The first camps were created from the beginning of the 20s by pioneer detachments that existed at places of residence or at large enterprises. Urban pioneers went to the camp, organized for one summer season, with an already established composition with their permanent counselor. In fact, such a camp was a continuation of detachment activities in the summer with an emphasis on sports and military-patriotic education. Pioneers often provided assistance to village residents and carried out educational work among rural children. An example of such a camp is shown in the book and film “The Bronze Bird”.

The idea of ​​using pioneer camps for recreation and health improvement of schoolchildren belongs to the Chairman of the Russian Red Cross Society Z.P. Solovyov. The first such camp of a new type was the sanatorium camp opened in Artek in 1925 (the future Artek IDP). There, in Artek in 1927, a full-time position of a counselor was first introduced and the recruitment of detachments began directly in the camp.

During the Great Patriotic War, work on organizing pioneer camps did not stop. According to some sources, pioneer camps operated even during the siege of Leningrad in the summer of 1942. The Artek pioneer camp, evacuated to the village of Belokurikha, hosted Siberian schoolchildren for vacation, and in the summer of 1944 it resumed its activities in the liberated Crimea.

In the post-war period, right up to the 90s, most camps in the USSR were created on a trade union (in the All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions system) or departmental principle - at enterprises and institutions for the children of employees. Sometimes departmental camps were specialized in nature, related to the activities of a particular institution. The level of material support for the camp also directly depended on the enterprise’s budget.

In the 80s, up to 40 thousand country pioneer camps functioned in the USSR, where about 10 million children vacationed annually. The largest of them are the All-Union Pioneer Camp of the Komsomol Central Committee "Artek" (Crimean Region, Ukrainian SSR), the All-Russian Pioneer Camp of the Komsomol Central Committee "Orlyonok" (Krasnodar Territory, RSFSR), the All-Union Pioneer Camp of the Komsomol Central Committee "Ocean" (Primorsky Territory, RSFSR), Republican pioneer camps “Young Guard” (Odessa region, Ukrainian SSR) and “Zubrenok” (Minsk region, BSSR). In addition, in all cities, as a rule, at schools, “urban” camps were created with daytime stays for pioneers.

During the Perestroika period, there was experience in transferring some camps to self-financing, self-financing, or a cooperative basis. This marked the beginning of the commercialization of children's recreation. Subsequently, some children's camps were purchased or rented by commercial tourist structures.

After the collapse of the USSR, some of the former pioneer camps were transformed into children's health camps (in Russia - institutions for recreation and health of children), many pioneer camps ceased to exist completely or as a place of recreation for children.

After the reorganization of the All-Union Pioneer Organization named after. V.I. Lenin to the Union of Pioneer Organizations - Federation of Children's Organizations (October 1990) and the collapse of the USSR (December 1991), the organization and conduct of pioneer camps is carried out by the existing pioneer organizations and associations. For example, the regional children's public organization “Moscow City Pioneer Organization” conducts pioneer camps “Winged”, “Parusny”, “Torch”. Such camps are usually held in the summer, both in the “housing” version (with children living in dormitories of a rented base) and in the form of a tent camp.

The experience of pioneer camps in the USSR is currently used in organizing children's camps of various types and orientations.

Square

After reading A. Solzhenitsyn’s work “The Gulag Archipelago,” I wanted to raise the topic of concentration camps in the USSR. The concept of “concentration camp” first appeared not in Germany, as many believe, but in South Africa (1899) in the form of brutal violence for the purpose of humiliation. But the first concentration camps as a state institution of isolation appeared in the USSR in 1918 on the orders of Trotsky, even before the famous Red Terror and 20 years before the Second World War. Concentration camps were intended for kulaks, clergy, White Guards and other “dubious” people.

Places of imprisonment were often organized in former monasteries. From a place of worship, from a center of faith in the Almighty - to places of violence and often undeserved violence. Think about it, do you know the fate of your ancestors well? Many of them ended up in camps for having a handful of wheat in their pockets, for not going to work (for example, due to illness), or for saying too much. Let's take a brief look at each of the concentration camps in the USSR.

ELEPHANT (Solovetsky Special Purpose Camp)

The Solovetsky Islands have long been considered pure, untouched by human passions, which is why the famous Solovetsky Monastery (1429) was built here, which in Soviet times was reclassified as a concentration camp.

