Legends of Artek. What terrible secrets does Artek keep?

A group of artifacts relating to different periods of the existence of the main pioneer camp of the Soviet Union - "Artek". Among them is the issue of the Ogonyok magazine for 1940, which published a report on a visit to the camp by Vyacheslav Molotov, the Pionerskaya Pravda newspaper for July 25, 1947 with a note about the meeting of Artek residents with the mother of Pavlik Morozov, a photograph of two pioneer women against the backdrop of a mountain Ayu-Dag, taken in the summer of 1952, a referral to Artek for a girl in the name of a Kamchatka schoolgirl Tamara Yermoltseva, issued in May 1962, as well as an envelope and cover of a certificate of honor from the 10th meeting of the All-Union Pioneer Organization named after Lenin, which became the last in the history of the Soviet pioneer organization. Each of these artifacts keeps a small particle of the history of the former All-Union children's health resort. We will tell some of these stories to our readers.

The very idea of ​​building a children's health resort in the vicinity of Ayu-Dag also appeared not quite the way it was customary to describe later. It is curious that even modern sources, which tell about the appearance of the first pioneer camp in Crimea, literally repeat the following romantic description word for word: “The year was 1924. On a quiet autumn evening at the foot of the Ayu-Dag mountain, an old Bolshevik Zinovy ​​Petrovich Solovyov, who had arrived from Moscow, was walking. He rested, admired nature and inhaled the life-giving mountain-sea air with full breasts, but his thoughts were far away. He cared about the question as soon as possibleto improve the health of proletarian children, especially those who suffered during the years of the imperialist and civil war and the years of devastation. A sanatorium camp, a "treatment camp" - that's what Zinovy ​​Petrovich wanted to create. For the first time, this version, as an official one, appeared on the pages of the Artek gift book-photo album, which was published in 1940 with a circulation of 3 thousand copies, one of which was personally presented to I.V. Stalin. Since then, the version about the appearance of the camp as a result of the Bolsheviks' concern for proletarian children has become the only one. However, it is far from reality.

For the first time, the idea of ​​creating a sanatorium for teenagers on the Crimean coast was voiced back in 1921 by Sergei Metalnikov, a well-known Russian immunologist, one of the founders of Taurida University. The dacha of the Metalnikov family "Sounding Spring" was located in the Crimea, in the town of Artek ( for the origin of this name, see note); its main house has survived to this day. According to the widespread fashion of that time, Metalnikov founded a philosophical circle in his estate ( about the philosophical currents of that time, read the note). As a doctor working on the problems of increasing immunity and preventing diseases, Metalnikov in 1921 for the first time proposed using his dacha as a children's sanatorium. The Soviet authorities listened to the professor's idea: his dacha was nationalized and plundered, and he himself was forced to emigrate to France, where he soon became famous for his work at the Pasteur Institute. In the official history of Artek, there was no line for Metalnikov.

House of the Metalnikovs in Artek. Our days

Unlike Professor Metalnikov, who gained worldwide fame only in exile, Zinovy ​​Petrovich Solovyov was already a legendary person by the beginning of the 1920s. Firstly, he graduated from the same Simbirsk gymnasium where V.I. Lenin studied. Secondly, he became a member of the RSDLP back in 1898, thanks to which he forever entered himself into the cohort of the old Bolsheviks. After successfully graduating from Kazan University, Solovyov began his medical practice in Simbirsk, where along the way he led the local communist cell along with Lenin's younger brother, Dmitry Ulyanov. In medicine, Zinovy ​​​​Petrovich was known as an ascetic: he actively developed methods for combating scarlet fever, tuberculosis, typhus, led the journals Medical and Sanitary Leaflet, Public Doctor, Medical Life, and conducted sanitary and educational work. It was at the suggestion of Zinovy ​​Solovyov in 1917 that the Pirogov Society opposed the restoration of the death penalty on the front (it is unlikely that the humanist Solovyov guessed that very soon his party comrades would juggle the death penalty at their own discretion - more about this in the article). After the October Revolution, Solovyov developed a project for the creation of a people's commissariat of health. The people's commissariat itself appeared on July 11, 1918, and Zinovy ​​Petrovich immediately took the post of deputy people's commissar in it.

