Republic of Childhood: how the Artek pioneer camp appeared
On June 16, 1925, the Artek pioneer camp was founded. Izvestia recalled how it was.
Under the Red Cross flag
The idea to set up a pioneer camp in the Artek tract, near Mount Ayudag, belongs to Zinovy Solovyov, deputy People's Commissar of Health, as well as a talented teacher. At that time, he was the head of the Russian Red Cross Society (ROCC), and above all, he cared about the health of teenagers. "A healthy summer for a young pioneer!" was the motto of Solovyov and his associates. Translated from ancient Greek, the word "artek" means "a resting place for quails." Zinovy Petrovich considered this a good sign. He liked both the variety of the landscape and the excellent beach.
Artek Camp Holiday
The Red Cross Society and the Komsomol took over the construction and supply of the camp. The pioneers lined up on a line — the first in the history of the camp. The first Artek members were pioneers from Moscow, Leningrad, Ivanovo-Voznesensk and Yaroslavl. They were mostly children suffering from inactive tuberculosis, anemia, and diseases of the nervous system. It all started with four canvas tents, 80 wooden cots and dozens of metal handwashers. Zinovy Petrovich thought out a daily routine for the children, which, with minor changes, has been preserved to our time. The morning began with charging, cleaning the sleeping place, washing and rubbing with a hard towel. The first director of Artek was Fyodor Fedorovich Shishmarev, who had long worked in Crimean health resorts and became Solovyov's right-hand man at the ROCC.
The only equipment the boys had were ship lanterns and kerosene lamps. But the camp organizers took care of high-calorie and healthy nutrition right away. Meals were served to the children in the open air, but on starched tablecloths. Grigory Kurbatov, a former stove maker and the first chairman of the Gurzuf Revolutionary Committee, built a portable stove with tiles in case of cool weather and for cooking. "With two through ovens. With underground chimneys. Like a toy. I worked for four days. I barely made it to their arrival," Kurbatov recalled. Doctors and coaches worked with the students. Each Artek member was provided with a bar of soap, a towel, tooth powder and a brush, as well as uniforms. A library, a club, a storeroom and a doctor's office were set up in the former Potemkin estate nearby.
On June 16, 1925, Artek's first flag was hoisted on a high mast — a scarlet cloth with a red cross in a white circle. For the children, not only wellness, but also an exciting vacation by the sea began. Some traditions that arose during the first Artek shifts are preserved in our time. For example, the famous wake-up greeting: "Good morning to everyone, everyone, everyone!" or climbing Ayudag together.
One of the first foreigners to visit Artek was the German Communist Clara Zetkin in 1926. Her verdict was simple: "This camp is further proof that the young, poor Soviet Union can shame the old rich bourgeois states with its concern for youth." Since that time, delegations from Germany, Japan, Holland, and all over the world have often come to the camp. It was clear that some important experiment was taking place on the Crimean coast. By the end of the 1920s, spacious wooden buildings appeared in Artek, which were supplied with electricity. A large pioneer recreation and leisure center grew out of a small medical camp, where children received all the best — sports equipment, uniforms, meetings with interesting people ...
A kingdom without kings and subjects
In 1928, French writer Henri Barbusse visited Artek. He was accepted as an honorary pioneer. The Frenchman, who felt that the children in this camp were really happy, called Artek "a kingdom without a king and without subjects, where there are especially a lot of little brothers around several big brothers."
In the pre-war years, about 4,000 schoolchildren spent their holidays in Artek every year. The children were taught to ride a bicycle, row boats, and operate kayaks. Artek residents collected herbariums and photographed, created models of airplanes, staged performances, and published wall newspapers. The camp, which was considered a showcase of Soviet childhood, was regularly supplied with everything necessary. But the main thing is that talented people worked there, who were in love with their work and understood what children needed.
Arkady Gaidar, who has visited the camp three times since 1931, dedicated his novel "Military Secret" to Artek. Today, the Yantarny children's camp, located on the territory of the former Verkhny camp, where the writer stayed, bears his name. He liked the spirit of Artek, Gaidar saw in him the embodiment of his ideas, his books. He especially liked that the students at the camp were friends with the counselors, communicated with them confidentially, and were one cohesive team. There is a Gaidar stone in Artek, which is also called a hot stone, as in the famous parable, which the writer created, among other things, under the impression of a trip to the Crimea.
Artek has been named after Vyacheslav Molotov for almost 20 years. As chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR, he visited the pioneers. The Artek team paid him a return visit to the Kremlin office. There they cheerfully sang him a funny song about how "Artek has a Suk-Suk on his nose." Molotov took the hint. Soon, the neighboring villa Suuk-Su was donated to the pioneer camp, which is 60 hectares with a beautiful park and 33 buildings, including a comfortable manor. After that, Molotov became an "honorary member of Artek."