Pay attention to the book by Yu. A. Brodsky “Solovki. Twenty Years of Special Purpose" is a significant work (photos, documents, letters) about the camp. The material about Sekirnaya Mountain is especially interesting. There is an old legend that in the 15th century, on this bark, two angels beat a woman with rods, since she could arouse desire in the monks. In honor of this history, a chapel and a lighthouse were erected on the mountain. During the concentration camp there was an isolation ward with a bad reputation. Prisoners were sent there to work off fines: they had to sit and sleep on wooden poles, and every day the convict was subject to physical punishment (from the words of SLON employee I. Kurilko).

Penalties were forced to bury those who died from typhus and scurvy; the prisoners were dressed in sacks; naturally, they were given a terrible amount of food, so they differed from the rest of the prisoners in their thinness and unhealthy complexion. They said that rarely did anyone manage to return alive from the isolation ward. Ivan Zaitsev succeeded and this is what he says:

“We were forced to undress, leaving only a shirt and underpants. The lagstarosta knocked on the front door with a bolt. An iron bolt creaked inside and the huge heavy door opened. We were pushed inside the so-called upper penalty cell. We stood dumbfounded at the entrance, amazed at the sight before us. To the right and left along the walls, prisoners sat silently in two rows on bare wooden planks. Tight, one to one. The first row, with your legs down, and the second behind you, with your legs tucked under you. All are barefoot, half naked, with only rags on their bodies, some already looking like skeletons. They looked in our direction with gloomy, tired eyes, which reflected deep sadness and sincere pity for us newcomers. Everything that could remind us that we are in the temple has been destroyed. The paintings are poorly and roughly whitewashed. The side altars have been turned into punishment cells, where beatings and straitjackets take place. Where there is a holy altar in the temple, there is now a huge bucket for “great” needs - a tub with a board placed on top for the feet. In the morning and evening - verification with the usual dog barking “Hello!” It happens that, for sluggish calculation, a Red Army boy forces you to repeat this greeting for half an hour or an hour. Food, and very meager food at that, is given once a day - at noon. And so not for a week or two, but for months, up to a year.”

Soviet citizens could only guess about what happened on Solovki. So, the famous Soviet writer M. Gorky was invited to inspect the conditions in which prisoners were kept in SLON.

“I cannot help but note the vile role played in the history of the death camps by Maxim Gorky, who visited Solovki in 1929. He looked around and saw an idyllic picture of the heavenly life of the prisoners and was moved, morally justifying the extermination of millions of people in the camps. The public opinion of the world was deceived by him in the most shameless manner. Political prisoners remained outside the writer's field. He was quite satisfied with the leaf gingerbread offered to him. Gorky turned out to be the most ordinary man in the street and did not become either Voltaire, or Zola, or Chekhov, or even Fyodor Petrovich Haaz...” N. Zhilov

Since 1937, the camp has ceased to exist, and to this day the barracks are destroyed, everything that can point to the terrible history of the USSR is burned. According to the St. Petersburg Research Center, in the same year the remaining prisoners (1,111 people) were executed as unnecessary. By the forces of those sentenced to imprisonment in SLON, hundreds of hectares of forest were cut down, tons of fish and seaweed were caught, the prisoners themselves earned their meager food, and also performed meaningless work for the amusement of the camp staff (for example, the order “Draw water from the ice hole until it’s dry ").

A huge staircase from the mountain has still been preserved, along which prisoners were thrown; upon reaching the ground, a person turned into a bloody something (rarely did anyone survive such punishment). The entire camp area is covered with mounds...

Volgolag - about the prisoners who built the Rybinsk Reservoir

If there is a lot of information about Solovki, then little is known about Volgolag, but the death toll is terrifying. The formation of the camp as a subdivision of Dmitrovlag dates back to 1935. In 1937, there were more than 19 thousand prisoners in the camp; in wartime, the number of convicts reached 85 thousand (15 thousand of them were convicted under Article 58). During the five years of construction of the reservoir and hydroelectric power station, 150 thousand people died (statistics from the director of the Museum of the Mologsky Region).

