Real USSR » pioneers

Good Soviet Kids Go to Heaven? Nope, They Go to Artek!

eugenia — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 02:44:12 +0000

Kids in the traditional uniform.

The most famous PR image of the pioneria of the Soviet Union was a summer vacation camp situated in the Crimea (Ukraine), next to Gurzuf town. Founded as a sanatorium for the kids suffering and recovering from the TB by the Russian Society of the Red Cross, it first opened doors in 1925, June 16th, accommodating about 80 kids from Moscow and the nearest Ukrainian towns.

Then it was just a step ahead of a basic camping ground, with kids sleeping in tents out in the forest. However, it grew rapidly until in early 1930s a few permanent buildings were built. It was then Artek started working all year round due to its mild Mediterranean-like climate.

One of the first lots to arrive, early 1920s

1927. Central — Artek’s founder Soloviev, next to him — GM Shishmarev.

1925. The evidence of tent life.

1928. Arrival from Simpheropol

For a regular Soviet kid, a ticket to Artek did not cost anything – yet it had to be well-earned. Within a school, for instance, only the top students were rewarded by the trip to Artek. During its heydays Artek accommodated about 27 000 kids a year, so from its first days to 1969 about 300 000 kids were able to enjoy the facilities. By then the area of the camp was about 3.2 km², there were more than a hundred bulidings including the sleeping quarters, three medical buildings, a proper school for those visiting Artek during the academic year; a movie pavillion Artekfilm, three swimming pools, a stadium seating more than 6000 spectators at a time as well as a park, a garden and some sporting and play grounds.

One of the permanent blocks on Artek’s territory

After the Collapse of the Soviet Union the popularity of Artek took a swing, due to the lack of funding and the overall mishaps of the Ukrainian country. But it quickly gained its status back and it is a popular vacation site for the kids from all over Russia and Ukraine – despite the fact that now the parents bear the costs of a vacation.

The seaside. Suuk Su Beach, the diver statue

The flag alignment

A typical day at Artek would have a 7 am start, regardless of the season, followed by the morning exercise and bathroom routines. After breakfast kids would go to the beach, be it summer – or to the school quarters in winter, where they’d stay till lunch – sunbathing or studying, depending how lucky they are. After lunch – and this has been reinforced quite seriously from the very early days of the camp – all kids, regardless of age, would have to take a two hour nap. Traditionally the Artek nap has been nicknamed as Absolut – because during the nap the supervisors would require absolute silence – even if one was awake, he could only read quietly in bed, no exceptions. After the nap and a wee snack (a glass of juice/piece of fruit/tea with biscuits) kids split up into their teams and prepare for competitions or concerts till dinner. After dinner – and the food was good! — the whole of Artek would get together. 10Pm was the bed time, and it would be much desired – after such an intense day.

1933. The Big Fire — the symbol of pioneria.

Structurally Artek was a group of ten smaller camps, each accommodating kids according to their age, from 9 up to 16. Each team of kids would have two or three adult supervisors, who typically are students in training to become teachers. The supervisors are responsible for kids safety, entertainment and the nicest memories. Kids would have to defend the honour of their teams in sport, singing, dancing, theatrical plays and so on.

Faces of 1937

Morning exercise.

Morning exercise

Canteen. Most likely, lunch. The reputation of Artek’s food has always been very envious.

Sea voyage. The boat is called Artek

1934. Sailing in the harbour

After the swim. Till late 1940s, there were alternate boys’ and girls’ days, until swimsuits were made compulsory

Circa 1935

Idle time

Chess tournament

Supervisors, late 1920s

A concert.Different coats of arms of different republics. Kids dressed in traditional costumes.

Dance Rehearsal

Dance performance

And now possibly two of the most scary photographs of the entire epoch, which could not even leave the kids’ summers alone. Every time I look at these two pictures below, I feel a pang of guilt — something which we all own to those kids.

The one below is all camp’s gathering. Mind the blank faces — those guys, during the Stalin’s repressions, were announced as public enemies and were executed. Their faces were erased from all photos — so the camp wouldn;t be linked with those names.

1937.

And one more.

A regular outing? It is. The only issue is, it is the morning of June, 22nd, 1941. A few hours later it will be announced that Germany has invaded Russia and the war is upon these kids.

June 22nd, 1941.

To be continued.

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Russian Ice Cream In Winter — Bring It On!

eugenia — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 03:35:54 +0000

In the USSR, the very first ice cream factory was opened in 1932 — when the Minister of Food Supply (if translated not too liberally) Anastas Mikoyan visited the United States of America and was so impressed with their ice cream, he decided that Russia needed something of the kind. So the ice cream making technology and equipment were imported and the ice cream supply to all and everybody began. The process was highly regulated and, indeed, the quality of Soviet ice cream was enviable. If in 1932 the total amount of icecream produced was about 300 ton, then 10 years later it grew about 270 times — in 1940 there were 82 thousand ton of ice cream produced.

The city of Khabarovsk, 1970.

This numbers were lost during the WWII as the factories had to cease work — but it quickly recovered and by 1950 there was a 20% increase of what was made before.

The sweet choice: the brick, the cup, the cone, the works. Unfortunately, the flavour variety was limited to two flavours: plain sweet or chocolate.

Funnily enough, in Russia the ice cream on a stick had become synonymous with the word eskimo — named after the indigenous people of the Northern countries. You could walk in a shop and ask for two eskimos!

