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Czechoslovakia Youth Organizations
Because the creation of the "new socialist man" is an
important part of communist ideology, youth organizations have
always played an important role in communist regimes. After the
1948 takeover, the KSC formed two Soviet-style youth
organizations: the Pioneers (for youngsters eight to fifteen
years old) and the Czechoslovak Union of Youth (ages fifteen to
twenty-five). Both organizations were geared toward grooming
their members (or a fortunate fraction of them) for KSC
membership.
By the late 1960s, some 70 percent of all those eligible were
members of the Pioneers; the reform movement revealed, however, a
number of points of dissatisfaction. Czechoslovak adherence to
the Soviet model extended to uniform dress (white shirts and red
kerchiefs) and salutes, neither of which was popular among Czechs
and Slovaks. In addition, Pioneers leadership was often less than
devoted. In 1968, when the organization became voluntary, the
number of leaders dropped precipitously; the resulting shortage
persisted through the 1980s.
The Czechoslovak Union of Youth had a tumultuous history
during the late 1960s and 1970s. As a feeder organization for the
KSC, it faced many of the same problems the party faced in
recruiting members. In the mid-1960s, less than half of all
fifteen to twenty-five year olds were members; in the mid-1970s,
fewer than one-third had joined. As in the case of the KSC, those
who joined tended to do so with their future careers in mind;
secondary school and university students were overrepresented,
while only a fraction of the eligible industrial and agricultural
workers belonged. Furthermore, a single, centralized organization
was simply an inadequate vehicle for the interests of such a
diverse group. During the reform era, the Czechoslovak Union of
Youth split into a number of independent associations, including
the Union of High School Students and Apprentices, the Union of
Working Youth, and the Union of University Students. It was not a
development the party found suitable, and beginning in 1969 party
leaders set about reconstituting a unified movement. During the
same era, the 1968 invasion spawned a number of dissident youth
organizations. In the early 1970s, these were all infiltrated and
repressed by the KSC, a policy that has continued through the
1980s.
In 1970 the party organized the Czechoslovak Socialist Union
of Youth, and by mid-decade the skewed recruitment pattern of its
predecessor, the Czechoslovak Union of Youth, which had recruited
more students than workers, had reappeared. The recruitment
effort had been more intense than ever. "I know of only two types
of students at this institution," commented one teacher, "those
who will not graduate and those who are members of the
Czechoslovak Socialist Union of Youth." The nets had been cast so
widely that, not surprisingly, some members were unenthusiastic.
Throughout the 1970s, there were complaints about the
organization's propensity to take any and all joiners (even
"beatniks," one writer complained), the association's apolitical
and recreational focus, and a membership bent more on securing
admission to a university than learning "the principles of
socialist patriotism."
In 1983 the Czechoslovak Socialist Union of Youth had a total
membership of over 1.5 million. Twenty-five percent of the
members were listed as workers, 3 percent as agricultural
workers, and 72 percent as "others."
Data as of August 1987
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