"The author defines the role of the Young Pioneers Organization of the Socialist Youth Union in socialist society. In the first part of the study he deals with some of the 'ideas put forward by the theorists of children’s Communist movement, N. K. Krupskaya and E. Hoernle, characterizing the general principles on which the Young Pioneers Organization is based. In the second part he deals with the Czechoslovak Young Pioneers Organization of the Socialist Youth Union, which he characterizes as children’s social and socialist organization, its function being to prepare children for life in socialist society by having the participate in it, to develop and to promote the interests of children’s a social group. In view of this function it is not just an educational institution; but like any other social organization it does include an educational component in the content of its activities too. It is linked with the other factors of the socialist society’s educational system by a common aim, which is the formation of a socialist citizen. To attain this aim the Young Pioneers Organization is going its own specific way, in keeping with its specific function. As an educational factor the Young Pioneers Organization is not universal and does not solve all the problems connected with the formation of a socialist personality, but it concentrates on such tasks as correspond to its function, conditions and possibilities. In connection with its characteristic ideological and political orientation special significance is attached to training children in teamwork spirit and developing in them a sense of social commitment. An important condition for implementing the aims of the Young Pioneers Organization is the attractiveness of the activities, which means that particular interests of children must be taken in to account. For this reason the characteristic feature of the activities of the Young Pioneers Organization as a social organization of children is the combination of play and work. The concluding passage is devoted mainly to the relationship between the Young Pioneers Organization and the school. The author deals with the functions and particular features of each, and points out that if the co-operation between the school and the Pioneers Organization is to be educationally effective, it must proceed from the specificity of each of the partners

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