Artek's Military Secret
In 1940, 5,150 pioneers had a rest at the camp. A documentary film "By the Warm Sea" was shot about these shifts, depicting the pre-war Artek. And the next summer, Crimea became frontline, it was bombed from the first days of the war. The pioneers were evacuated to Belokurikha, where the Altai Artek appeared. This is a wonderful Siberian resort with healing waters.
Artek members were heroes who died bravely during the Great Patriotic War: sniper Aliya Moldagulova, Young Guard Ivan Turkenich, pilot Timur Frunze, medical instructor Gulya Koroleva, pioneer heroes Vitya Korobkov and Volodya Dubinin. Artek's Alley of Heroes reminds of them. And one of the best fighter pilots of the Great Patriotic War, Sultan Amet Khan, saw an airplane for the first time as a schoolboy, vacationing in Artek. They were faithful to Gaidar's military secret to the end. There is also a memorial of Glory in Artek dedicated to the soldiers who fell during the liberation of the pioneer camp from the Nazis.
The Germans destroyed the "children's kingdom". The war leveled almost all Artek buildings, including the Suuk-Su Palace. The camp began to be rebuilt immediately after the liberation of Crimea, in the spring of 1944.
The camp's revival began immediately after the liberation of Crimea. In the spring of 1945, the wife of the British Prime Minister, Clementine Churchill, who visited the USSR as the head of the British Red Cross Russian Relief Fund, presented Artek with 15 large hospital tents. But they decided to restore the "children's kingdom" thoroughly so that it would be more beautiful than before. The construction site was declared the All-Union Komsomol. Restoration of the destroyed buildings and construction of new ones have begun. By the early 1950s, the exemplary pioneer camp had been completely restored and even expanded.
Bolshoy Artek
The Bolshoy Artek complex, designed by the remarkable architect Anatoly Polyansky, soon united five camps: "Marine", "Mountain", "Coastal", "Azure" and "Cypress". Vouchers to the "children's paradise" on the Black Sea were distributed throughout the country, through the councils of squads, among pioneers who distinguished themselves by excellent studies, exemplary behavior, or success in creativity and sports. All post-war All-Union Pioneer gatherings were held in Artek (as a rule, once every five years), which were attended by schoolchildren and teachers from dozens of countries who admired the Soviet Primorsky "republic of childhood".
Over the past 100 years, Artek's honored guests have included many wonderful and amazing people. These are the architect of independent India, Jawaharlal Nehru, and the leader of free Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh. The famous American black singer Paul Robson performed in front of the Artek team. At the end of the concert, he said: "There are new people and new children in your country. What a joy this is for millions of people all over the world! Someday there will be such children in my America!" The aces Ivan Kozhedub and Alexander Pokryshkin, the partisan leader Sidor Kovpak, told the children about the war... Football lessons were given by Lev Yashin, chess secrets were revealed by Mikhail Tal, six-time Olympic champion speed skater Lidiya Skoblikova talked about sports. Yuri Gagarin loved to come to Artek, and our other cosmonauts followed him. His spacesuit is kept in the Artek Cosmonautics Museum.
In 1963, the famous Italian writer and storyteller Gianni Rodari visited Artek for the first time. That's who knew how to turn into a child, communicating with Artek people! He was happy to wear a red tie. When the guys showed him the funny film "The Adventures of Cipollino" shot at the Artek Film studio, Gianni was delighted. "I saw the joyful smiles of the joyful children. In the Soviet Union, the younger generation is raised by family, school, a pioneer organization, and the whole society. And I think Artek is showing a model of sensitivity to the child's personality in this case," recalled the author of Cipollino and Gelsomino. And he returned to his Soviet pioneer friends more than once.
Artek will always remember Samantha Smith, an American girl who wrote a letter to Yuri Andropov asking him to stop the arms race. The Soviet General Secretary replied to her. Andropov was ill, he could no longer meet with the guest, but invited her to take a ride through the Soviet Union and relax in the best pioneer camp in the world. The relationship between the USSR and the USA at that time left much to be desired. But the children in pioneer ties on the Crimean coast showed the whole world that we are capable of being friends. Samantha also wore a red tie at Artek. When she returns to the United States, she will die in a plane crash. Since then, Artek has had an alley named after her.
At the level of the 21st century
Artek has long been the embodiment of a childhood dream, and it remains so. Even today, traditions are honored there, legends are told and the heroes who defended their Homeland are remembered.
In 2014, when Crimea returned to its native harbor, Artek's revival began. For several months, repairs were carried out around the clock, and as a result, the international children's center on the Crimean coast received infrastructure at the level of the 21st century. Today, the camp has a ballet school, sports and marine clubs, schools for young sailors and journalists. The Republic of Childhood still loves creativity and sports. This huge recreation center has an equestrian and dog training station, a sailing school with its own flotilla, and a climbing wall. According to the old tradition, children are initiated into the Artek community on Mount Ayudag.
The author is the deputy editor—in-chief of the magazine "Historian"
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