Everyone’s favourite treat

An ice cream street vendor. Moscow, 1959

Year and author unknown, yet a very sweet picture

Pioneers: I’ll have what he is having!

Moscow, 1934. Would have been one of the very first ones!

Another street vendor — apparently, there is some march of protest on and everybody is politically concerned

Image courtesy to LIFE magazine archives

Most likely it’s late October — early November, yet she must be making a mint!

A Moscow winter

Not your average job — selling icecream to the Russians

A cheery Soviet ad poster for the ice cream

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The Patriotic Education in USSR. Part 2 — Pioneers, Soviet Boy Scouts

Anton Markin — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 21:27:03 +0000

We are the pioneers, sons of working class (a popular song)

As you remember from the previous post, at the age of 9 the Soviet Kids grew out of their October Kids affiliation. The next ideological rite of passage was pioneering which the Soviet country placed a huge importance on. Loosely based on the American Boy Scout’s movement, pioneering covered all kids till the age of fourteen and worked in close relation with schools. Just like anything else Soviet style, it had its idiosyncrasies.

The pioneer tie knot under a school jacket.

Almost all October Kids made it to the next level – not to be accepted, one had to really misbehave and do something wrong on several occasions. However, the process of initiation was organised in a smart ideological way: usually it was scheduled close to some Soviet days of importance: November 7^th (The Great October Socialist Revolution), 22^nd April (Vladimir Lenin’s Birthday), 19^th May – the Pioneering day. As the initiation ceremony was broken down into several parts, everybody had the impression that only the most “worthy” of the lot were accepted. In reality, a class of school kids would make it to pioneers in full over a period of time of less than two years.

The initiation were MC’d by school teachers. Stalin himself would witness off the wall.

The initiation process involved a vow:

I am (full name, eg Anton Markin) entering the team of the Soviet Union Pioneer Organisation, in front of all my comrade mates, I solemnly declare: to love and to protect my country, live as the great Lenin advised, as the Communist party guides, as the Pioneer Laws require.

Then the neophyte would receive a tie, which was just like any other scout’s type of a tie. There were rules on how to tie a knot, and the colour was, of course, bloody red. A badge with the burning fire of Pioneering and Lenin’s profile was also presented. The badge bore the slogan of all pioneers – Always ready! – which was meant to be a reply to “Pioneer, be ready for the mutual action of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union!”

Always ready!

Usually each school class would contain up to three pioneer teams. Each team had a designated captain, a discipline watcher, a note taker and other positions ensuring the smooth organisational process of the every day life of pioneers.

The initiation.

It was pioneers’ job to curate the October Kids by providing guidance and mentoring, organising their leisure time. The “older brothers” were responsible for taking the October Kids not only to the movies or museums: as they had to be the “right” influence, they often organised meetings for kids of all ages with remarkable citizens or excellent production line workers to keep the young ones keen on learning and working.

Pioneers with astronaut Leonov, the first man in the outer space.

A popular activity, which any modern ex-pioneer would find nostalgic now, was the collection of paper from the neighbourhood for the recycling purposes. This was organised as a competition between the pioneer teams: kids had to go knock on doors and ask for old newspapers, books, unused boxes etc. The winners – whoever collected most – were entitled to a “thank you” letter from school or the Komsomol organisation.

A usual school class round up

So in fact, no matter how hard they denied it, the pioneer organisation took a lot after the American Boy Scout movement. Starting with the uniform and right through to the organisational structure, it was a copy and paste scheme of work. Needless to say, the propaganda lines went as “American kids living the dangerous life of crass consumerism, whereas us, Soviets, bring up our younger generations in accordance with the rules of good behaviour, wellbeing, respecting the elderly and so on”. Well, as the Iron Curtain was hanging up strongly, nobody had the means of comparing– even though it could have been a great way to learn off the American counterparts. But a typical for the Soviets “Ours is best, is Western is rotten” attitude was adopted.

Boy Scout

The mass media catered well for the pioneer market segment. The teen magazines, such as “Friendly Kids”, “A Soviet Schooler”, “Pioneer”, “Burning Fire”, “Young modeller – constructor” etc., were extremely popular. Well, providing this was almost it – there was nothing in print, which would cover music, or interpersonal relations, or sex, or anything of the interest of those approaching puberty as it was considered inappropriate. The propaganda had its sprout tentacles reached out to even to the teen Russians.

“Burning Fire”. May 1988. The cover topic is 285 years of city of St Petersburg.

Summers – June to August – was the time to take off the tie and enjoy the well-earned school break. Many kids would be sent to the pioneer summer camps – the places to stay for a few weeks, play, rest, do sports, meet new friends.

Altogether the pressure was constantly on: being a pioneer was not only an honour, it was also a responsibility, and the adults, knowing it was an easy subject to manipulate, would demand good behaviour, good marks, household help etc. Nothing unreasonable, certainly, but still – the possibility of being expelled from the pioneer organisation was a constant threat, and so in order to do well in the Soviet Union, one had to belong.

Pioneer! Learn to fight for the actions of the working people. Unfortunately, wordy slogans, which made very little sense, were idiosyncratic to the USSR.

That was what kids were doing until the age of 14, when it was a new rite of ideological passage – the Komsomol.

To Be Continued.

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