A resident of Klichev collected a unique collection of paraphernalia of Soviet Octobers, pioneers and Komsomol members

October stars, pioneer badges and ties, Komsomol badges... In the collection of a resident of Klichev Svetlana Dolbik - about fifty exhibits of attributes of youth organizations of the USSR. She began collecting them as a high school student in the early 1970s, as if she already knew that her entire future life would be devoted to working with pioneers and Octocats.

Svetlana was born in the village of Poplavy Klichevsky district. After graduating from the city secondary school No. 1 tried to enter the BSU for journalism, but there were not enough points. For several months, the girl worked in the department of letters of the district newspaper, and then in Klichev secondary school No. 2, the place of the senior pioneer counselor was vacated, where she was called.

Svetlana Fedorovna recalls:

- At that time, every school, even the smallest rural, had a pioneer teacher. We were engaged in the preparation of various events for pioneers, October, preparing high school students for joining the Komsomol. From the first days I knew it was mine. The work was lively, not office: we and the guys went on hikes, one-day and overnight in tents, learned the history of their native land, sang pioneer songs by the fire, read patriotic poems.

And every year new exhibits were added to her collection: badges with the image of Lenin, jubilee – 50, 60 years of pioneering. She has badges from Artek and Zubrenka. In the popular in the USSR pioneer camp "Zubrenok" of republican significance Svetlana visited twice as a schoolgirl: awarded trips for good study. In the international center "Artek" she was sent to the All-Union ten-day courses of pioneers - the youth rested on the sea, exchanged experience.

There is in her collection and the badge of the Central Committee of the Komsomol "Pioneer-Water", to which the certificate is attached.

Svetlana Fedorovna says:

The Day of the Great October Revolution and May 1 were the biggest holidays in the Soviet Union. In the morning, adults and children went to demonstrations, which were always very solemn: with flags, banners, cars, people made flowers from fabrics. And later solemnly celebrated these dates in families - few went to restaurants then, more often gathered at someone's house.

On the eve of the Great October Revolution, first-graders were accepted in October. At the school where the pioneer leader Svetlana Dolbik worked, their parents came to congratulate the children on this important event, the whole pioneer squad - about 300 people - gathered. Veterans of the Great Patriotic War addressed students with a welcoming speech - in those years many of them were alive. The front-runner was the school director Stepan Andreevich Zayats, a history teacher. The boys listened with bated breath.

The first-graders, who had just been accepted in October, were very proud of this, tried to make sure that everyone saw their stars - evidence of belonging to a large authoritative organization.

This school celebrations dedicated to the Day of the October Revolution did not end: for high school students in the assembly hall was an evening, for pioneers – gatherings of detachments with the invitation of veterans of the Great Patriotic War. Svetlana Dolbik well remembers the themes to which the pioneer training camp was devoted: “My place in the revolution today”, “If I lived in 1917”.

The fact that such events were not held formally is evidenced by an important fact: in the dashing 90s, when everything around began to fall apart, the October, Pioneer and Komsomol organizations continued to work actively in the Klichevsky district. The guys, as before, participated in all significant actions: collected waste paper, scrap metal, helped those who needed it, the Timur movement was developed. After graduating in absentia from the Minsk Pedagogical Institute (today the Belarusian State Pedagogical University named after Maxim Tank), Svetlana Dolbik went on a promotion from the post of senior pioneer leader - she became the director of the district House of Pioneers, where she worked for many years, until her retirement. However, the name of the institution headed by her has changed several times: first - the Center for extracurricular work, later - the Center for children's creativity, and today it is the Center for additional education of children and youth. But here they still help schoolchildren to spend their leisure time, learn something new, educate patriots from them.

Svetlana Dolbik continues the story of her collection:

- In general, in the years of my youth, October stars, pioneer badges and ties could be bought in the store, only banners and horns were not on sale, they were fixed for each squad. As I remember now, a pioneer tie cost 75 kopecks - a pretty serious amount for a schoolboy. The simplest badges sold for 10 kopecks, more complex, voluminous - for 15-20. By the way, the post-war badges of our parents were stronger than those issued later: higher quality, never broke.

There is a pioneer tie in the collection, which Svetlana gave in Bulgaria, where she visited in 1979. In appearance, it is the most ordinary, red, but unlike those that were produced then in the Soviet Union, no threads fell from the imported, and after washing it did not need to be ironed, because it did not crumple.

When grandchildren from Minsk come to Svetlana Dolbik, she shows them her collection. However, Anna’s granddaughter is only six years old, she is still small, so for now she is just looking at, studying. But 13-year-old Andrew asks a lot of questions. And yet, for him, this is already a story, and quite a distant one.

Svetlana Fedorovna compares generations:

- But my sons Svyatoslav and Arseny, when they were growing up, just lived: they remembered every exhibit, asked to wear badges, went to school with them, bragged to classmates. One of the sons even dug up a pre-war pioneer badge and brought me to replenish the collection. Of course, times change, but we must know and remember our history, be proud of its glorious pages.

mendeleva@sb.by

Photo from Svetlana Dolbik's personal archive.