Every morning the prisoners went to work in a detachment, followed by a cart with tools. According to eyewitnesses, by evening these carts returned strewn with the dead. People were buried shallowly; after the rain, their arms and legs stuck out from under the ground - local residents recall.

Why did prisoners die in such numbers? Volgolag was located in an area of ​​constant winds, every second prisoner suffered from pulmonary diseases, and a consumptive rumble was constantly heard. I had to work in difficult conditions (getting up at 5 am, working waist-deep in icy water, and in 1942 a terrible famine began). A camp employee recalls how grease was brought in to lubricate the mechanisms, and the prisoners licked the barrel clean.

Kotlaslag (1930–1953)

The camp was located in the remote village of Ardashi. All information presented in this article is the memories of local residents and the prisoners themselves. There were three barracks for men and one for women on the territory. Mostly those convicted under Article 58 were here. Prisoners grew crops for their own food and convicts from other camps also worked on logging. There was still a catastrophic shortage of food; all that was left was to lure the sparrows into homemade traps. There was a case (and maybe more than one) when prisoners ate the camp commander’s dog. Locals also note that prisoners regularly stole sheep under the supervision of guards.

Local residents say that life was also difficult during these times, but they still tried to help the prisoners with something: they gave them bread and vegetables. Various diseases were rampant in the camp, especially consumption. They died often, were buried without coffins, and in winter they were simply buried in the snow. A local resident tells how he was skiing as a child, driving down the mountain, tripped, fell, and broke his lip. When I realized what I had fallen on, I became scared, it was a dead man.

To be continued..

Legendary Soviet camps, which, despite the passing decades, host thousands of children from all over the post-Soviet space.
Naturally, Artek has always been and remains the first, although regular visitors to Orlyonok can refute this statement, but we will talk about this camp below. "Artek" is located on the Black Sea coast, and until recent events, belonged to Ukraine. But everything is changing, and now Artek has become Russian again. The area of ​​the camp is more than 200 hectares, and the coastline stretches from Bear Mountain to the village of Gurzuf.


The creation of a children's camp in Artek was first announced on November 5, 1924 at the Moscow Pioneer Festival, and already on June 16, 1925, 80 pioneers from Moscow, Ivanovo-Voznesensk and Crimea arrived for the first shift. So today the famous camp turns 90 years old, for which we congratulate it!


During the Great Patriotic War, Artek was evacuated through Moscow to Stalingrad. Immediately after the liberation of Crimea in April 1944, restoration of the famous camp began. The first post-war shift opened in August, and a year later Artek Square began to meet modern standards. But already in the 60s, large-scale reconstruction began, as a result of which medical centers, schools, a film studio, swimming pools, a stadium and other buildings necessary for camp life appeared.


“Artek” was rightfully called an international camp, because in different years the guests of honor were: Jean-Bedel Bokassa, Leonid Brezhnev, Yuri Gagarin, Indira Gandhi, Nikita Khrushchev, Jawaharlal Nehru, Otto Schmidt, Lydia Skoblikova, Palmiro Togliatti, Ho Chi Minh, Valentina Tereshkova, Lev Yashin, Samantha Smith.




Time passed, and over the 90 years of the camp’s existence, a lot has changed, and after the return of Crimea to the Russian Federation, the revival of the camp began, which in past years even ceased its work due to problems with financing. In the fall of 2014, work began on the improvement and overhaul of the buildings, which had fallen into disrepair over the past years. In addition, new furniture was brought in, the dining room was refurbished, sports grounds were restored, swimming pools were renovated and modern computers were installed. The total amount of financing amounted to 5 billion rubles






In March 2015, the Government of the Russian Federation approved the Artek Development Program until 2020, and a ticket to this camp, according to the modern concept, becomes an incentive for a child for achievements in various fields of activity, although it can also be purchased for money. In 2015, the cost of a trip to this camp is about 65 thousand rubles. But, most likely, we should count on 2016, since the demand for vouchers is extremely high.


The second most important and popular pioneer camp was and remains “Orlyonok”, which is located 45 kilometers from Tuapse. “Eaglet” also boasts a huge territory of 200 hectares, and the length of the coastline is almost 4 kilometers.


