer
Organization to develop "correct convictions" and "habits of
Communist behavior" have remained largely unchanged. A reader of
Pioneer journals and publications sometimes finds it difficult to
guess whether he is reading a Stalinist or a post-Stalinist issue.
One important exception to this (aside from the end of the cult
of the personality of Stalin) must be noted: in the presentation
of the world outside the Soviet Union, the existence of a "third
world" is now recognized. The uncommitted nations are described
with a far greater degree of objectivity than before, although
still, of course, from the Marxist point of view. Description of

1
the capitalist world, on the other hand, remains largely stereotyped.
1. See for example Ye. Kuznetsova, "Shest nedel* v Afrike," Pioner.

No. 8, 1954, PP. 53—57J and Vozhatyi, No. 4, 1962, pp. 44-46, which
presents a series of poems and caricatures of various capitalist
"types," such as the factory owner, the banker, the colonists, the
cardinal, the general, the Fascist, and the policeman, whose name
is Okay, because, when told to kill, he answers, "OK." The title of
the series is "The Enemies of P e a c e . A thorough study of the aims
and methods of propaganda among children can be found in D. Sudhalter,
The Psychological and Political Indoctrination of School Children in
the USSR (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Boston University, 1982).
Nor "nave Pioneer leaders and teachers shown any narked new
tendency to trust children to organize their own affairs. Pioneer
elections and activities continued to he strictly supervised hy
adults: "So that Pioneers should elect the nost authoritative pupils
to the brigade and detachment councils, teacher and senior Pioneer
leaders of our school . . . made a point of carefully studying the
pupils and explained to the Pioneers what qualities the activists
must have. . . . But in those detachments where this matter was left
to itself, it was subsequently necessary to hold new elections for
the aktiv. In other words, if the "wrong" candidates get elected,
new elections are held to correct the mistake. The interpretation
of the concept of initiative also remains unchanged. "Initiative,"
explains one Soviet author in this period, "is the manifestation of
the creative activity of man. It is manifested in the ability to
act on one's own initiative to find new ways of solving tasks set
hy the collective, in the ability to set and independently solve new
tasks." It is developed in two stages: in the first stage, the
Pioneers "accept instruction from the educators and the collective
as their own. . . ."; in the second stage, such direction from above
is no longer necessary only because the sense of duty and responsi
bility is developed to such an extent, that Pioneers will do what is
1. 0. S. Kel', I. A. Pavlenko, Ye. I. Bronskaia, and B. A. Kondrat'ev,

Sovet druzhiny— organizator pionerskoi raboty v shkole (Moscow: Izd.
Ak. Pea. Kauk, RSFSK, 195&), pp. 6-8.
20U
seeded without waiting for orders.^*
Indeed, supervision fro* above re*ains so strict even today,
that Pioneers are beginning to became restive. S. P. Pavlov, the
First Secretary of the Koasoaol Central Committee, reported a case to
the Fourteenth Komsomol Congress, where Pioneers refused to hold
meetings in their school because they could not feel at ease there:
"In our school," they complained, "everything is locked up. The
gymnasium, the Pioneer roam, even the games and the Pioneer drums.
All classes are carrying on competition. Whatever you do— you get a
mark for everything . . . even for wearing your [Pioneer] kerchief
you get a point. . . . We ourselves do not compile the plans [for

_2
Pioneer work], but the teachers compile them. This detachment
preferred to hold meetings in a factory clubroom, where they could
feel free from this constant control.
The emphasis on military training seems to have been abandoned
in the early fifties. A new edition of a handbook for Pioneer
leaders, published only one year after Stalin's death, omits all
mention of military training, sharpshooters clubs or war games on
Pioneer excursions. The chapter devoted to this theme in the
previous edition is now replaced by a treatise on methods of incul
cating Soviet patriotism and devotion to the cause of the Communist

3
Party. Indeed, military matters seem to have been forgotten so
1. V. G. Iakovlev (ed.), Zveno iunykh pionerov (Moscow: Izd. Ak. Ped.

Nauk. BSFSR, 1956), pp. 88, 9k.
2. XIV s"ezd VLK5M, p. 67.
3. Khiga vozhatogo (Molodaia Gvardiia, 195^0, PP. 115-136.
205
completely la this period, that Komsomol leaders today are “becoming
apprehensive: a recent Meeting of the Komsomol Central Committee has
called for a revival of Military training, a "Militarization" of the
sxoner Pioneer caaps, and an intensification of the indoctrination-of
Pioneers with the revolutionary and Military traditions of their
fathers.1
In striking contrast with the period of Stalin’s rule, recent
Pioneer literature admits the existence of the difficulties and
problems encountered in the Organization. Ho longer is the
Pioneer Movement depicted as uniformly successful in all it does
nor is it represented as adhering closely to the basic principles
which it propounds. The material which appears today is much
closer to reality, as we know it from educational and Komsomol
publications. Pioneers are invited to discuss reasons for the
increasing restlessness of members of the Organization under the
constant supervision exercised by adults. One Pioneer describes
his experience in a summer camp to the editors of Pioner:
When at the beginning of the session we were elected

to the brigade council, they told us: "Hov you are
master in the camp. Think for yourselves, suggest
something yourselves. You are responsible for
everything^ . . . " But what can we do ourselves?
The plan of work is set up before the session begins,
the daily regime is approved, and the senior Pioneer
leader even decides whoa to discuss at the council
meetings. An infringer of discipline is called
before the brigade council, the leader bawls him out,
1. Komsomol’skaia pravda, 5 February 19^7, p. 2.
206
but we are silent. And then they scold us for being

