2017-06-16 18:37
92 years ago, the All-Union Pioneer Camp “Artek” opened in Crimea.
The world-famous children's health resort "Artek" is located on the southern coast of Crimea, 12 kilometers from Yalta. “Artek” was founded as a camp-sanatorium for children suffering from tuberculosis, on the initiative of the chairman of the Russian Red Cross Society, Zinovy Solovyov. The children's camp opened on June 16, 1925. 80 pioneers from Moscow, Ivanovo-Voznesensk and Crimea arrived for the first shift. The following year, Artek was visited by the first foreign delegation - pioneers from Germany.
The first Artek residents lived in canvas tents. Later, light plywood houses were built on the shore. In the 1930s, thanks to the winter building built in the upper park, Artek was gradually transferred to year-round operation.
IN Soviet times a trip to Artek was considered a prestigious award for both Soviet children and foreign schoolchildren. In its heyday, the annual number of trips to Artek was 27 thousand.
"Artek" was often visited by famous guests. Over the years, Leonid Brezhnev, Yuri Gagarin, Indira Gandhi, Nikita Khrushchev, Jawaharlal Nehru, Benjamin Spock, Valentina Tereshkova, Lev Yashin visited here.
In 1990, as a result of reorganization, the All-Union Pioneer Camp "Artek" turned into the International Children's Center "Artek", specializing in organizing recreation and recreation for children and adolescents.
After Ukraine declared independence in 1991 and until March 2014, the Artek camp, located on the territory of Crimea, belonged to Ukraine. On March 18, 2014, an interstate agreement was signed between Russia and the Republic of Crimea, according to which the Republic of Crimea was accepted into the Russian Federation. And from that moment on, Artek, accordingly, began to belong to Russia.
In Crimea. The first houses on the territory of Artek appeared only two years after the opening of the children's summer holiday camp. In the Soviet Union, Artek was the dream of every pioneer, but the coveted ticket to the Crimean summer camp near the Black Sea went to only the very best children who had proven themselves in social and cultural life.
The longest shift in the history of Artek lasted more than three years. June 22, 1941 The Great Patriotic War began and children were evacuated from the pioneer camp to the Altai resort village of Belokurikha. Children and adults lived there according to Artek laws: they helped the families of front-line soldiers, the wounded, and collected scrap metal for the construction of tanks.
Children from other countries often came to visit Soviet children at Artek, and a young American woman, Samantha Smith, wrote a letter to the director. Soviet Union Yuri Andropov with a request to prevent war between the USSR and the USA. At age 13, Samantha Smith died tragically in the United States in a plane crash on August 25, 1985. In her memory, an alley was opened in Artek and a monument was erected.
Famous people, politicians Leonid Brezhnev, cosmonauts Yuri Gagarin, Valentina Tereshkova, German Titov, often came to visit Soviet children at Artek.
Artek has two symbols located near the camp territory - Bear Mountain and Adalary Rocks. The guys vacationing in Artek often told each other legends about two brothers who disobeyed their mentor and were turned into rocks, and about a bear who froze on the seashore waiting for the return of his beloved girl.
80 children arrived - they lived in tarpaulin tents. It was in Crimea. The first houses on the territory of Artek appeared only two years after the opening of the children's summer holiday camp. V was the dream of every pioneer, but the coveted ticket to the Crimean summer camp near the Black Sea went to only the very best children who had proven themselves in social and cultural life.
The longest shift in the history of Artek lasted more than three years. June 22, 1941 The Great Patriotic War began from a pioneer camp in the Altai resort village of Belokurikha. Children and adults lived there according to Artek laws: they helped the families of front-line soldiers, the wounded, and collected scrap metal for the construction of tanks.
Children from other countries often came to visit Soviet children at Artek, including a young American woman, Samantha Smith, who wrote a letter to the leader of the Soviet Union, Yuri Andropov, asking him to prevent a war between the USSR and the USA. At age 13, Samantha Smith died tragically in the United States in a plane crash on August 25, 1985. In her memory, an alley was opened in Artek and a monument was erected.
