Timur movement: history of origin, ideology and interesting facts

By and large, Timurians were almost all schoolchildren of the USSR. The desire to help the needy was an absolutely normal reaction to this or that event. Perhaps it is morality, perhaps this is upbringing. But thanks to this attitude to the world, these children, timurovtsy, eventually became real and responsive people. They have the traditions of the Timur movement forever preserved. And this is probably the most important thing ...

A book that could not have been

The Timur movement originated in 1940. That is, when only A. Gaidar published his latest book about a certain children's organization that helps people. The work was called, of course, "Timur and his team".

A week later, one of the passages was already printed. In addition, the corresponding radio broadcasts began. The success of the book was simply enormous.

A year later, the work turned out to be a rather large edition. Despite this, I had to pre-print it several times.

Although this book could not be on the shelves at all. The thing is that Gaidar's idea of uniting the children who care for the elders looked very suspicious. Let's remind, there were last years of 30th.

Fortunately, the responsibility for publishing the work was taken by Secretary of the Central Committee of the Komsomol N. Mikhailov. When the book was printed, the movie of the same name appeared. The surprising popularity of the tape was explained by the vividness of the image of the protagonist. Timur became an example and ideal of the young generation of that era.

Trilogy about Timur

Even before the publication of the book, Gaidar was interested in the problems of military education of schoolchildren. In any case, traces of such interests were reflected in his diary and all the works about Timur. We just talked about the first book . But a little later the writer wrote a second work. It was called the Commandant of the Snow Fortress. The characters were already engaged in some kind of military game. Well, at the very beginning of the war, Gaidar managed to write a screenplay of the "Oath of Timur". From the pages he told about the need for children's organization in military conditions. Members of this community will be on duty during darkening and bombing. They will protect the territory from saboteurs and spies, will help families of Red Army soldiers and peasants in their agricultural work. Actually, it happened. Another question is whether the author really wanted to create some kind of alternative to the pioneer organization with his works about Timur ... Unfortunately, we will not know for sure.

The idea of Gaidar

They say that Gaidar in the books about Timur, he described the experience of Scout organizations in the 10th century. In addition, in his time he was in charge of the yard team. And secretly, like his character, Timur, he did good deeds, without asking for any reward. By and large, teenagers who help needy people are now called volunteers.

By the way, about such a children's organization wrote in due time such eminent personalities as Anton Makarenko and Konstantin Paustovsky. But only one Gaidar, willingly or unwillingly, managed to translate this idea into reality.

Start

What was the beginning of the Timur movement? The answer to this question seems quite obvious. It was after the publication of the book about Timur that the informal Timur movement began. The corresponding detachments also appeared.

The Timurians themselves became, in fact, part of the ideological system of the Soviet Union. At the same time they managed to preserve a certain spirit of volunteering.

Timurovtsy were exemplary adolescents. They disinterestedly performed good deeds, assisted the elderly, helped collective farms, kindergartens and much, much more. In a word, a real mass movement of schoolchildren has appeared.

Who was the founder of the Timur movement? The very first detachment appeared in 1940 in Klin, that in the Moscow region. By the way, it was here that Gaidar wrote his "netlenka" about Timur and his team. In this detachment there were only six teenagers. They studied in one of the Klin schools. After them, such detachments arose throughout the Soviet Union. And, sometimes in one of the small villages there were 2-3 such teams. Because of this, there were some oddities. For example, adolescents repeatedly chopped wood for an elderly person and thrice swept the yard ...

The Epoch of the Great War

During the war, the Timur movement in the USSR grew in an arithmetic progression. In 1945, there were already about 3 million Timurians in the Soviet Union. These teenagers actually turned out to be irreplaceable.

Such detachments functioned in orphanages, schools, pioneer palaces and out-of-school establishments. The teenagers were patronizing the families of officers and soldiers, and they continued to help harvest the crops.

The detachments also carried out a tremendous work in hospitals. Thus, Timurovtsy of the Gorky region managed to organize for wounded almost 10 thousand performances of amateur art. They were constantly on duty in hospitals, on behalf of soldiers wrote letters, performed a number of various economic works.

Another example of the Timur movement occurred in the summer of 1943. The ship "Pushkin" set off on the route "Kazan - Stalingrad". On the ship as a cargo - gifts, which were collected by the Timurovs of the republic.

And in the besieged Leningrad the movement of the Timurites acquired special significance. In 753 Timurov detachments of the northern capital, twelve thousand adolescents acted. They assisted families of war veterans, disabled people and pensioners. They had to store fuel for them, clean apartments and receive food on their cards.