silent. Is this how masters should behave?!
In recent years there have been some indications that these
attitudes are changing. The Soviet leadership is beginning to
realize that the population can be trusted to be loyal to the regime.
Furthermore, with the increasing complexity and sophistication of
Soviet society and of the Soviet economy, it is becoming clear that
the old methods are no longer adequate. Soviet educators are being
forced to admit that the obedient conformist of Stalin's day is not
equipped to deal with the problems which he will face in adult
life today. What good to society, they are asking, is a worker
who cannot think for himself and who has to be supervised and
guided at every step? One pedagogue cites the example of a
boy who is sent to find his Pioneer leader on the street; when
he does not find him in the designated place, he comes -beck
repeatedly for further instructions, instead of thinking for
himself of other places where to look. He is trained to blind

2
obedience, notes the teacher, rather than to independent action.
How can it be otherwise, when Pioneer leaders are afraid to

■?
encourage initiative? A recent Soviet film about a Pioneer
1. Pioner, No. 7, 19&3, P. H .
2. S. Shmakov, "Zarastki ob organizatsii pionerskoi zhizni," Harodnoe

obrazovanie, No. 11, November 19^2, pp. 79-83.
3. Vozhatyi, No. 2, February 1957, P. 13, reports the case of a leader

who became afraid and upset when the children changed the plan of
work of an arts and crafts program from making boxes to making a model!
207
summer camp makes ouch the sane point. The children arrive in the
camp, vhich is festooned with signs proclaiming: "Pioneers, you are
the masters here.’” But, as it turns out, everything is decided hy
the director of the camp, vho has had everything decided for him hy
higher authority long ago; indeed, the documents containing his
instructions are faded and brittle, they have heen used for so long.
1
The slightest initiative hy children, and even hy Pioneer leaders is
stopped immediately; things must he done the way they have always
heen done and the way in which every other camp does them, otherwise
who knows what might happen* It is made quite clear that authority
is on the side of change. The film ends with a general break for
freedom, led hy a visiting Party member. ^
The real culprits here are the adults who run the Pioneer
Organization. Old habits of authoritarian rule die hard, and
it seems clear that the Pioneers are still far from being the real
"masters" of their Organization. The Pioneer "Establishment" how
ever also coses in for its share of the blame. If we are to
believe a play performed for the first time in i960, the aktivists
elected to responsible posts in the Organization are "teachers'
pets” and budding little bureaucrats, who sit at their desks and
mindlessly repeat the official phrases, without giving a thought
to the real problems which face them. Here is the description
of a chairman of a brigade council: "Look, there he sits in the
1. "Dobro pozhalovatl," shown in the U.S. under the English title,

"Welcome Kostia."
208
Pioneer room, polite, M s school uniform buttoned to the last button,
and says: 'disgraceful behavior,' 'systematic infringement,'
'outrageous conduct'. . . . He, Novikov, is afraid that he will
get it, if someone finds out. . . . So he is saving M s own skin.
This could almost be a portrait of an official in Stalin's time.
The problem which faces Novikov is what to do about a
Pioneer who has formed a "secret society" of three members. The
senior Pioneer leader wants to expel the boy from the Pioneer
Organization, and, as might be expected, Novikov is in full agreement.
"Oh children, children," laments the reviewer of the

play, "both those on the stage and those in the
audience! How do you elect such people to the
brigade council? After all, you go to school with
them, you know them as they really are [kak obluplennykhj.
Probably, when voting was going on, when hands were
raised in the election assembly, they did not think
about the brigade at all. Probably they thought
like tMs: 'What is the difference who gets elected!
Let's get these reelections over with quickly and
go home.'"2
The indictment is too clear to need comment.' As we have seen,
the teachers' choice must be elected; one can hardly blame the
Pioneers for looking upon elections as a boring formality.
The play however, is concerned only Incidentally with the
problem of the aktivists. It goes to the very heart of one of the
most important problems which face the Pioneer Organization: how
can the childrens' interest be retained and their participation
1. S. Solov'ev, "Kol'ka Snegirev ishchet vykhad," Pioner, No. 10,

I960, pp. 55-56.
2. Ibid., p. 56.
209
obtained, while at the sane tine directing the movement into
"correct” and approved channels? Kol’ka, the hero of the play,
is expelled for disrupting a Pioneer assembly; hut closer investigation
shows that the assembly was terribly boring. He can hardly be
blamed for wanting to end it! The fault lies in the Organization,
not with Kol’ka.
Understand children what happens: a person