The reason for the creation of the camp was the transfer of the Crimean peninsula and the Artek camp to the control of the Ukrainian SSR in 1954. A new pioneer camp was needed, construction of which began on March 27, 1959. Of course, a competitive element was always present in the life of the two largest pioneer camps, but Artek and Orlyonok also had close friendly ties.


The calling card of “Eaglet” is the “Bonfire” monument, which greets all vacationers.








Currently, there are 8 camps in Orlyonok: four year-round and four summer. Also on the territory of the center there is a nine-story building for counselors, a palace of culture and sports with a swimming pool with sea water, the Yunost stadium, a reception building decorated with colorful panels, a hotel and a motor city.
At the other end of our huge country there is an equally famous camp - “Ocean”, which was founded in 1983 on the shores of the Pacific Ocean.




Currently, there are 4 squads working in the All-Russian Children's Center: “Brigantine”, “Parus”, “Kityonok” and “Tiger Cub”. All 5 buildings of the Parus squad were completely restored after the fire of 1993.


In 1924, the “Young Guard” camp was opened in Odessa, and in 1935, the children’s sanatorium “Ukrainian Artek” was organized on the basis of the camp.


In 1956, a new era began in the history of the Children's Center. It is transferred to the Central Committee of the Komsomol of Ukraine. From the sanatorium it was reorganized into a pioneer camp called “Young Guard” in memory of the young underground fighters of the city of Krasnodon who fought the fascist occupiers. Since December 2011, the Young Guard UDC has been subordinate to the Ministry of Social Policy of Ukraine.


Currently, this children's center occupies an area of ​​30 hectares and on its territory there are two camps, “Zvezdny” and “Solnechny,” and “Coastal” opens in the summer.
The “Zubrenok” camp was extremely popular in Soviet times, which, as can be understood from the name, is located on the territory of Belarus.


The opening of this camp took place on August 17, 1969. Throughout the history of Zubrenok, it grew and new administrative, sports, residential and other buildings appeared.


Currently, the complex includes five dormitory buildings, play pavilions, a recreation building for family orphanages, a school, a swimming pool, a cinema and concert hall, a gym, a stadium tennis court and an intellectual center, and a trip to this camp is still extremely prestigious and expected by children.
The most unusual, in our opinion, is the pioneer camp “Zapolyarye”, which is located near Tula on the banks of the Oka.


In general, this camp is a standard pioneer camp of its time, if not for one thing. It was in this camp that the film “Welcome or No Trespassing” was filmed. Of course, the wooden buildings of that time have not survived, and the camp as a whole looks different, but its fame gained through cinema has been preserved.

Summer is in full swing, and many parents have sent their children to various children's camps so that their beloved children can improve their health and find new friends, and the parents themselves periodically need rest. But I would like to remember the legendary Soviet camps, which, despite the past decades, host thousands of children from all over the post-Soviet space. Yes, and there is a certain reason, which we will talk about later.

Naturally, Artek has always been and remains the first, although regular visitors to Orlyonok can refute this statement, but we will talk about this camp below. "Artek" is located on the Black Sea coast, and until recent events, belonged to Ukraine. But everything is changing, and now Artek has become Russian again. The area of ​​the camp is more than 200 hectares, and the coastline stretches from Bear Mountain to the village of Gurzuf.


The creation of a children's camp in Artek was first announced on November 5, 1924 at the Moscow Pioneer Festival, and already on June 16, 1925, 80 pioneers from Moscow, Ivanovo-Voznesensk and Crimea arrived for the first shift. So today the famous camp turns 90 years old, for which we congratulate it!

During the Great Patriotic War, Artek was evacuated through Moscow to Stalingrad. Immediately after the liberation of Crimea in April 1944, restoration of the famous camp began. The first post-war shift opened in August, and a year later Artek Square began to meet modern standards. But already in the 60s, large-scale reconstruction began, as a result of which medical centers, schools, a film studio, swimming pools, a stadium and other buildings necessary for camp life appeared.

“Artek” was rightfully called an international camp, because in different years the guests of honor were: Jean-Bedel Bokassa, Leonid Brezhnev, Yuri Gagarin, Indira Gandhi, Nikita Khrushchev, Jawaharlal Nehru, Otto Schmidt, Lydia Skoblikova, Palmiro Togliatti, Ho Chi Minh, Valentina Tereshkova, Lev Yashin, Samantha Smith.


