Youth organizations have always played an important role in political regimes. After the 1948 takeover of power, the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia ("KSČ") 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.