Seventy years ago, young people got involved in the first youth construction

Prague - The war-torn country needed to quickly "get back on its feet," and therefore various forms of public involvement in the restoration of the economy emerged. One of them was the so-called youth constructions, which initially arose from a spirit of construction enthusiasm, but later, after the communists took over all the power in the country, received a significant political undertone. The first of the youth constructions, which was tasked with building new apartments in the Most region, began 70 years ago, on January 29, 1947.

The youth constructions were approved by the then headquarters of post-war youth organizations, from which the Czechoslovak Union of Youth (ČSM) later emerged, in November 1946. In addition to the apartments in Most and Litvínov, the youth was also tasked with the construction of new Lidice. From the 1950s, when youth movements in the country were completely dominated by the communist party-subordinated ČSM, large youth constructions began in the Ostrava region (Klement Gottwald's New Hut, Poruba housing estate, the city of Havířov), water management constructions (the dam on the Slovak Váh and the Slapy dam on the Vltava) and transport constructions (youth railway lines in Slovakia and Moravia).

After criticism of the concept of constructions by party organizations in 1952, youth constructions were limited to smaller projects. In the mid-1950s, youth groups returned to large constructions, mostly through agreements with construction companies. Among other large youth constructions were, for example, the Kaučuk chemical plant in Kralupy nad Vltavou and the poultry processing plant in Prague - Xaverov. By the mid-1960s, the number of youth constructions decreased, but after the establishment of the successor to the ČSM, the Socialist Union of Youth (SSM) in 1970, work on youth constructions resumed. Notable youth constructions included the Mělník and Tušimice power plants and Prague's Southern Connector. The definitive end of youth constructions came only with the fall of the communist regime in November 1989.