It started this morning on Pioneer’s Day with congratulations in messengers from old relatives and old friends. Dear words, good wishes, pictures and photos from pioneer childhood. Everyone remembers this holiday with special warmth, but do they know that today is also a holiday for schoolchildren and years later they will remember this day and tell their children how it was in their childhood and youth?
As are
“Scream of the Pioneers – Always Be Prepared!” – these lines from the song to the words of Alexander Zharov, which have become an anthem for many generations of schoolchildren, are known to everyone who studied at a Soviet school, without exception. A pioneer tie and a badge with a portrait of Lenin are a constant attribute of a high school student.
The All-Union Pioneer Organization, named after Lenin, was born on May 19, 1922 by the decision of the Second Congress of the Komsomol. And its origins lie in the Russian scouting movement. “Even in the Russian Empire, a scout movement was created, teaching young people the basics of pre-war education and the skills of helping people around them, educating patriots of the country and responsible citizens, as we call them today. This was the first attempt of the power of state institutions to create an experimental system, which was successfully received in the USSR, to ensure the constructive leisure and collective education of young people, ”says Arseniy Mayorov, Associate Professor of the Faculty. Political Science
At the outbreak of the Civil War, scouts helped search for street children, organized juvenile police units, and provided outreach. Immediately after the revolution, the Soviet authorities began to feel the need to create their own communist organizations to work with children.
By 1970, the All-Union Pioneer Organization had combined 23 million pioneers into more than 118,000 pioneer squads. The pioneers were engaged in collecting waste paper and scrap metal in the cities, planting green spaces, and raising small domestic animals in the countryside. And the Pioneer Day celebrations were held on a grand scale with parades of schoolchildren on Red Square. Perestroika, which started in 1986, also affected the pioneer organization. On October 1, 1990, the Union of Pioneer Organizations – Federation of Children’s Organizations (SPO-FDO) was established to replace the All-Union Pioneer Organization.
According to Arseny Mayorov, the vanguard movement was an outstanding achievement for the Soviet state: many Russian citizens living under the Soviet system, their participation in the vanguard movement is perceived as a very eventful and interesting period of their life, which left a lot. extremely positive impressions in their memory.
What happened
Today, mass celebrations across the country are a thing of the past. But some traditions were preserved and became the basis of a new holiday – Children’s Day of Public Associations and Organizations. Every year on May 19, some schools in Russia host lecture hours, students’ concerts and various events dedicated to the history of the pioneering movement.
In modern Russia there are several hundred children’s public institutions. On the basis of the largest of them, the Russian Schoolchildren Movement (RDSH), a new Russian Children and Youth Movement (RDDM) “First Movement” was created in 2022. However, Russian President Vladimir Putin presented still thinking and evaluating the usual word “pioneers” for the new organization.
It should be noted that at the state level, the head of state creates many projects supporting child, youth and youth initiatives. In our country, developed platforms are launched to implement the ideas and initiatives of young citizens, there are several children’s public organizations that meet the most diverse interests and needs of the younger generation. Thanks to the First Movement, young Russians realize their projects in the fields of culture, science, technology, sports and patriotism, children get new opportunities to develop their talents, which will further benefit the whole country.
“First Movement”
The idea of creating the Russian Movement for Children and Youth was announced in April 2022 at the third face-to-face meeting of the Supervisory Board of the ANO “Russia – the Land of Opportunities”. A month later, a bill on the youth and children’s movement of Russia was submitted to the State Duma. In the explanatory note, he stated that the goals of the movement will be the implementation of state policy regarding children and youth, participation in the upbringing of children, career guidance, leisure activities, as well as creating an environment for self-realization. Regional branches and local branches in municipalities will be established in all matters. The document was adopted in three readings, the law was signed by the president on July 14, and on July 29 it was learned that Vladimir Putin headed the supervisory board of the children’s movement. The head of state called the creation of an equitable, accessible, interesting environment for development and self-realization in various fields as the main task.
At the first congress held in December, they decided on the name. The new organization became known as the “First Movement”. Yunarmiya united all the youth organizations and movements of the country, including the Great Change and the Russian Schoolchildren Movement. The goals are quality education, participation in cultural life, volunteerism, preservation of historical memory, healthy lifestyle, development of environmental projects, protection of nature, development of tourism in Russia.
Foundation for the future
“Working with youth remains a priority area of government policy, so it’s not surprising that the government pays so much attention to it. Young people with a great energy and desire for knowledge need the points of application of their power and high-quality sources of information about events and phenomena around them. The state should provide this opportunity for the flexible and still developing consciousness of a young person to form positive worldviews and semantic structures. “The state is working in this direction, laying the foundation for its future development,” says political scientist Maxim Shcherbinin, member of the Digoria club of experts.
For him, the present existence of a youth community like the “First Movement”, which has assimilated and updated our historical best practices in education, training and even entertainment, is the guarantee of the country’s future development.
“This is a valuable investment in youth, which will bring prosperity for the entire state,” stressed the political scientist.
“Previously and this approach is not only typical for our country, working with young citizens of different ages could be largely reduced to a kindergarten, school, college and/or higher education institution, where children and youth were actually under supervision. adults and moderate such behavior. If possible, parents can regularly visit children’s sports sections,” said Arseniy Mayorov.
According to him, the rest of the time young people were left to themselves and often did not fully understand what to do with themselves, where to direct their energies and where to develop their talents, with whom to communicate.
“Now the situation is completely different: there are many youth organizations, competitions, forums, youth centers, online platforms, there is a huge network of volunteer projects, etc. I would also like to emphasize that in the last two years, educational work in educational institutions has intensified significantly: they began to reassemble, modernize, rethink and saturate with new content. Therefore, we see the dynamic development of working with youth as an integrated area of state life.”
Mayorov emphasized that the value and importance of active interaction with young people and open dialogue with young people’s representatives has increased in recent years in Russia. And today the Children’s Day of Public Societies, also known as Pioneer Day, plays a special role both in the field of state policy and for all public movements and organizations.