voluntarily Joins the Pioneers, the childrens*
Communist organization. Hote: he did not Join a
school, a circle, or a sports section, but an
organization made up only of children, where children
are in command, where they themselves plan what to do,
organize everything themselves, themselves help each
other grow up into real people, Coasunists.
So, a person Joins the Pioneers, but one, two, three
years go by a boy gets older, and suddenly he notices
that he is not at all master in his organization.
It is not he who decides what kind of assemblies to
hold; it is not he who decides who is to be expelled
from the Pioneers and who is not; not he, and not
even the detachment council chairman, elected by him,
is in command of the detachment. But who is? You
cannot even understand who: sometimes the teacher,
sometimes the senior Pioneer leader, sometimes no one
at all. . . ."1
If Kol’ka cannot be blamed for feeling as he does, he is
blamed for the solution which he finds. Ho one can be permitted
to form a secret society, however harmless its aims. It is made
quite clear that looking for alternatives to the Pioneer Organization
inevitably leads to disaster. Kol’ka first forms his "Secret
Society of Three," but this has no aim at all, and does not satisfy
his need for romance and activity. The next step is that he
1. Ibid., p. 57.
210
falls in with a group of delinquents, and is in grave danger of
heconing a criminal himself. In the nick of time he is saved
hy the arrival in his detachment of a new Pioneer leader, who finds
interesting things to do.
The moral is clear: if Pioneers are not to escape the
guidance and control of their leaders, the Organization must find
ways to capture their interest and let them exercise their
initiative; if on the other hand, children want to lead a good
and useful life, they must not leave the Organization, but rather
reform it from within. **fhe most important conclusion which we
came to when we left the theater,w says the reviewer, "was: it
is necessary to elect Pioneer aktivists quite differently, so that
no careerists like Valerka Novikov, no quiet 'obedient little
children' end rep in the detachment council, let alone in the
brigade council.
It seems however, that it is precisely the ’'quiet obedient
little children" who are the ones temperamentally best suited to
being aktivists under the prevailing system. Pioneers with the
necessary initiative and drive seek satisfaction outside the confines
of the Organization.
Such strivings are viewed with alarm by Pioneer leaders and
educators, even when they are harmless. Consider the story, for
example, which was published by a journal for detachment leaders,
1. Ibid., p. 58.
211
vhich tells of four boys who formed a secret society, identified
by a series of mysterious letters. When the boys began to write
these letters on the blackboard in their classroom, they were
summoned to the director's study to explain. All four were exemplary
pupils and good Pioneers. However, the combined efforts of the
homeroom teacher, the school director and a Komsomol leader (called
in from the city Komsomol committee as a final, desperate measure)
were not enough to persuade the boys to explain the meaning of the
letters. In fact they were perfectly harmless (the reader is told
that they stood for the slogan: "Struggle, Search, Find asd Do Hot
Give Up!”), but the boys had svom a solemn oath not to reveal their
meaning to a living soul. The story is told to impress detachment
leaders with the fact that children need romanticism; if they do
not find it in the Pioneer Organization, they will look elsewhere
for it.1
The slow liberalization of Soviet society which has been
taking place since the fifties, has made it possible for educators
to reevaluate their ideas and to experiment with new methods.
It is now safe in many areas to take a hard look at Soviet reality
without fear of being punished for "deviation." As a result,
realization is growing that rigid control and supervision from
above will no longer serve in the development of the Soviet citizen.
Young people will have to be met on their own grounds and convinced
1. R. Andreeva, "Taina chetyrekh," Vozhatyi, No. 8, August 195^,

pp. 22-21*.
212
by argument rather than camnand. Soviet educators are beginning
to talk with increasing frequency of the importance of trusting
children to run their own affairs, and of the educational significance
of discussion and debate. Children are not objects to be manipulated,
but should be treated as individuals, capable of action. "Ignoring
the pupil," writes a well-known Soviet educator, who was one of
the foremost exponents of the pedagogical methods recommended in
the Stalinist period,
puts him into the position of W i n g merely an object

of upbringing, and because of W a t hinders the
development of the internal need to acquire knowledge,
master scientific concepts, [and] to form ideas.
Under such a system negative emotional attitudes
towards the teacher— and not only towards him— arise.
A special kind of solidarity becomes apparent in the
pupils* collective, their own 'heroes,* their own
'public opinion.' Deceit, hypocrisy, rudeness,
impertinence in the attitude towards the teachers
are inevitable phenomena. . . . A person who did not
receive during his schooling clear concepts about
his rights and obligations, who did not receive
firm moral norms, esthetic concepts and ideas, did
not master the basis for a scientific world view,
skills of independent work, is inclined to commit
anti-social acts in adult life.l
Clearly, the old methods of citizenship education have proved to
be not only inadequate and unsuccessful, but actually sometimes
harmful.
While such discussions are no longer unusual in the Soviet
press, practical experiments in granting more independence to
1. N. K. Goncharov, "Nekotorye teoreticheskie predposylki sistemi

vospitatel'noi raboty v shkole,” Sovetskaia pedagogika, No. 5, May
1965, P. 37.
213
children have "been— to say the least— timid. ^ It cannot however
he denied that a definite trend is apparent in the direction of
some liberalization of educational goals and policies; in fact,
at the present time, many of the "progressive" ideas of the early
period of Soviet education are being revived and pedagogues are
stressing the development of independent thought and action, while
teaching methods are taking the individual into account. How far
this trend will be allowed to go will depend in large measure on
the extent of political liberalization which the regime is planning
to permit. The basic conflict of Soviet citizenship education
remains unresolved: how to combine "firm leadership from above"
(which needs obedient helpers) with the utmost "self-activity from
below."
1. Proudly cited as examples are Instances where the supply closet

