Description

COMPLETE YEAR 1951-1952

Pionir (Pioneer) was a Slovenian / Yugoslav magazine for children, containing literary texts and educational articles, accompanied with high-quality illustrations, made by academic artists. Especially stunning were the colourful and well-designed title pages. On the other hand the articles and illustrations in the text, which often involved motifs of WWII, hard peasant life and world literature, can be seen by today’s standards as somehow too serious for a children’s magazine.

Pionir  was published from 1945 on as a continuation of various underground magazines with the same title, printed during WWII for children by the Yugoslav partisans.

During WWII the term Pioneer marked children and youths, who actively helped the partisans in various ways, such as transporting mail and underground magazines, bringing food and medical equipment and often even fighting with them, especially in the last months of the war. Many Pioneers were imprisoned or killed by the Nazis.

After the war under Tito’s Yugoslavia, the Pioneers, the term which corresponds the Cubs in North America, were a mandatory political children group, which primal job in the post war years was to help each other and with hard work contribute rebuilding the country. The later program of the Pioneers became focused on education and pro-Yugoslav political propaganda. Pioneers have also received free schooling, meals, uniforms, school trips and membership at sport clubs.