Same thing in Bulgaria. One good side of "communism" was free modeling clubs for kids like me, so we've got rocket modelling (made 2, even 3 phase rockets while 3rd-4th grade), plane modelling (balsa wood, rice paper, etc.) - all for free - you pay for neither materials, nor courses, later it was computers (that's how I got into them). Before that also slot cars racing, ship modelling, there was even knot-making club (our city is on the black sea, so makes sense - future sailors!)
I mean, even if communism is evil, there were some good things - way overpay, or pay anything for clubs that should've been free to begin with and get kids into them... It doesn't take much to support them compared to many other things...
Czech Republic, reporting in! I'm too young to remember much of communism but I remember the balsa and rice paper gliders I built with my grandpa very fondly. There's something so fantastic about the fragile beauty of those planes with their skeletons visible beneath that translucent skin.
There's a magazine in the Czech Rep. called ABC which always had plans for some sort of papercraft model in the back. I used to love them as a kid.
I mean, even if communism is evil, there were some good things - way overpay, or pay anything for clubs that should've been free to begin with and get kids into them... It doesn't take much to support them compared to many other things...