However, something else is important for our history - the fact that, simultaneously with these appointments, Zinovy ​​Solovyov took over as chairman of the executive committee of the Russian Red Cross Society (ROKK). It was on the initiative of the Red Cross that in 1924 the Pioneer Health Service was organized in the USSR, thanks to which medical offices began to appear at schools and clubs, and pioneer detachments began to be supplied with first-aid kits. At the same time, the slogan “For a young pioneer - a healthy summer!” appeared! However, it was far from the creation of a pioneer camp - the Red Cross had neither money, nor specialists, nor the relevant experience. At first, they even tried to learn from the experience of the British Boy Scouts - they began to copy their paramilitary camps (read about what else the pioneer organization borrowed from the bourgeois scouts in the article). But soon they realized that the children, exhausted by the revolution and hunger, needed not drill training and the ABC of survival in the forest, but medical care, healthy food, sun, fresh air and good rest. This is where the old idea of ​​Sergei Metalnikov came in handy. The choice of a place for the first summer camp for the Soviet pioneers was predetermined.

The first inhabitants of "Artek" were children predisposed to tuberculosis

As a result, the Artek camp was born under the shadow of a cross, and not a red star with a hammer and sickle. By the way, it was the emblem of the Russian Red Cross Society that was depicted on the first banner of the Soviet Artek. And the first song of the camp, written by Solovyov himself, began with the words:

“Our camp was built by ROCK,
Komsomol helped him.

On November 30, 1924, an article by Zinovy ​​Solovyov appeared in Pravda "Crimea - Pioneers". But the proposal to organize an All-Union sanatorium for schoolchildren suffering from tuberculosis intoxication and other serious diseases in the Artek tract was sent to the authorities only on January 6, 1925. From that moment, preparations for the arrangement of the camp officially began. Here is how Zinovy ​​Petrovich himself described this process: “One quiet autumn evening I wandered along the seashore near Mount Ayu-Dag. The peaks of the mountains were golden, oaks and pines rustled softly, the tread of my steps was drowned out by the splash of the waves. I have not felt such silence, peace and beauty for a long time ... When I immediately shared my thoughts with the future organizer of the Artek camp Fyodor Shishmarev, we quickly understood each other in a nutshell and agreed on a plan for organizing an experienced pioneer camp in Artek, which could serve as a model for field workers. For this purpose, the Red Cross rented the entire "Artek" with an area of ​​100 acres with its dachas and parks, forests, meadows. In this space, year after year, you can create a kind of institution that will eventually turn into a real "Pioneer".

As we already know, by that time the dachas mentioned in Solovyov's statement were mostly nationalized, looted and abandoned. However, with the advent of Artek, they had chances for a new life. True, this did not happen immediately. The organization of the health resort in 1925 was carried out exclusively at the expense of the Red Cross. Apparently, there was not much money - they were enough to purchase four canvas tents, 80 wooden trestle beds, bed linen, stools, tables, washstands and uniforms for children. The tents were large, tall, light, covered with wooden floors. The territory was illuminated by kerosene lamps and ship lanterns - there was no electric lighting or running water in the camp at that time (water was pumped manually from two wells).

"Artek". 1925

For the arrangement of "Artek" a detachment of Komsomol builders went to the Crimea, and the local population was also attracted for this. Near the sea, a bonfire site with an amphitheater for guests was laid out, a high mast for the flag was installed, lawns and flower beds were arranged. In the former estate of the Potemkin princes (Metalnikov's neighbors), a club, a library, a pantry and a doctor's office were placed. Fedor Shishmarev, who previously headed the Ai-Danil tuberculosis sanatorium, was appointed the head physician and, concurrently, the head of the camp. Very little is known about him - in old books and newspapers he is characterized as "an exceptional organizer, the most devoted Soviet person, an excellent doctor, the right hand of Z. Solovyov."