in class was no longer locked, or where the "honor system" was used
in the selling of movie tickets. See Osnovy komgunisticheskogo
vospitaniia (2d ed. Moscow: Gos. Izd. Pol. Lit., 1963), PP. 247-248.
CHAPTER V I I I
THE IMPACT OF THE PIONEER PROGRAM
The Pioneer Organization today enrolls the overwhelming major
ity of Soviet children. It seeks to influence most aspects of the
child*8 life, both daring his hours in school and. during his leisure
activities.1 It is fair to say that no Soviet citizen remains un
touched by its Influence. The question inevitably arises: hov suc
cessful this effort by the regime has been to affect the thoughts,
attitudes and behavior of every Soviet child?
The movement has probably been most successful in its aim to
exert complete political control over youth. Ever since its incep
tion, the Pioneer Organization has had a monopoly of the field; rival
groups were condemned and disappeared soon after the formation of the
organization. Control was far-reaching, and was not confined to po
litical matters. It will be remembered that, from the beginning,
Soviet youth leaders considered even non-political groups dangerous
if they were not under trustworthy Bolshevik leadership. The Pioneer
Organization today still fears any organized activity outside the
1. As this dissertation concentrates on problems of citizenship

education, little has been said about the Pioneer "circles" and
sumser caag». Suffice it to say here that the goal is to organize
extensive extra-curricular and sports programs, so as to occupy
children's leisure hours. Many of these facilities are run by
trade unions, pensioners or house committees and are thus outside
the framework of the Pioneer Organization. See above, p. 98.
215
Pioneer structure and attempts to prevent any such independent
initiative.
Control as pervasive as this necessarily carries vith it some
"built-in weaknesses. Children have a natural desire to get away from
adult supervision at soae time, even if they have no desire to engage
in forbidden activities. The Pioneer Organization is regarded as
part of the adult "establishment” and its members often experience the
need for something all their own. A recent investigation shoved
that aany children consider Pioneer activities— even extra-curricular
activities and assemblies— to be "school affairs,” and prefer to
organize games and activities vith their own friends outside the
framework of the organization. This often results in undesirable
activities, such as making fun of school work, or children teaching
each other how to "get sick” so as to be sent home. Pioneer leaders
are explicit in saying, however, that such independent activities
are dangerous even if organized for praiseworthy aims, as they are
not properly guided and might easily become harmful.'1'
Instances of revolt such as these, however, do not seem to
undermine over-all control. If the youth program generates some
impulses to protest, and if its control is not as total as the regime
would wish, it undoubtedly also gives the young a feeling of involve
ment and participation in the concerns of the adult world. All of
Soviet society, they are told, Is working together towards a common
1. Razvitie samodeiatel*nosti uchashchikhsia v pionerskol organizatsii

(Moscow: Izd. Ak. Bed. Nauk BSFSR, 1958), pp. 133-131*.
216
goal, and children and adults both have their duties to perform. It
Is quite possible that the feeling of being part of a ccsaaon endeavor
and the general acceptance of official values outweigh— at least for
the active participant— any incipient feelings of protest against
strict control.
Political control however, was only a prerequisite for the
fulfilment of the basic aim of the Soviet regime: cultural change
and political and economic development.
It is extremely difficult to evaluate the role of the Pioneer
Organization in this area. It cannot be denied that the Soviet
leaders succeeded in ranking over the society which they found. As
far as child rearing in concerned, Western research has shown that
even within the family— usually regarded as the stronghold of conser
vatism and tradition— fundamental, values and attitudes have changed
and that they have changed in accordance with the wishes of the
regime. "We have the strong impression that Soviet parents are
bringing up their children pretty much as the regime wants them
to. . . . The regime is no longer fighting the family . . . the fighting
is at an end because, in large measure, the Soviet family has been

„1
captured and captured from within, by the regime.
There is no doubt that, in the early period, the Pioneer
1. Alex Inkeles and Raymond A. Bauer, The Soviet Citizen (Cambridge:

Harvard University Press, 1959)* P» 230. This statement becomes
even more significant if it is considered that the data on which
it is based was obtained from disaffected Soviet citizens.
217
Organization was regarded as a weapon to "be used in this "capture
from within."
Operating at a level which was difficult for adult leaders
to reach, children could he formed into the shock troops of the regime
for breaking up social traditions, introducing new attitudes and
implementing Party policies. This was particularly important in the
countryside, where the influence of the Party and Komsomol was weakest
and traditional ways were strongest.
Krupskaia, in 1924, saw the task of the Pioneer Organization
in the countryside as nothing less than the complete transformation
of rural society. "It is the task of the EIKSM to organize the
children of the villages into pioneers of cooperation, of collective
labor, to create the forces, which will turn the village into the
road to socialism." The specific tasks of the Pioneer Organization
which she lists touch upon nearly every aspect of village life. They
range from the battle against illiteracy and help to the schools, to
propaganda of the elementary rules of hygiene, from political propa
ganda (Pioneers are expected to talk to adults about the workers’
movement, solicit subscriptions to newspapers and read the papers
aloud to those who cannot read) to the battle against drunkenness,
from spreading knowledge about natural science and propagandizing
collective labor to anti-religious propaganda.1 Equally important
are the organization's tasks in national areas. Here Pioneers were
1. Krupskaia, Pedagogicheskie sochinenlia, V, pp. 117-118.
218
expected to struggle for equal rights for women and girls, and for an
end to the patriarchal structure of the family.^ It is clear that
the childrens' organization was to work at the hard core of the old
system.
It is difficult to tell how successful was this attempt to break
up old traditions and ways of life through the Pioneers. There is no
doubt that there was considerable distrust, even hatred, of the new
Organization among the older generation. Parents feared that their
children would be corrupted by the new ideas and resented their inter
ference in adult affairs. On the other hand, older people were often
impressed with the discipline of the Pioneer ranks and interested in the
new ideas which they discussed. Krupskaia summed, up the attitudes of
the peasant population as follows: "Much about the Pioneers the peasants
do not like— they are godless, they hold their laws higher than the
commands of their fathers and mothers.
Peasants often beat their children so that they will not join
the Pioneers, especially the most ignorant [potemnee] and richest ones
among the peasants. . . . At present the majority of peasants no longer
prevent their children from joining detachments. They see that children
become more sensible, efficient and developed. . . . But there are also
such parents who support their children, who themselves learned and
_2
understood a great deal from their Pioneer children. . . .
1. For a full discussion, see la. Mushpert and Ye. Fairiberg, Komsomol i
molodezh natsional'nykh menshinstv (Moscow-Leningrad: Molodaia Gvardiia,
19257 :
2. Krupskaia, Pedagogicheskie sochlnenlia, V, pp. 152-153. This
article was written in 1925.
219
Peasants opposed not so such the nev ideas as the nethods used
to spread them. The Party found it necessary twice in 1925 to call
a halt to "harmful," "incorrect" and "crude" methods used by the
Pioneers (methods for the sost part borrowed from the Komsomol) in
anti-religious work and work among the peasantry.^-
The Pioneers' participation in the transformation of society
reached its peak in the early thirties. During the period of the
First Five Year Plan, Pioneers were expected to work shoulder to
shoulder with the Party and the Komsomol in ensuring fulfilment of the
tasks set by the Plan. Nothing was to be allowed to stand in the way,
not even the loyalty which a child owed to his parents. Sever*ianova
stated at the Ninth Komsomol Congress that the class struggle now was
the supreme goal for all, and takes priority over family ties. This
is the reason, she explains, why children in recent years have risen
up against fathers who played truant from work, and mothers who did not
want to Join the kolkhoz. The "fetish" of the family is destroyed
she proclaimed. Nevertheless, there is no "fathers and sons” problem.
Research carried on by the Institute of Marxism-Leninism on the attitude
of parents towards the Pioneer Organization showed that over 73 per cent
approved of the educational goals of the movement and of childrens'
participation in socialist construction, although it was conceded that
there was some opposition to the organization at the beginning of its

2
existence.
1. Dir, i dok., pp. 23, 26.
2. Deviatyi s”ezd, pp. 355# 3^0, 363. When we recall the fate which
befell Pavlik Morozov only a few years after this speech, this general
approval becomes somewhat suspect.
220
Considerable success seems to be attained, in the task of
forming "Communist convictions." Hot confined to the Pioneer
Organization, the indoctrination program begins as soon as the child
becomes conscious of the outside world and continues for the rest
of his life. When he begins his schooling, the Soviet child is
enrolled in the Octobrists; this is actually the start of his
career in the Pioneers, as the organization for younger children
serves merely as a preparatory stage for membership in the older
group. From this moment on, the values and ideas of the official
philosophy and the goals of the Pioneer Organization are endlessly
repeated to the child. It would be surprising indeed, if he had
not accepted them by the time he is old enough to leave the Pioneers.
The findings of Western scholars have corroborated this as
sumption. "It is our impression that the greatest success [the sub
ject under discussion is the effect of Soviet propaganda] was attained
in shaping the Soviet citizen's image of the outside world. . . .
The propaganda system also succeeded somewhat in inculcating
a series of standard images of the outstanding features of Soviet
society— to wit that it was 'democratic,' 'progressive,' 'classless,'
'without conflict* and so on. These images were apparently maintained
by people in the face of evident contradictions provided by their own
life experience . . . the attitudes toward the welfare state, civil
liberties, and other issues . . . all reveal major influences on basic

„1
thought processes arising from the propaganda efforts of the regime.
1. Inkeles and Bauer, op. cit., pp. 178-179. For a discussion of some
contemporary Soviet attitudes see U. Bronferibrenner "Allowing for Soviet
Perceptions and Motives," in R. Fisher (ed.), International Conflict and
Behavioral Science (Hew York: Basic Books, 1964), pp. 1^1-179*
221
Passive acceptance, however, is not the sane as active devo
tion, and it is active devotion which the regime seeks to produce.
It is likely that "Communist" ideas serve as the backdrop to the in
dividual's thinking, much in the same way as the concepts of "freedom"
and "democracy" are accepted as indisputably valid by individuals in
this country.^ To a generation however, which has never known
revolution, civil war, war or hardship, the message has lost its
urgency. Indifference seems to be a graver danger to the regime's
indoctrination program today, than disagreement or opposition. "More
generally," says a Western student of these problems,
these inconsistencies may be said to stem from the

effort to indoctrinate youth vith highly orthodox,
almost sacred convictions, at a time when the
development of the Soviet industrial system, the
spread of mass education, and the growing sophisti
cation of an urban population increasingly lead to
a secularization of values. Even in highly favorable
circumstances, the maintenance of a revolutionary
elan is difficult. As the Revolution itself recedes
into the distant past, and the needs of the system
come increasingly to center on the more routine
needs for technical rationality, organizational
skill, and occupational performance, the youth
program is faced with the unhappy task of purveying
a partially outdated message.2
In other words, the ideas of Marxism and the slogans of Leninism are
becoming increasingly irrelevant to Soviet society.
1. Yevtushenko's autobiography, for example, shows that criticism of

