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 16^th, 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

And one more.

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

To be continued.

Related posts:

1. Pic­tur­ing the Soviet Republics: Ukraine
2. 21+ Depress­ing Pho­tos of Post-Revolutionary Rus­sia by Arkady Shaikhet
3. The Patri­otic Edu­ca­tion in the USSR. Part One: the Octo­ber Kids.
4. The Patri­otic Edu­ca­tion in USSR. Part 2  —  Pio­neers, Soviet Boy Scouts
5. The Beauty of a Soviet Body