Pionýr (Socialist Czechoslovakia)

Pionýr (literally: Pioneer), officially Pioneer Organization of the Socialist Youth Union (Czech: Pionýrská organizace Socialistického svazu mládeže, PO SSM; Slovak: Pionierska organizácia Socialistického zväzu mládeže, PO SZM), was a youth Marxist-Leninist organization in communist Czechoslovakia. Although the organisation proclaimed to be voluntary, every child was expected to join from the age of six.

The Czech word pionýr is an approximate synonym of the word skaut (scout). Both are loan words from English and both are connected with the Czech idealization of the Wild West. Therefore, the Pionýr's inspiration from the Scout movement is obvious.

Pioneer activities were taken from the Scout movement, the Sokol movement, and the Soviet Komsomol. Original pioneer activities included old paper or herb collecting, described as "voluntary help for Czechoslovak industry". Collecting was a nationwide competition, and the winning pioneer team received a prize and media attention, and a positive reference for their later career. Other common activities including creating poster walls praising the Soviet Union and socialist life in general, or “navázání družby” (“creating a friendship”) with youth from other communist countries. Young pioneers also recited poems in various communist festivals. The most popular activity were the summer camps, which sometimes involved the hosting of youth communist organizations from the whole Eastern Bloc. The organisation's most controversial activity was young pioneers being encouraged to denounce their parents, like the Soviet hero Pavlik Morozov.

The group's activities changed significantly over time. The group was most radical in the 1950s and became more liberal during the 80s due to perestroika.

The uniform consisted of a light blue shirt and grey trousers. The female variant used a white shirt and dark blue trousers or skirt. Both sexes wore a red neckerchief.

The PO-SYU Regulation mission statement from 1949 states that a Pioneer:

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