Famous people, politicians Leonid Brezhnev, cosmonauts Yuri Gagarin, Valentina Tereshkova, German Titov, often came to visit Soviet children at Artek.
Artek has two symbols located near the camp territory - Bear Mountain and Adalary Rocks. The guys vacationing in Artek often told each other legends about two brothers who disobeyed their mentor and were turned into rocks, and about a bear who froze on the seashore waiting for the return of his beloved girl.
In Soviet Union : " Morskaya”, “Diamond”, “Crystal”, “Amber”, “Lesnaya”, “Ozernaya”, “Polevaya”, “River”, “Azure” and “Cypress”.
Only once in its 90-year history has Artek stopped operating as a sign of protest - this was in January 2009, when the Artek camp began having problems with funding. Artek director Boris Novozhilov even went on a hunger strike to draw the attention of the Ukrainian authorities to this problem.
In 2016, you don’t have to be an excellent student to get into Artek. Vouchers to the camp are sold on its official website and in some travel agencies. But the traditions are still alive. Every child in Artek wore a uniform, and this tradition has been preserved in the camp to this day.
For many years, the tradition of sending bottle mail was popular at Artek. During the international shift, a ship departed from the camp pier, on board which were letters in bottles written by children. When the shore was not visible, bottles with letters from the children were thrown into the sea.
The pioneers wrote their cherished wishes about world peace, about the friendship of all peoples of the Earth, and some of their messages were caught even in the Atlantic. Today this custom, unfortunately, has been forgotten, but the pioneer songs of yesteryear, which the children sang, gathered around the fire, are still alive! Many adults who visited Artek still remember
or a song about the brownie Absolute, who lives at the top of Bear Mountain and guards the camp.
"Artek - quail island"
"Artek!" - a stranger told me as a child.
Artek! And I remembered the word strange forever.
Artek! And here I am, where the bird noise is
Rushing towards the blue shores,
And the sea caresses your feet.
Artek! I plunge headlong into the cold wave.
Artek! With a free soul I fly above myself.
Artek! Your world is without spots and blackness,
Your day without vain worries,
And it’s just a pity that it will pass.
Chorus:
Artek! Bear Mountain protects you from all troubles.
Artek! She heard so many different “Hurray!”
Artek! Let them say: “The fire has gone out,”
But there is something in our souls,
What warms you up in difficult times.
Artek! You were invented by a very kind person.
Artek! May your next century be joyful.
Artek! Let miracles happen
And the voices of quails will return to our skies.
Chorus:
Ah, the sea, the sea, palm trees, pine trees, the southern coast,
A magnolia flower caught by a wave.
It's so good that I came and believed
In Artek, Artek is a quail island.
On June 16, 1925, the first canvas tents of the Artek pioneer camp appeared at the foot of Mount Ayu-Dag.
The decisive factor when choosing a camp site was the extremely healthy climate, rich nature and picturesque terrain. The average annual air temperature here is +13.4 degrees, it is approaching average annual temperature Nice; There will be significantly less precipitation than in the south of France. The pioneer camp grew from year to year. If 30 pioneers were present at the first ceremony at the opening of the camp, then 40 years later the “red tie republic” had a population of 4,000 people.
The history of "Artek" is an interesting and long story
The first shift in 1925 brought 80 pioneers from Moscow, Ivanovo-Voznesensk and Crimea. The very next year, the first foreign delegation visited the camp - pioneers from Germany. The first Artek residents lived in canvas tents. Two years later, light plywood houses were erected on the shore.
And in the 30s, thanks to the winter building built in the upper park, Artek was gradually transferred to year-round operation. In 1936, Artek hosted a change of order-bearing pioneers who were awarded government awards, and in 1937 the camp accepted children from the affected region. Civil War Spain.