Squad on the line. "Artek". 1925

On May 24, 1925, in its very first issue, the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper published a small article entitled “Camp in the Crimea”: “Ts.B.Yu.P. (Central Bureau of Young Pioneers), with the help of the Red Cross, organizes a summer camp in the Crimea for the pioneers of Moscow, Ivanovo-Voznesensk, Leningrad and Yaroslavl. Under the direction of TT. Semashko and Solovyov, one of the best places in the Crimea was chosen for the camp. The camp will be the first experience of a sanatorium camp. Pioneers predisposed to tuberculosis will go to the camp.” By the way, the surname Semashko appeared in the note not by chance. Many Soviet sources touchingly tell how, on sleepless nights, Nikolai Semashko (the first people's commissar of health) and his deputy Solovyov planned the construction of the future camp. " In organizing a new type of camp, we need to show maximum sensitivity and attention to children. Vladimir Ilyich taught us this,— the Commissar advised his deputy.
However, not the people's commissar, but the simplest hard workers accepted the first shift of Artek workers. In 1925, the camp staff consisted of only 21 employees - including five Komsomol leaders, a water carrier, two cleaners and two waiters. The names of most of them have long been forgotten, but some of the names of the very first Artek team have been preserved in the archives. In addition to Solovyov and Shishmarev, the staff included:
Ekaterina Nikolaevna Zgorzhelskaya - doctor;
Vera Sergeevna Mamont - nurse;
Igor Selyanin - senior counselor;
Petr Erinsky is a physical education instructor.
On June 16, 1925, all of them were present at the solemn line on the occasion of the opening of the first Artek shift. This happened at the place where the Morskaya squad is located today. Here, to this day, you can see a memorial sign dedicated to the first pioneer line of Artek. The first 80 Artek residents stood at attention in an awkward formation. The selection of vacationers to the camp then was carried out strictly in accordance with medical indications: only children with inactive tuberculosis intoxication, functional diseases of the nervous system, overwork and anemia were taken to the Crimea. As Komsomolskaya Pravda reported, schoolchildren from Moscow and the Moscow province, as well as from Tula and Tver, arrived for the first shift. And Pionerskaya Pravda in the summer of 1925 gave more detailed information: “A sanatorium camp has been opened near Gurzuf. Now 70 Moscow pioneers and 10 Crimean ones live there. They will stay for 3 months. The next batch will be recruited in Leningrad, Ivano-Voznesensk and the villages of the Samara province. During the summer, 320 people will pass through this camp.”
Upon arrival, each student (only boys arrived on the first shift) received a bar of soap, a towel, tooth powder and a brush. In order to imagine at least a little what happiness the holidays in Artek became for the first pioneers, we will give a letter from one of the Artek residents home: “We arrived in Nizhny Novgorod, bought bread and sausages. We arrived in Moscow. We dined: cabbage soup with meat and porridge. From Moscow we went and drove through many cities. In Kursk they drank tea with sugar. We arrived in Simferopol. We bought sausages and bread: for each 1 pound of bread and half a pound of sausage. Then we went to Artek. There is a lot of water in the sea. We lived in Artek for a month. They fed well." Note that the only mention of the unique Black Sea nature is “there is a lot of water in the sea”. But about food - in every line. Exhausted by diseases and hunger, the children were not yet up to the Crimean beauties. Many of them, in the literal sense, did not eat anything sweeter than carrots in their lives and for the first time saw such a “luxury” as cabbage soup with meat and tea with sugar. Dr. Solovyov was well aware of this. Therefore, from the very first year of Artek’s existence, he replaced the romantic “pioneer potatoes” baked in ash with five times a day sanatorium meals in accordance with all the rules of children's dietology. Moreover, the meal, as we remember, was held behind snow-white tablecloths, and each child was also given a starched napkin in a ring. Well, how can you forget that?

The paramilitary way of life in Soviet pioneer camps was introduced by a German communist

At noon on June 16, 1925, the first flag of the camp hoisted on a freshly painted mast - a red flag, on which a sickle and a hammer - the symbols of the USSR, were gilded on the right, and on the left - a red cross in a white circle - the emblem of the ROCK, which was in charge of the All-Union health resort until October 1936 of the year.

