Mission
The organisation's responsibilities paralleled those of the Union of Communist Youth (UTC) and involved political (preparing children to become party members) and propagandistic training. Until 1966 the Pioneers functioned as an integral part of the UTC, but thereafter it was under the direct control of the Central Committee of the Romanian Communist Party. 70 percent of the 9-14 age group, or approximately 1.3 million young people, belonged to the Pioneers in 1981. The organization published Cutezătorii.
The Pioneers ran a variety of summer camps and other activities, also having a number of recreation centres around Romania. For instance, Cotroceni Palace became the Pioneers' Palace on June 1, 1950.
The Pioneers served an important propaganda function, as a central part of their activity lay in mass demonstrations, held on August 23, May 1, November 7, and, starting in the 1950s, on the birthdays of Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin, as well as Youth Day. In later years, three to five thousand Pioneers would be brought to Bucharest (7,000 in 1987), training rigorously every day for a month (two hours in the morning and two in the evening) before their moment in the spotlight.
Read more about this topic: Pioneer Organization
Famous quotes containing the word mission:
“When youre dealing with monkeys, youve got to expect some wrenches.”
—Alvah Bessie, Ranald MacDougall, and Lester Cole. Raoul Walsh. Captain Nelson, Objective Burma, giving a subaltern a mission (1945)
“The mission is too important to allow you to jeopardize it.”
—Stanley Kubrick (b. 1928)
“Every Age has its own peculiar faith.... Any attempt to translate into facts the mission of one Age with the machinery of another, can only end in an indefinite series of abortive efforts. Defeated by the utter want of proportion between the means and the end, such attempts might produce martyrs, but never lead to victory.”
—Giuseppe Mazzini (18051872)