(The first line in the Artek camp, summer 1925)
During the Great Patriotic War"Artek" was evacuated through Moscow to Stalingrad, and then to the Altai village of Belokurikha. There, along with the children who found themselves in Crimea at the beginning of the war, Siberian schoolchildren also rested. Immediately after the liberation of Crimea from the Nazi occupiers in April 1944, the restoration of Artek began. The first post-war shift opened in August. A year later, the camp area was expanded to its current size.
Since the early 60s, reconstruction was carried out in the camp and by 1969 there were already 150 buildings in Artek, 3 medical center, school, film studio "Artekfilm", 3 swimming pools, a stadium with 7000 seats and playgrounds for various needs.
In Soviet times a trip to Artek was considered a prestigious award both for Soviet children and abroad. Within one school, the best of the pioneers were awarded vouchers based on numerous indicators (participation in the affairs of the pioneer squad, behavior, academic performance, etc.). In its heyday, the annual number of trips to Artek was 27,000. In the period between 1925-1969. Artek has accepted 300,000 children, including more than 13,000 children from seventeen foreign countries.
Honorary guests of Artek over the years have included Leonid Brezhnev, Yuri Gagarin, Indira Gandhi, Urho Kekkonen, Nikita Khrushchev, Jawaharlal Nehru, Otto Schmidt, Lydia Skoblikova, Palmiro Tolyatti, Ho Chi Minh, Benjamin Spock, Mikhail Tal, Valentina Tereshkova, Lev Yashin. In July 1983, Samantha Smith visited Artek.
There were similar, although less famous, pioneer camps in other republics of the USSR. The second place in prestige was occupied by the All-Russian Pioneer Camp "Orlyonok" ( Krasnodar region, RSFSR). This was followed by the republican recreation camps “Ocean” (Primorsky Territory, RSFSR), “Young Guard” (Odessa region, Ukrainian SSR) and “Zubrenok” (Minsk region, BSSR).
In 2006, Artek became the only children's center in the world that was awarded the status "Under the auspices of UNESCO."
Holiday today
On the day of its 87th anniversary, Artek will open a museum of Treasures of the Black Sea, which will house a thousand exhibits.
“The museum was created on the initiative of scientists from the Institute of Archeology National Academy Sciences and the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine. To funds children's center more than a thousand exhibits were transferred, many of which are unique and represent ancient times, the Middle Ages, are related to the Russian-Turkish wars, the period Crimean War", the message notes.
The exhibition also presents materials related to the First and Second World Wars. “Scientists have made a real discovery in the field of paper conservation and restoration, since no one had previously preserved paper media that had been under water for 95 years. For the first time, documents with signatures, resolutions, and notes written by sailors almost a century ago will be exhibited in Artek,” the children’s center noted.
Also in the museum you can see flight navigation maps recovered from the Junkers-52 military transport aircraft shot down in 1943. Here are materials dedicated to the legendary Black Prince, found in Balaklava Bay, where he sank in 1854. The museum displays elements of the ship itself, parts of the general cargo in the form of ammunition and medical equipment.
Everything good in the world, unfortunately, has its end. My stay in the paradise of our country - in Artek - has come to an end. In recent days, fate has given me unexpected joy. As if to compensate for my moral costs for excommunication from the sea and the punishment that I suffered for violating camp rules, I was given a surprise. Actually, I presented it to myself when I was born on October 10, 1943. But in the busy bustle of Artek affairs, I completely forgot about this date. And why remember when, to tell the truth, all life in this place seemed to be an endless series of small and large holidays, various affairs and events. One of the last was the relocation from open verandas from the seashore to permanent winter buildings located in the depths of the territory among the trees of the park.
The Crimean autumn was coming into its own. Strong winds began, and with them quite large waves. They hit the rocks of the Genoese fortress and, flying up, crumbled into myriads of small splashes. There was a constant taste of sea salt on my lips. The sea darkened and was covered with rows of foamy whitecaps. The sound of the surf intensified and it became more difficult to fall asleep to its sounds in the open area. The waves sometimes reached the place where until recently there were sun loungers for beach treatments. The procedures themselves have already been cancelled. No one remembered them, as it became noticeably colder. And although 18-20°C during the day by our Ural standards is summer, after 25-30° they were perceived as a cold snap. Despite the fact that the days were still sunny and dry, at night the temperature dropped to 12-15°C. We were all given sets of warm clothes: trousers (like training ones) and jackets. What remained of the old uniform was a Panama hat, a white shirt and a red tie.
