Figure 1.--Here we see the new Young Pioneers holding their neckerchiefs before they are tied on them. Often this was done at school. Notice that they are all dressed in white. This was not the standard Young Pioneer uniform, but rather special outfits just for this ceremony. Not all Young Pioneers had these uniforms. The warm April weather suggests that these children were from the southern Ukraine.

If the city had a memorable place the new Pioneers were brought there for a followup ceremony. Especially popular for these ceremonies were memorials to the World War II Great Patriotic War. We tend to be very critical of the Soviet Union, but the Soviet people played the critical role in the defeat of NAZI Germany. It was accomplished with enormous bravery and sacrafice. The world owes a great deat of graditude for what the Soviet people did. The Soviet people honor their war dead in monuments erected throughout Russia and the Ukraine. The children here are photographed at one of thiose memorials (figure 1). In Moscow many new Pioneers were brought to the Red Square mausoleum Of v.I. Lenin. A Russian reader writes, "I remember how happy I was on that day when we were accepted into the Pioneers. The weather was beautiful. When I came home I unbuttoned my jacket so everyone would see my new red Pioneer neckerchief. I was very proud to be a new Pioneer. My first day in the Pioneers was one of the most beautiful recollections of my childhood.