Youth organizations in Communist Czechoslovakia

History Politics Economy Industry Agriculture Foreign trade Transport Education Demographics Government structure Health and social welfare Mass media Resource base Religion Society After the 1948 takeover of power, the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia ("KSČ") formed two Soviet-style youth organizations: the Pionýr (Pioneers, for youngsters eight to fifteen years old) and the Czechoslovak Union of Youth (ČSM, ages fifteen to twenty-five).

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.

As in the case of the KSČ, 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.

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."

Over the time the membership in Pionýr and SSM became more-less a formal duty; most of the members ignored actions organized by the Union and many local groups existed only on the paper.

In 1946 a newly formed international organisation Association Internationale des Etudiants en Sciences Economiques (AIESE) was first headquartered in Prague, but had to leave the country in order to stay politically neutral after the communists gained power.