The rooms on the second floor of the white brick building were small for five or six people. Bright with high ceilings and large windows, they were quite cozy. I remember well that the branches of a large walnut tree were peeking through the open window next to my bed. Its fruits looked like apricots, and on the very first day I picked several pieces, for which I immediately paid. The peel of the fruit, under which the nut was hidden, painted my hands a bright yellow color that cannot be washed off with water. Seeing my hands, the observant Valery Dmitrievich immediately understood everything, made a remark and immediately gave me a short lecture.
From his words I learned that I was not the first to fall for this temptation. My predecessors in this place all went through this. The thing is that the nuts are not yet ripe. The peel of a mature nut, when dry, flies off on its own. Eating unripe nuts is not only not tasty (I already knew that they are bitter) but also unsafe, since my stomach will hurt and I could spend the rest of my shift in the camp isolation ward. After making sure that I understood him, he said that my hands would be yellow for another three days and that they should be hidden from adults in order to avoid preventive medical procedures.
Half of one nut did not make my stomach hurt and I safely escaped the care of the medical staff. A similar incident happened with one of the boys in the junior squad, when he ate tempting mulberries. A large tree with large lilac berries that looked like raspberries grew on the edge of the park, almost right next to the fence. Unlike nuts, mulberries were sweet and juicy. He ate his fill of these berries and when he arrived at the detachment, everyone immediately understood it. Not only were his mouth and hands blood red, but his white shirt was also covered in red spots. He was first forced to wash his shirt. At the same time, my hands were somehow washed, but nothing could be done about my red mouth. For several days he walked like this, for which he immediately received the nickname “cannibal.” A cruel retribution and a good lesson for everyone else. And the berries are delicious. I tried, but carefully, I didn’t get dirty. I also tried the blackberries that grew along the fence, but their berries did not seem tasty to me. Moreover, the sharp, prickly needles of the blackberry bushes protected the berries well from uninvited gourmets like me. Boys are boys and everyone has to try and experience everything. And I was still a boy, although I had matured by one year.
My past birthdays did not pass unnoticed, but the conditions for their celebration were dictated by the very modest capabilities of our family. There were, of course, congratulations and gifts, and even my favorite Napoleon cake - the source of my mother’s culinary pride. She managed to make it despite all the problems with obtaining the main ingredients: flour, milk, butter and eggs. All these products were classified as the most acutely scarce during socialism. How she managed to get everything she needed for that day still remains a mystery to me. One way or another, my friends who came to my birthday party were indescribably delighted with this delicacy. Actually, in those days, my mother could not treat me with anything else and suffered greatly from this. But when she saw how enthusiastically the guests devoured her signature dish, she was very pleased with the recognition of her skill.
My birthday in Artek was arranged in such a way that I remembered it for the rest of my life. Having already woken up, I found on the nightstand near the bed a bouquet of autumn Crimean flowers and a pile of notes with congratulations from all members of the detachment. The notes were simple with a standard set of wishes and some with drawings on themes of Artek life. But they radiated such warmth that I was quite touched. What my friends didn’t want for me: to become a famous traveler and naturalist and a sailor and submariner and an outstanding athlete and much, much more. It was simply impossible to accomplish all this - life would not be enough, not to mention talents. My uniform was ironed and neatly folded on a stool. On top of the uniform lay a Panama hat, with a small square badge attached like a cockade. On the blue background of the badge there was a silhouette of Ayudag and the inscription ARTEK below. No one had such a badge and I saw it for the first time. It was probably a gift from the counselor. Another gift of his lay on top of all the notes and was a small folding book-album with views of the Crimea and a dedicatory inscription. I still keep this memory of good person- leader of the first detachment Valeria Dmitrievich.