Soviet conditions is made in terms of communist ideals, not in protest
against them. See Ye. A. Yevtushenko, A Precocious Autobiography
(New York: E. P. Dutton, 1963). The same is true of the two Soviet
writers, Sinyavskii and Daniel, condemned to hard labor for their
"anti-Soviet" criticism of the system. See the trial transcript
published in the New York Times Magazine, 17 April 1966.
2. Kassoff, op. cit., p. 175.
222
If the basic values are generally accepted, young people
are voicing their doubts and hesitations about specific events and
problems and are urgently demanding answers. The de-Stalinlzation
measures and the dispute with Communist China in particular, have
raised questions in the minds of the young— intensified perhaps by
the confusion of their mentors— and the increasing contacts vith the
non-Communist world often point up the disparity between propaganda
and reality. Most of this ferment is centered in the older youth
groups, but Pioneer groups also are becoming involved in the discus
sion. The leadership is urging teachers and youth workers not to
evade such questions: if children do not get the explanation which
they seek, so runs the warning, they will obtain it from unauthorized
sources. It may become increasingly difficult in the future to secure
general acceptance of official policies and explanations.
Somewhat surprisingly, after almost fifty years of the Soviet
atheist campaign, religion is still a factor, even in the lives of
children. Although Soviet writers insist that religious belief
persists only in the old and uneducated, they are equally insistent on
the importance of combatting religious belief in the young. A recent
investigation showed that religious "survivals" are not, as had been
believed, confined to remote and backward rural areas; even in a large
industrial city, such as Leningrad, a significant percentage of
families were found to practice some fora of religious observance and
to teach their children to follow in their footsteps.A It is impossible
1. Sovetskaia pedagogika, Ho. 9> September 1965, pp. 30-36.
223
to tell in what manner and to what extent such facts affect the
success of the Pioneer program in indoctrinating the younger generation.
It seems fair to guess, however, that the influence of religion is not
strong enough to underwine the concerted effort to inculcate a
"scientific world view" in Pioneers as a group.
The Pioneer Organization has thus enjoyed a Hal ted success in
its aim of instilling new values; the area where results are most open
to question is the development of "habits of Communist behavior."
"Consciousness,” in other words, does not seem to serve as a deter
minant of action. Here the avowed aims of educators for the formation
of the new man come into direct conflict vith the means of control
used by the regime to ensure conformity and the ideology conflicts
with standards of performance. A child is urged to think of himself
only as a part of a collective, but the rationale of modernization
rewards individual performance and achievement. The Pioneer is told
that he is "master of his organization," but all his activities are
organized, guided and supervised by adults. He is told to act freely,
independently and on his own initiative, and at the same time he is
trained to obey higher authority without question and to observe the
strictest discipline. Youth leaders preach the virtues of revolutionary
change and extol the value of criticism and self-criticism, but they
oppose any change or criticism of their own methods.
Some of this conflict also stems from the fact that, for much
of the Soviet period, citizenship training and policies of social control
concentrated on producing the right kind of behavior through outside
pressures, rather than by attempting to influence inner motivation.
R eproduced with permission ofthe copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
22k
” . . . Soviet leaders [during the Stalin era] focused their attention
not on sentiments but on behavior. Every effort was made to structure
the life situation of the Soviet citizen so that he would do what was
expected of regardless of his feelings towards the regime and the
system. One former Pioneer who defected from the Soviet Union,
described his feelings in these words: "Externally I remained a loyal
Pioneer, but inwardly I felt differently. . . . I think that this
process, this split state of mind, is characteristic of the vast

_2
majority of people of that age in the Soviet Union.
Outside pressures can be positive or negative; it was not only
the terror which kept the Soviet citizen in line, but also the desire
to further his own career and to win praise for his performance. ?To
a great extent this involvement of the Soviet citizenry and in particular
the younger generation, in occupational success and advancement results

