A pretty 1950 pin badge from the CSM in former Czechoslovakia.The badge face is 2.5cm high and has a long, stick pin style fastener to the rear. The text reads CSM Sjezd (meeting) Prague 7th-11th May 1950 and would have been given to attendees of this important conference.
Historical Information.
After the 1948 takeover of power, the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia ("KSC") formed two Soviet-style youth organizations: the Pionýr (Pioneers, for youngsters eight to fifteen years old) and the Czechoslovak Union of Youth (ČSM, ages fifteen to twenty-five). Both organizations were geared toward grooming their members (or a fortunate fraction of them) for KSČ membership.
The Pionyrs were very much like the boy scouts, but the CSM were more politically focused.
CSM membership was considered necessary for entrance to university or a professional career, so people joined up regardless of their political leanings.