At the morning assembly before the flag was raised, it was announced that today was my birthday. The senior pioneer leader wished me health and success on behalf of the staff and pioneers, and the guys loudly shouted in unison “HELLO!!!” On this day I was given the honorable right to raise the Artek flag on the mast. I, timidly, went to the mast and, to the sounds of squad fanfare, slowly, as expected, raised the banner sacred to the Artek citizen onto the mast. It turned around, fluttered in the autumn wind and I, having given a salute, got into formation. I felt that I was bursting with the pride of triumph. Until this day, the right to raise the flag was awarded in turn to members of, so to speak, the political elite of the camp - the chairmen of the detachment councils. According to the status, the physical education teacher was only given the right (or obligation) to conduct daily morning physical exercises together with the physical instructor. It was the biggest and most expensive birthday present.
During the afternoon tea, a large cake was brought into the dining room and I personally cut it and served it to everyone present. Everyone liked the cake and, having tasted it, the guys once again shouted “HELLO!!!” and also “Big Pioneer SPA-SI-BO!!!”. I even felt somehow embarrassed, because I had nothing to do with the production of this miracle. Rather, I should have shouted “THANK YOU!” to our wonderful chefs and my friends, who took my, in general, personal holiday so closely.
I really wanted to do something extraordinary on this day to justify such attention to myself from others. But the right opportunity never presented itself, and I really wanted to prove myself with something. True, a small episode took place and at least somehow consoled me and made its participants laugh. I was walking along the alley of the park and suddenly I heard the desperate, frightened squeals of girls on another alley above me on the slope. Like a real man, I rushed straight through the thorny bushes of the hedge to help. When I jumped out onto the path, I saw this picture. Four frightened girls from our detachment stood in the alley, and between me and them stood the largest porcupine of our camp in a threatening pose with fluffed quills. 
He was in an aggressive mood and snorted angrily, which had never been noticed before. The girls probably disturbed him in some way. He decided to intimidate them and did not let them pass. When defending itself, the porcupine stands with its back to the enemy and straightens out all its quills. The enemy sees in front of him a spiky ball, half a meter in diameter, which bounces and makes snorting sounds. The sight is terrifying and even the predators retreat. The girls were just scared. When I suddenly appeared from the bushes, in front of the nose of this southern super-hedgehog, he realized that the forces were clearly not equal. Snorting a couple more times for good measure, he folded the needles and quickly retreated into the passage between the trimmed laurel bushes bordering the path. On the path near the bushes, only a long needle remained, lost by the owner while fleeing. She became my “battle” trophy. The path was clear and the girls came up to me laughing and jokingly greeted their savior. The “feat” I needed so much on that day, in the name of “beautiful ladies,” took place. I was very pleased with what happened.
Throughout this whole day I felt in literally words to the birthday boy. At the evening line-up, however, I no longer lowered the flag, but I was awarded the “YUDPD” badge, since that day in the afternoon there were qualifying competitions for teams of guys who had been trained in the basics of firefighting all-around. Our young instructors from Izhevsk managed to teach their wisdom to three teams in one shift, one of which included me. The competition between these teams turned into a camp-wide competition and was a great success for the team of our first squad. I tried very hard for us to win and even our fans were literally hoarse from the shouts of encouragement. The guys from Izhevsk themselves did not participate in the competition. They were judges. Since the instructor guys were in our third camp, they taught us better than anyone else and we won by a large margin.
The presentation of certificates and badges took place at the evening assembly on October 10. So on that day I also became a young firefighter. This Artek training did not pass without a trace. Much later, already in Leningrad, I participated, with the team of our school (which I coached), in the city firefighting all-around competition at the Dynamo stadium. And here our team was the first.
A few more days passed and the camp shift in Artek ended.