»3
in a form of depoliticazation. The individual becomes only
secondarily concerned with politics and ideology; conformity is based
on the expectation of rewards rather than on internalized values. It
is not to be wondered at that the ideal of the "new man" is still far
from a reality, even today when terror has been abandoned as an
instrument of social control, and the internalization of values is
again becoming a central concern.
1. Inkeles and Bauer, op. cit., p. 282. Emphasis in original.
2. Ibid., p. 286*
3. Ibid., p. 289.
225
CEATTER IX
CONCLUSION
The Pioneer Organization was established in the early years
of Soviet power and had its origin in the logic of the all-embracing
Marxist theory. To a regime which claimed to rule on every aspect of
life it was inconceivable that an area as important as the training
of the younger generation be left unsupervised. Not only was it
necessary to establish political control over the young and to
prevent them from falling under hostile or alien influences; the
regime also desired to enroll the youth of the country— the pliable
and enthusiastic younger generation— in the battle for the establish
ment of the new society.
The over-all goals of the new organization were clear from
the beginning. The Pioneer Organization was to establish exclusive
control over youth, absorb all other groups, and shape the political
ideas of its members and involve them in approved social action. The
organization was to help break up the old culture and was assigned the
task of developing the type of citizen best suited for the new society.
The “new Soviet man" was to be politically conscious, a convinced
Marxist, and an active helper of the regime; at the same time, he was
to develop the qualities which would make him an efficient and
effective worker in a modernized economy.
226
Monopoly of political control was established early and ha3
been maintained ever since. The role assigned to the Pioneer Organi
zation in Soviet society, however, changed with the changing times.
In the early years, when vast numbers of Soviet children did sot go
to school, and when the schools were still considered politically
unreliable, the Pioneers provided the missing organization, super
vision and political training for the young. They were the "vanguard"
of their age group, and were expected to explain the ideas and policies
of the regime to their families and to propagate them among their less
enlightened comrades. At tines, they were expected to work side by
side with the Party and the Komsomol in implementing the policies of
the regime; often they were treated as adults and were enlisted in
the struggle to win over their elders.
Like the Party itself, the Pioneer Organization lost most of
its political role in the years of Stalin’s rule. With the re
establishment of the traditional authority of the family and the
school in the thirties, Soviet youth leaders never again lost sight
of the fact that Pioneers are children and must be treated as such.
As the school became politically trustworthy, the Pioneer movement
came to serve as an adjunct to the director and the teacher, ready
to do their bidding and no more. The organization had to give up
completely its role in the transformation of society.
Since Stalin's death and with the increasing sophistication
of Soviet society, the movement has again been assigned a role— even
if a modest one— in Soviet society outside the schools, while its
position within the schools has become increasingly important with
227
the implementation of the successive educational reforms. The long
standing conflict between political leaders and educators seems to be
on the way towards a solution, and Komsomol leadership is exercized
through a growing apparatus of cadres concerned vith all aspects of
Pioneer work.
There can be no doubt that the Soviet leadership in the early
period considered the Pioneer Organization a valuable tool in the
transformation of society. Western researchers must question, how
ever, whether it was very effective in this area. It appears far
more likely that the decisive factor influencing the process of
modernization was the impact of the revolutionary policies of the
regime.^
If the Organization did not help materially in breaking up
the old culture, it seems to play an important role in the maintenance
and consolidation of the new. Soviet leaders consider it one of the
most Important socialization agencies in their society— indeed, Soviet
sources sometimes even deplore the extent to which the family seems
to be abdicating its responsibilities in this area. A prominent
American scholar found that "the peer collective (under adult leader
ship) rivals and early surpasses the family as the principal agent of
socialization," and foresees a possible development where the family
nay take on the characteristics of a collective and the collective
the characteristics of the family so that socializing influences will
1. Inkeles and Bauer, op. cit., pp. 215-216 present evidence to this
effect.
228
become completely "homogenized.
Conclusions of a Western student about the effectiveness of
the Pioneer program today must necessarily be tentative and cautious.
There is nothing hesitant however, about the evaluation offered by
Soviet youth leaders themselves. The chairman of the Central Soviet
of the All-Union Pioneer Organization recently listed the Organi
zation’s "enemies today" as: "petty bourgeois attitudes, parasitism,
hooliganism, Juvenile delinquency, religion, elements of nationalism,
uncultured behavior, money grubbing, egoism, [and] dishonesty in

„2
small and great matters.
Criticism such as this leaves no doubt that, in the eyes of
its creators, and in the light of the goals set for it, the Pioneer
Organization still falls far short of fulfilling the tasks for which
it was designed. As an Instrument for forming the new type of man
it has proved largely inadequate.
Viewed as a tool for political socialization in a period of
rapid political development on the other hand, the Pioneer Organization
must be Judged a qualified success. There can be little doubt that
the population as a whole first becomes involved in public affairs
and is inducted into the generally accepted value system largely
through membership in the Organization. It is as a Pioneer that the
child is made aware of his government's goals and of the contributions
1. U. Bronfenbrenner, "Soviet Methods of Character Education," American

