My childhood and pioneer tie

Recently, my son and I had an unusual and somewhat curious conversation, more like an anecdote. He came from school and began to talk about children who lived long and all the time. To my question about what these children were translating, the son replied:

- Mom, do not you know, they were translating grandmothers!

- Where did you translate? - I wondered, I asked.

"Mom, how can you not understand!" They were passing grandmothers across the road, and they also had such red things on their necks, - the son was indignant.

I immediately realized who was talking about, but still I decided to ask one more question:

"So you're talking about pioneers, and the red thing is a pioneer tie?"

"Yes," Anton cheerfully confirmed. I wanted to ask him more:

- Tell me, what do you think happened to these people and where are they now?

"Mom, it was a long time ago," the son said with knowledge. "They all died like dinosaurs."

His son could not understand for a long time why his mother was laughing for so long.

First, the Oktyabr icon, then the Pioneer tie, and the Komsomol badge. Without this attribute of public children's and youth organizations to represent the Soviet Union is impossible. The ideological education of new citizens of the country, devoted to the Communist Party, was a state task. It is very difficult for many young people to appreciate the scale and power of the structure of these organizations, and then for each child to become a pioneer was honorable and significant.

Joining the pioneers is one of the brightest events in my childhood. I still remember how to tie a pioneer tie. As it was necessary every day to wash and iron it, because it was scraped and spoiled all the time. How expensive was the pioneer tie, how proud they were in the 4th grade, and how all the high school students, leaving the school building, tried to hide it further into the bag ...

I created a query in the search engine and was amazed at how many different sites offer to buy a pioneer tie: the sizes are offered the most different, purchases wholesale and retail, delivery free of charge and at tariffs. As it turned out, Soviet symbols are very popular in the CIS. For someone, a pioneer tie is a running product, for someone - familiar and favorite signs of a distant childhood or youth.

Here are some interesting facts from the history of the pioneers, which remained in my memory.

Pioneer organization itself appeared in 1922, and by 1925 in the USSR there were about one and a half million pioneers. And in a few years almost all the children of the country in the third or fourth class were accepted as pioneers.

The pioneer organization was formed in opposition to the scout movement popular in the twenties of the last century. A tie, as a distinctive sign, was invented not by pioneers, but by scouts.

At the time of the formation, the pioneer organization bore the name of Spartacus. She received the name of Lenin after the death of the leader.

The scale of the pioneer organization was enormous. The newspaper was published in many languages, every day it was broadcast on the radio. As part of the organization's work, reviews, concerts, gatherings and rallies were held.

It was thanks to the pioneers that summer camps for children in the USSR appeared, as they then called the pioneer camps. The most famous and prestigious of them was the All-Union Young Pioneer Camp "Artek". It is located on the Black Sea coast and is still functioning.

In addition to the pioneer tie, there was also a pioneer badge, these attributes were worn together.

At first, the pioneer tie was made of hard cotton cloth. Then instead of it began to use acetate click. Each year, the sewing industry of the Soviet Union produced more than three million pioneer ties. He cost 58 cents.

The triangular shape of the tie symbolized the unity of the pioneers, their leaders - Komsomol members and mentors - Communists.

It was a different life, another childhood and another country.