The end-of-shift celebration exceeded all my expectations in its design and splendor. In the evening of this day, for which all the detachments of the three camps had prepared in advance, a general All-Artek solemn assembly took place. It was held on the main campfire area of camp number one. In the middle of a large field bordered by high stands, a huge fire was built in the form of a cone with a base of about six meters and the same height. The entire leadership of the camps and many invited important guests were present at the special podium. First, there was a general march parade of units from all camps. The chief director of ARTEKA accepted the reports of the senior pioneer leaders and praised them for the work carried out in the camps during the shift. Then, addressing all the pioneers, he congratulated us on the end of the shift and wished us success in our later life. After this, a large concert was held on the campfire square, as if on a huge stage, by the amateur performances of the camps. What was there: songs, dances, choral singing, musical numbers and poetry, circus performances, group gymnastics numbers, with traditional live performers at that time 
pyramids and much more. The concert dragged on until darkness. The audience warmly, vigorously greeted and thanked the speakers. It was a celebration of young talents from all over the country. Many performed in their national clothes. The atmosphere was very colorful and joyful. Perhaps this was the only day when all three camps merged into a single whole. Even at the All-Artek Olympiad, there was some kind of division between ours and not ours. Here a certain “we are Artek people” appeared.
When the concert ended, fireworks rockets soared into the black southern night sky. The festival of colored fire was truly fabulously beautiful. Even much later, when I lived in Leningrad and attended fireworks displays, I don’t remember anything like that. All the miracles of pyrotechnics known at that time were present here. Behind this colorful spectacle one could feel the talented hand of the director and skillful hands technical performers. I do not undertake to describe in words what happened in the sky of Artek and on the bonfire square. The fireworks display probably lasted about thirty or forty minutes, but the time flew by, as in one moment everyone was so captivated by the spectacle. When the last flashes of lights went out and a light breeze drove the smoke of the rockets out to sea, a searchlight illuminated the Artek flag on the mast. To the sounds of the orchestra, the flag slowly crawled down the mast. Everyone in the stands stood up and raised their hands in the Pioneer salute. The moment has come to say goodbye to the camp, which over the past month and a half has become a home.
The orchestra died down and the farewell Artek bonfire burst into flames on the field. A song that had long been learned in all units began to sound from the stands.
The moment of departure is not far away
It's time for us to say goodbye
I'll take a piece of coal as a souvenir
Sacred fire...
This song ended, another, a third began... All the songs that we had learned at numerous rehearsals were now performed by the joint Artek choir.
When the fire burned down and the songs died down, the buses took the tired pioneers to their camps.
Excited by what we saw, we could not fall asleep for a long time.
The next day, the assembly took place in a strictly businesslike atmosphere and without raising the flag. Everyone was given the so-called “Artek Memo”, which outlined the basic principles and rules, following which you will never lose the honor of the camp and will achieve success in later life. Something like the Ten Commandments. And everyone also received a grade book for the pioneer disciplines and skills mastered in the camp:
Pioneer history
- pioneer traditions
- history of Artek
- giving signals to the horn
- drumming
- holding camps and pioneer bonfires
- drawing lines
- and much more
Opposite each line there was a rating and not everyone had the same rating. The departure order was announced to us and we dispersed to our detachments to say goodbye. There was no need to collect things, since we had nothing but souvenirs for memory. When they parted, the girls cried. Everyone exchanged addresses and promised to remember each other and meet whenever possible.
Many years have passed and I regret to say that there was correspondence for some time, but the meetings did not take place. Coming to Moscow on business, I tried to find my Artek friends, but gloomy, intractable people were on duty near their houses and were not allowed inside.
Their main argument was the standard one - “It’s not allowed” and that’s the whole conversation!
An unexpected sequel. Part 9 In preparation, photographs were used from the author’s archive, “Artekovets” and the website www.suuk.su. Also, you can see what kind of medical certificate was issued to each Artek resident in those years when traveling (the certificate can be enlarged by clicking on it with the mouse arrow). The certificate indicated how much the child had grown and recovered, etc.