Time passed, and over the 90 years of the camp’s existence, a lot has changed, and after the return of Crimea to the Russian Federation, the revival of the camp began, which in past years even ceased its work due to problems with financing. In the fall of 2014, work began on the improvement and overhaul of the buildings, which had fallen into disrepair over the past years. In addition, new furniture was brought in, the dining room was refurbished, sports grounds were restored, swimming pools were renovated and modern computers were installed. The total amount of financing amounted to 5 billion rubles



In March 2015, the Government of the Russian Federation approved the Artek Development Program until 2020, and a ticket to this camp, according to the modern concept, becomes an incentive for a child for achievements in various fields of activity, although it can also be purchased for money. In 2015, the cost of a trip to this camp is about 65 thousand rubles. But, most likely, we should count on 2016, since the demand for vouchers is extremely high.

The second most important and popular pioneer camp was and remains “Orlyonok”, which is located 45 kilometers from Tuapse. “Eaglet” also boasts a huge territory of 200 hectares, and the length of the coastline is almost 4 kilometers.

The reason for the creation of the camp was the transfer of the Crimean peninsula and the Artek camp to the control of the Ukrainian SSR in 1954. A new pioneer camp was needed, construction of which began on March 27, 1959. Of course, a competitive element was always present in the life of the two largest pioneer camps, but Artek and Orlyonok also had close friendly ties.

The calling card of “Eaglet” is the “Bonfire” monument, which greets all vacationers.




Currently, there are 8 camps in Orlyonok: four year-round and four summer. Also on the territory of the center there is a nine-story building for counselors, a palace of culture and sports with a swimming pool with sea water, the Yunost stadium, a reception building decorated with colorful panels, a hotel and a motor city.

At the other end of our huge country there is an equally famous camp - “Ocean”, which was founded in 1983 on the shores of the Pacific Ocean.


Currently, there are 4 squads working in the All-Russian Children's Center: “Brigantine”, “Parus”, “Kityonok” and “Tiger Cub”. All 5 buildings of the Parus squad were completely restored after the fire of 1993.

In 1924, the “Young Guard” camp was opened in Odessa, and in 1935, the children’s sanatorium “Ukrainian Artek” was organized on the basis of the camp.

In 1956, a new era began in the history of the Children's Center. It is transferred to the Central Committee of the Komsomol of Ukraine. From the sanatorium it was reorganized into a pioneer camp called “Young Guard” in memory of the young underground fighters of the city of Krasnodon who fought against the fascist occupiers. Since December 2011, the Young Guard UDC has been subordinate to the Ministry of Social Policy of Ukraine.

Currently, this children's center occupies an area of ​​30 hectares and on its territory there are two camps, “Zvezdny” and “Solnechny,” and “Coastal” opens in the summer.

The “Zubrenok” camp was extremely popular in Soviet times, which, as can be understood from the name, is located on the territory of Belarus.

The opening of this camp took place on August 17, 1969. Throughout the history of Zubrenok, it grew and new administrative, sports, residential and other buildings appeared.

Currently, the complex includes five dormitory buildings, play pavilions, a recreation building for family orphanages, a school, a swimming pool, a cinema and concert hall, a gym, a stadium tennis court and an intellectual center, and a trip to this camp is still extremely prestigious and expected by children.

The most unusual, in our opinion, is the pioneer camp “Zapolyarye”, which is located near Tula on the banks of the Oka.

In general, this camp is a standard pioneer camp of its time, if not for one thing. It was in this camp that the film “Welcome or No Trespassing” was filmed. Of course, the wooden buildings of that time have not survived, and the camp as a whole looks different, but its fame gained through cinema has been preserved.

How did you spend your childhood? Have you gone to camps and what stories do you have associated with such trips?

And I decided to add my opinion, but the comment was long - an entire post.

I was only in one camp - from the enterprise where my parents worked. Therefore, from year to year the main composition of children and counselors was the same.
The most fun is the game "Zarnitsa". Playing war games and spies - that was just it for Soviet schoolchildren. And when an armored personnel carrier came to us from the military unit next door, oooh, that was something. Everyone raced to collect cartridges, then changed.

