Evgeniya Nikolaevna Benevalenskaya,
Candidate of Historical Sciences, Altai State Pedagogical University, e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Pioneer Organization of the Altai Territory and the Formation of Soviet Identity in 1945–1955
DOI: 10.31518/2618-9100-2022-6-9
The 100th anniversary of the Pioneers, celebrated this year, actualizes the problem of the role of this children’s organization in the history of our country. In the article, for the first time, on the basis of regional materials, the mechanisms of implementing the state project for the formation of Soviet identity in the activities of the pioneer associations of Altai in 1945–1955 are considered. The value of the considered practices of constructing civic identity lies in the fact that their implementation was part of a large-scale and unique experiment in the world of incorporating Soviet rituals and traditions into the everyday life of children and youth. The methodological basis of the work was social-constructivist, process-relational and cultural approaches applied to the study of the phenomenon of memory in the problem field of Memory Studies. The source base of the article includes the normative documents of the Central Committee of the All-Union Leninist Communist Youth Union, office materials of its organizations in the region from the fonds of the State Archives of the Altai Krai. The analysis of the reports of the departments of pioneers and school youth of the Komsomol was supplemented by the study of information and certificates on inspections of the work of children’s associations by the regional, city and district committees of the Communist Party and the involvement of press materials about their activities in Altai. During the study, in relation to the goals of ideological policy of the Soviet Union, the tasks and directions of the restored pioneer movement were revealed. The process of introducing all-Soviet symbols, rituals and commemorations into children’s everyday life, called to instill civic identity, is shown. It has been established that turning to the past was an important mechanism for the formation of patterns of self-identification of the younger generation in the pioneer organization of the Altai Krai. Positive factors in the formation of life orientations for children and teenagers were examples of the fates of veterans of two wars, pilots, scientists and researchers, and highly qualified specialists from enterprises of the region.
Publishing: 28/12/2022
The article has been received by the editor on 07/07/2022
How to cite: Benevalenskaya E.N. Pioneer Organization of the Altai Territory and the Formation of Soviet Identity in 1945–1955 // Historical Courier, 2022, No. 6 (26), pp. 124–134. [Available online: http://istkurier.ru/data/2022/ISTKURIER-2022-6-09.pdf]
Links: Issue 6 2022
Keywords: pioneer organization; socialization; Soviet identity; memory; Altai Krai; post-war decade