Psychologist, XVIII, Eo. 8 (August, 1962), pp. 555 and 560.
2. Problemy pionerskogo dizheniia, p. 23.
229
expected of him; it is as a Pioneer that he learns to accept the
values on which his society is based.
Soviet methods and goals of citizenship education were based
on the premise that the nature of man is infinitely malleable and
can be shaped to any mold. While this concept remains basic for
Soviet educators even today, the model of the ideal Soviet citizen
changed over the years to conform to the requirements of the regime.
Pioneer leaders in the early period of the Organization's existence
stressed the need for concentrating on the upbringing of every child,
and the Pioneer program was aimed at shaping the entire personality
of the Individual. It was considered important that every citizen
understand the theory underlying the policies of the Comuni st
rulers, and that his cooperation be based on agreement and voluntary
discipline.
With the decision to undertake modernization at a forced pace,
pressures for total control produced an increasing emphasis on
obedience, discipline and performance. Only lip-service was paid
to the principles of the earlier era. Results, not motives were
what counted, and fear, shame, or the desire for personal reward
were acknowledged to be as useful for providing spurs to action as
were Communist convictions. Although today Soviet educators and
youth leaders again stress the importance of developing internalized
value8 as a basis for desired behavior, practices and attitudes formed
in the years of Stalin's rule die hard. There is a continuing deep-
seated reluctance to permit genuine initiative within the Pioneer
230
Organization, conforming behavior is still required, and rigid control
is still being exercized from above.
If the "nev Soviet man" is still far from a reality today,
the fault does not lie vith the Pioneer Organization. The contra
dictions contained in the model made full realization impossible at
all tines. However, the Leninist/Stallnist ideal of the dedicated,
convinced, self-sacrificing, purposeful and disciplined individual,
obedient to orders from above and motivated to act on his own in the
interests of a cause determined for him, served the regime veil
throughout the period of build-up and development, when it was
necessary to mobilize the population and spur it on to great efforts,
while supplanting old values and loyalties vith nev. The problem
today seems to be that Soviet society has developed to a point where
this model is becoming obsolete. Marxist/Leninist ideology, as we
have seen, is becoming irrelevant to conditions today, while the
economy and the government now increasingly need men who will be able
to decisions and take responsibility. Total control from the
center is no longer effective or efficient, and nev methods of
leadership are urgently needed. In short, the "subject" component
in the model of the ideal Soviet citizen is becoming a positive
obstacle to further progress.
All these problems are being discussed by the regime. As far
as the area of citizenship training is concerned however, efforts at
changing the status quo have been largely confined to attempts at
re-stating old principles rather than concentrating on evolving nev
231
Ideas and nethods. As long as the Party bases its claim to power
on its ability to interpret the only "correct" doctrine, there can be
no recognition that the ideology is irrelevant, and the citizen will
have to remain part "subject."
The political culture of the Soviet Union today has been aptly
described as a "partisan, mobilized subject political culture. The
great question for the future is whether the "partisan mobilized
subject" will evolve into a "citizen" who feels able to influence the
actions of his government and is competent to make political choices.
The Pioneer Organization worked out its methods in a period when it
was important to produce obedient and disciplined subjects who would
never question their orders from higher authority. It remains to
be seen whether it will be possible to adapt these methods to the
new post-Stalin phase— an age when the regime needs a selfreliant
population, workers who think for themselves, and citizens who display
real initiative— without losing the total control desired by the Party.
1. F. Barghoora in Pye and Verba, op. cit., p. ^52.
232
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SCHLESINGER, Ina, 1922-

Columbia U niversity, Ph.D ., 1967

U n iversity M icrofilm s, Inc., A nn A rb o r, M ichigan

The Evolution of Citizenship Education in the Soviet Union

Submitted in partial fulfillment

THE PIONEER ORGANIZATION:

The Evolution of Citizenship Education in the Soviet Union

This dissertation focusses on the origins, history and

development of the Pioneer Organization, which is today one of

the most important means of the political socialization of

Soviet youth. The Soviet regime is viewed as a government en­

gaged in rapid modernization by political means; the pressures

which resulted from this produced a need for total control by

the government and complete commitment on the part of the

population. Part One of the dissertation examines the reasons

for founding the children's organization, the development of

the Pioneer movement in the context of changing educational

theories and policies, its relations with the school, and pr o­

blems of Komsomol and Party control. Part Two analyses the

in the light of the changing needs of the regime. The early

blueprint is compared with the Stalinist model, and the changes

made in the post-Stalin era are examined. Finally, an attempt

is made to evaluate the impact of the Pioneer program on Soviet

It was found that the Pioneer Organization was estab­

lished early in the history of the regime in order to establish

exclusive control over youth, shape the political ideas of its

early years of Soviet power it was also used to break up old

cultural patterns and help establish the new. In this period,

the children's organization was treated as an auxiliary of

the Party and the Komsomol. As the Stalin regime crystallized,

the Pioneer Organization lost its role in the transformation

of society and became completely subordinate to the educa­

increasing sophistication of Soviet society, the movement has

again been assigned a modest role outside the school. Although

there is some doubt whether the movement played a significant

part in breaking up the old culture, it is today one of the

main factors in the consolidation and maintenance of the new.

From the outset, the Pioneer Organization was placed

under the immediate control of the Komsomol with over-all

supervision by the Party. The Youth League was hampered con­

flict with the teaching and administrative staff of the schools:

it is only recently that a more harmonious collaboration has

been worked out.

While the Organization can be adjudged fairly successful

in its aim of establishing exclusive political control and incul­

cating the desired convictions in the young, the ideal of the

It was found to contain a basic contradiction rooted in the-

conflict between the Marxist humanitarian ideal and the require-

modernization. The dedicated, disciplined individual obedi­

ent to orders from above and forgetful of his own interests,

needed by the latter, could not coexist with the freely-acting,

fully developed and thinking man of the Marxist Utopia.

While the Leninist/Stalinist model served the regime

well as an ideal during the period of rapid build-up and

development, indications are mounting that it is becoming

obsolete in a sophisticated economy and a society where total

control from the center is no longer efficient or effective.

So far, it was found, the regime has not responded adequately

and for different methods of citizenship training.

INTRODUCTION:SOCIALIZATION IN THE SOVIET UNION................. 1

THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE PIONEER ORGANIZATION

II. ESTABLISHMENT AND FORMATIVE YEARS..................... 37

Soviet youth. The Soviet regime is viewed as a government en

theories and policies, its relations with the school, and pr o

It was found that the Pioneer Organization was estab

of society and became completely subordinate to the educa

supervision by the Party. The Youth League was hampered con

in its aim of establishing exclusive political control and incul

modernization. The dedicated, disciplined individual obedi

This dissertation focuses on the origins, history and devel

and on the importance of this process in the establishment and main

Pioneers in rural and national areas. The discussion will concen