Well, while most people I know who were YPs either have fond memories of the experience (for one thing, entering the YPs was a mark of being a Big Kid for a Soviet child) or don't purely because they don't like forced sociability, I shoukd point out that the Boy/Girl Scouts are voluntary, and the YPs were (are -- they exist in Cuba, China, Vietnam, and North Korea, I think) not.
--- On Sat, 10/25/08, John Thornton <jthorn65 at sbcglobal.net> wrote:
> From: John Thornton <jthorn65 at sbcglobal.net>
> Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] Young Pioneers, was bad things to Soviet children
> To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
> Date: Saturday, October 25, 2008, 3:51 PM
> I know a woman from Czech who, upon first coming to the US,
> didn't have
> much nice to say about her experiences as a Young Pioneer.
> This changed greatly after she received her teaching
> certification and
> began to teach as well as become involved in Girl Scouts
> and summer
> camps for children.
> Now she says that although there were differences between
> what Czech
> children learned as Young Pioneers and what US children
> learn in Girl
> Scouts and at summer camps the differences are nowhere near
> as striking
> as she had imagined.
> She thinks each has negative as well as positive aspects
> and has no more
> of the disdain for the Young Pioneers she once held.
>
> John Thornton
>
>
>
>
> Chris Doss wrote:
> > Cool Soviet children's footage on the 'Tube:
> >
> > Two And Two Are Four:
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5DPEg1lp3s&feature=related
> >
> > The October Children Are Coming:
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7oMx6nv-eUA&feature=related
> >
> > Lenin-Party-Komsomol!:
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-yAUX5MFMtY
> >
> > We Are Soviet Power Too:
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMRd3z3iJb8&feature=related
>
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