By the way, in the beginning of 1942 on the whole territory of the USSR the first meetings of the Timurites were held. At these events, they talked about the results of their successful activities.

Also, by this time, there are the first songs about the Timur movement, among them "Four friendly guys", "How high is our sky above us" and, of course, "The song of Timurovites" by Blanter. Later, such popular musical compositions as "Gaidar walks ahead", "The Song of the Red Pathfinders", "The Eaglets Learn to Fly", "The Timurovites", etc. were written.

Ural Detachment

Returning to the period of the war, one of the famous Timur teams was a detachment from the miners' town of Plast in the Chelyabinsk region. It involved two hundred teenagers. And 73-year-old Alexandra Rychkova headed it.

The detachment was created in August 1941. At the first gathering, Rychkova said that she would have to work hard for wear. In this case there will be no discounts on age. She announced that if someone changes their mind, she can immediately leave. But no one left. The adolescents were divided into detachments and the main ones were appointed.

Every day Rychkov gave out a plan of work. They helped the needy, told the townspeople about the situations at the fronts, held concerts for the wounded in the hospital. In addition, they collected medicinal plants, scrap metal, harvested wood, worked in the fields, and patronized families of war veterans. They also were entrusted with a serious matter: Timurovsky crawled into the dumps of mines and selected rocks.

Note, despite the work, the teenagers still went to school lessons.

As a result, in six months the team from Plast was able to win a truly irreproachable reputation. Even the officials allocated a room for their staff to the boys. About Timurovtsy from this mining town repeatedly wrote in the periodicals. By the way, this detachment is mentioned in the encyclopedia of the Great Patriotic War.

The process of merging of pioneers and Timurians

In 1942 the teachers were in some confusion. The fact is that Timurov detachments, in fact, began to displace the pioneer squads. Let's remind, the book about Timur told about "self-disciplined" collective. In it, all the responsibilities of adolescents took on themselves and solved all the problems, without the control of adults.

As a result, the leaders of the Komsomol adopted a decision connected with the unification of pioneers and Timurovites. After some time, the Komsomol members managed to take them under their control.

By and large, in this situation there were both obvious advantages and big disadvantages. The activities of the Timurites began to be considered an additional form of work for the pioneers.

The post-war period

Immediately after the victory over the fascist invaders Timurovs continued to help front-line soldiers, disabled people, the elderly. They also tried to look after the graves of the Red Army soldiers.

But at the same time the movement began to fade. Perhaps the reason was that the Timurians did not have a special desire to "join" the ranks of the pioneer organization. They lost their freedom of choice.

The revival of the movement began only under Khrushchev's "thaw" ...

60-80's

The history of the Timur movement in Russia continued. During this period, adolescents continued to engage in socially useful activities. The best were awarded. For example, an eleven-year-old schoolgirl M. Nakhangova from Tajikistan managed to exceed the norm for an adult person by seven times to collect cotton. She was awarded the Order of Lenin.

Timurovtsy began to engage in search work. So, they began to study the life of A. Gaidar and, as a result, helped to open the writer's museums in a number of cities. Also the library-museum of the writer in Kanev was organized.

And in the 70's with the editorial board of the famous Soviet magazine "Pioneer" was formed the so-called All-Union headquarters of Timur. With an enviable regularity, there were also collections of Timurovites. Actively composed and read poems about Timurov's movement. In 1973, the first All-Union meeting was held in the camp "Artek". The event was attended by three and a half thousand delegates. They then succeeded in adopting even the Timur movement's program aimed at its active development.

Note that such teams were established in Bulgaria, Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia and the GDR.

The collapse and revival of the movement

In the very beginning of the 1990s, the role of the Komsomol and the Pioneers was declared exhausted. These organizations officially ceased to exist. Accordingly, such a fate awaited the Timur movement.

But almost at the same time, the Federation of Children's Organizations was established, independent of any political party. A few years later, the Russian president announced the creation of a movement of Russian schoolchildren. Let's notice, this idea was supported also by teachers.

A little earlier, a new Timur (voluntary) movement was officially formed, which is intended to help socially unprotected groups of the population.

New time

Thus, in our time the traditions of the Timur movement have been preserved. Such detachments exist in several regions. For example, in Shuya, in the Ivanovo province, the youth movement of Timurovs functions. As before, they not only help the needy, but also try to be useful to society.

I am glad that this movement is spreading everywhere ...