Oh You Little Pioneers

Organizer

Croatian School Museum, Trg Republike Hrvatske 4, 10000 Zagreb www.hsmuzej.hr

On the Behalf of the Organizer

Anita Zlomislić

Author of the Exhibition

Kristina Gverić

Professional Associate:

Branka Manin

Visual Design of the Exhibition

Organizirano oblikovanje d.o.o.

Marketing

Marijana Bračić

Educational Programme

Ivana Dumbović Žužić

Technical associate

Nikica Renić

The exhibition and catalogue were financed by the City Office for Culture and Civil Society and the Ministry of Culture and Media of the Republic of Croatia.

From December 20, 2023 to March 9, 2024

With the exhibition Oh You Little Pioneers, for the first time, we are exploring the material of the Croatian School Museum thematically related to the period of the Yugoslav socialism in more detail. The reason for that is the 80th anniversary of the founding of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (then under the name Democratic Federative Yugoslavia; founded on November 29th 1943). Our exhibition primarily represents student works, children’s creativity, artistic and literary works, notebooks and similar material in which history is read through student and child perspective. An impressive number of 5000 museum objects, directly or indirectly related to the time we are talking about, witnesses the history of a childhood – childhood of a pioneer.

Alongside children’s creativity we also represent photographs, postcards, textbooks and school periodicals, readers, toys, school equipment, library material and archival material – all of which contribute to contextualization of students’ works at the specific time in which they were created. When looking at students’ works, we are to represent with the exhibition and a catalogue, the ideologization of the formal and systematic education is clearly visible as well as that of leisure and commemorative celebrations. The task was to incorporate ideology – “national liberation struggle”, Tito, the Party, the Army, socialism and communism, partisans and “enemies” – into every content, formal and informal occurrences of educational forms. The promotion of brotherhood and unity, the antagonism towards the enemy, organizing leisure activities for children and students, their inclusion into active community life, fostering solidarity and camaraderie amongst them as well as motivating them to work and study and progress are most important goals of the Union of Pioneers of Yugoslavia.

The Union of Pioneers of Yugoslavia, from its very beginning, promoted ideas related to creating a new social order encouraging political indoctrination, ideas prone to manipulation, ideas with which attitudes were inculcated. For children of the time, The Union, with its imposed activities, fulfilled their school time as well as their leisure time.  The marking of various special dates, anniversaries and ceremonies should not leave the impression of coercion on the pioneers, nor should the children feel that any activity is obligatory. Instead, through play, fun and joy the executives communicated their ideas subtly and imperceptibly. 

From today’s point of view our visitors might be interested to observe that particular part of our history viewed and interpreted through child’s eye. We will remember celebrating important dates - comrade Tito’s Birthday, Women’s Day, Pioneers Acceptance Day. All the works by students form the National Liberation Struggle and from the Refugee Camp in El Shatt are especially interesting and valuable when looked upon as testimony of a different childhood in an another and different time. Works done by children are taking us travelling through time, a time unknown and incomprehensible to a child of today, a child of 21st century.   

Despite frequent ideological indoctrination and political surveillance, the pioneer organization had a positive impact on many youngsters encouraging them to solidarity and togetherness. Their role in the construction of socialist Yugoslavia was important, although ideas and values changed during its history, especially after Josip Broz Tito died. 

Finally, the exhibition is concluded with the film made on June 8th 1989 in Experimental (exemplary) Elementary School Ivan Goran Kovačić in Vukovar. That film sums up crucial parts of pioneer history and their childhood culture by transparently representing one part of a school day at a very end and disappearance of an almost half a century long cult of becoming and being a pioneer.