The chefs baked a huge pie for the winning squad, just like that on a protvina and handed it to them on the line. I usually gave my share to my brother, because... I'm not a fan of sweets myself.


these are the famous sweatpants with pulled knees

The other main entertainment of the pioneer camp was sports competitions and fun competitions; there were also competitions with neighboring camps (we had 3-4 camps nearby in the Stupinsky district of the Moscow region).
At that time, I could do 10-12 pull-ups on the horizontal bar. That's it.
Pioneerball was more popular among girls than football.


But the real thing is hiking, how many ravines and cliffs there were in the forest, try walking along a thin trunk. The counselors also prepared competitions for us, each star had her own tasks. And of course, baking potatoes in ashes or toasting bread placed on a branch. They loved to collect russulas with beautiful caps and then dry them on a string. We made up horror tales on the fly about wolf berries and night blindness flowers from the series “If you don’t eat, you’ll become a little goat.”

Most of all, the children disliked medical examinations, especially going to the dentist's office.
In the circles, my favorite activities were wood burning and spinning a soft toy. Naturally, they published a wall newspaper, organized amateur competitions, and there were the beloved “Hello, we are looking for talents.”
Most often they played (once every shift) - “Please blame Clara K for my death.”
And the main event was the senior squad’s disco, where the younger ones were never allowed. In the early 80s, the dominance of Italian pop music, and the cosmic motifs of the group "Space". At the junior dances, the dance of the little ducklings was a hit.

The camp library was full of books from the extracurricular reading list. Even if I had time to read everything, then in the fall/winter I had to read everything again, because... I remembered little of what I read.

I personally wasn’t particularly impressed with Parents’ Day, because... the small jar of strawberries brought had to be shared with the older brother. But other people’s parents sometimes gave me other children’s gifts—once they even treated me to watermelon.


The main disaster was at the end of the shift, when it was time to pack our bags. Because not all the things listed on the lid of the suitcase could be found. One day I brought home a red blouse, but not mine (the differences were in the embroidery, pockets, buttons, etc.), because it was the only blouse left in the “dryer”. A dryer is a room with bars/racks where children left things to dry, the collective farm was full, for example, panties, which were in short supply at that time, could disappear without a trace for a week.

I also remember the detachment’s duty in the canteen, which included cleaning and distribution. In Soviet childhood, for some reason, cherries were exclusively wormy, how much time has passed since then, and I still bite the berries first and see if there are any there. Cleaning up the area in the camp usually boiled down to collecting candy wrappers from the grass. In their free time, they liked to build houses/huts in the trees in the apple orchard.


As a knowledgeable and experienced pioneer, the most important thing at the beginning of the 2nd shift was to quickly rush into the garden to the raspberry thickets, otherwise it would be too late. We were also in a distant clearing, almost at the fence of a clearing of forest strawberries. There, far from the eyes of adults, they were fooling around, trying to experimentally determine whether it would really rain if you crushed a frog.

There were also nights of “terror” (royal night) - when they smeared with toothpaste. This was possible only in those buildings where the counselors did not have a bed in the ward with the pioneers. To somehow protect ourselves and block access to the boys, the girls and I pulled threads between the beds. It didn’t help, they climbed through the window. A friend told me that she wakes up from the sounds, the boy is bending over her and can’t open the tube, she asks him: “Help?”, and he immediately ran away.
But because I had a “roof” in the form of an older brother, I was never anointed.

The arrival of children from the Surgut orphanage was a revelation for us; I recognized swear words. It’s good that the counselors quickly intervened and the orphanage residents were taken away from us.


Well, what is a camp without “Formation, line, raising the flag.” A piglet song was played for the squad that was late to the line. The star commanders on the line took a step forward, i.e. stood on the lawn. Even ahead, the camp leadership placed those who were part of the Squad; they stood in ribbons and with a banner. The best, i.e. the most distinguished pioneer from the duty detachment during the day was given the right to lower the flag on the line at the end of the day.


One year, maybe in 1985, they solemnly laid a time capsule with a message to descendants, they were going to dig it up 30 years later. To be honest, I don’t know if the enterprise is still running, whether it still has the “Vesna” pioneer camp on its balance sheet, and what’s wrong with it now at all.

By the way, I was never left on the 3rd shift; in August I was hanging out idle in Moscow.

What are your memories from summer camps? Has anyone been to Artek as a child?