Suchergebnisse

Situated at the intersection of studies of socialist internationalism and youth,
this paper explores the origins and character of Romania's international pioneer
camps and youth exchanges in the immediate postwar decade, from 1949
through the late 1950s. It examines the role played by the Soviet model of
socialist internationalism in the development of Romania's camps and youth
exchanges as well as the diplomatic, pedagogical, and medical aims international
pioneer camps were expected to fulfill for Romania's fledgling regime of popular
democracy. The few existing works on the evolution of mass youth organizations
and the reforms of education in Romania assume the existence of an all-powerful
regime and party, who enforced these measures from above, having centralized
state power and nationalized property and economic resources. Through an
examination of the first international camps organized on the Black Sea Coast
and in the Carpathian Mountains in Romania, this study nuances such views,
suggesting that the newly created youth and children's organizations – The
Workers' Youth Union and the Pioneer Organization – were precarious party
structures, which lacked politically trustworthy and ideologically trained cadres
as well as material and administrative resources to assume full control of the
country's youth in the immediate postwar years