Figure 1.--

We have begun to collect information on the officiasl Young Pioneer pants. We have no information on Pioneer uniform pants before the new uniform was adopted in 1968-69. For many years there was no commonly worn uniform. The children just wore their regular clothes with a red neckerchief. We do not know when official uniform pants were first adopted or any details on the color or style. We do have detailed informastion on the offcial uniform pants adopted in 1968-69. Blue pants were the formal uniform. We thought this was the boys commonly wore the school uniform as the Young Pioneer uniform. A Russian reader tells us, however, that the school and Young Pioneer uniform were entirely different. HBC has noted boys wearing both short and long pants.

Earlier Uniforms

We have no information on Pioneer uniform pants before the new uniform was adopted in 1968-69. For many years there was no commonly worn uniform. The children just wore their regular clothes with a red neckerchief. We do not know when official uniform pants were first adopted or any details n the color or style.

New 1968-69 Uniform

We do have detailed informastion on the offcial uniform pants adopted in 1968-69. Blue pants were the formal uniform. We thought this was the boys commonly wore the school uniform as the Young Pioneer uniform. A Russian reader tells us, however, that the school and Young Pioneer uniform were entirely different. HBU has noted boys wearing both short and long pants. Often boys wear short pants as part of the formal uniform, but this certainly depended on the season. Many formal Pioneer events took place at summer camps. Presumably boys would wear long pants for out door activities during the winter. Girls of course wore skirts rather than pants. Wjile blue pants and skirts appear to be the most common uniform, they were not always worn. Many of the images that we have archived are black and whote, making it difficult to discern color. We do note Pioneers in uniforms with different colors than blue. We note for example boys wearing green short pants and girls tan/checked skirts for a Leningrad parade during the early 1980s. This is interesting both because the boys' shorts are not blue, but also because the boys and girls do not have matching pants/skirts. Here we are not sure if this was an actual Pioneer unifirm or a special costume for a specific celebration. A Russian reader also tells us that at the Artek Pioneer summer camp that the children in each sub-camp wore different color shorts/skirt.