Clara Zetkin in Artek. Behind the banner of the camp with the emblem of the ROCK. 1925

By the way, there are very few photographs showing this banner. One of them is in the magazine "Bonfire" for 1976. Please note that in the magazine description of this picture, only one emblem on the flag is mentioned - crossed agricultural implements, although they are visible much worse than the ROCK symbol. All the photographs where the Red Cross is visible capture the historical moment of the arrival in Artek in the summer of 1925 of the most famous German communist Clara Zetkin.

Clara Zetkin speaking to Artek

“Do you want to see free happy children? Visit the Artek summer camp,- this part of Zetkin's speech in the Black Sea health resort was quoted by Soviet officials for decades as a mantra. Here is a more detailed excerpt from her report: “I have been to Artek three times, and if I didn’t have to leave, I would visit it I don’t know how many more times. In "Artek" only cheerful, shining children's faces are visible. Boys and girls jump, frolic, study, collect plants and insects, sing, recite, arrange performances. All this in a certain order, disciplined, but without coercion, completely voluntary. Teachers, Komsomol members, doctors who care about nutrition, health and education work with them. They are all loving friends of children, not their stewards. With what intense attention and joyful looks do children obey the instructions of their older friends.
Agree, the phrase “children joyfully obey” is definitely alarming. But such is the German perception of well-being: order is above all. Before leaving for her homeland, where by that time Nazism was already raising its head with might and main, Clara Zetkin said the following: "This camp is further proof that the young, poor Soviet Union can shame the old rich bourgeois states with its concern for youth."
It is unlikely, of course, that the pioneers then realized that this venerable German Frau, waving in front of them with a reticule and a cane, had just designated Artek as a "flower garden of the world revolution." It is no coincidence that militarized terminology was introduced in the camp immediately after her visit: “march”, “report”, “detachment”, “review”, “equalization”.
According to the schedule, about 2 hours a day were allotted for the ideological education of schoolchildren in Artek - no matter how Solovyov pressed on the medical component of the children's camp, from the first years of work, Artek, as Zetkin prophesied, became a "forge of personnel" for the future Komsomol asset . But a sanatorium is a sanatorium - Solovyov ordered that Artek residents sleep at least 11 hours a day (afternoon sleep was mandatory). Few of the Soviet pioneers of the 1970s and 1980s knew that they owed Zinovy ​​Solovyov the once and for all established daily routine in the summer camp with its obligatory afternoon “quiet hour”. It was with his caring hand that the day of the young Artek citizen began with exercises, making the bed, washing and rubbing with a hard towel. Compulsory work was also included in the daily routine - the pioneers cleaned the adjacent park, cleaned the beach, helped the neighboring agricultural commune (mostly they picked grapes, fruits, hay). There were few excursions in those years, since Artek did not yet have its own transport.

"Artek". On the right is the house of Vladimir Solovyov

Zinovy ​​Petrovich himself with his wife Margarita Ivanovna spent the whole summer in the camp and lived according to the same regime as the pioneers - at 7 in the morning he got up, at 9 in the evening he hung up. Once, during a strong hurricane, the director personally saved frightened boys from a downpour and heavy wind, placed them in Gurzuf apartments. In the morning, the All-Union health resort was a sad sight: the tents were torn down, wet blankets and pillows were everywhere, broken bedside tables and stools. Solovyov understood that it was necessary to build wooden buildings. However, there was nowhere to get money for them.

Since 1926, the gates of Artek have been decorated with an inscription in German

Artek has become an international camp since 1926 - with the light hand of the same Clara Zetkin. That summer, German pioneers arrived at the camp with their leader. History has preserved the names of only some of them - one of the girls was called Erna, the boys were Richard and Willy, and their counselor Fritz. Apparently, specially for their arrival, one of the signs on the gates of the Soviet camp was made in German - several such photographs have been preserved.

"Artek". The inscription on the camp gate in German. 1926

The pioneer delegation from Germany was headed by the chairman of the committee of children's communist groups, Erich Wiesner. In the same year, 1926, the communist leader of Japan, Sen Katayama, the first distinguished guest from abroad, visited Artek. A start was made: in the summer of 1926 alone, delegations from France, Germany, Poland, Holland, Denmark, Sweden, and Norway visited the camp. The foreigners asked themselves two questions - why is Artek not surrounded by a fence and how is it possible to maintain such cleanliness in it.

The history of Artek also had its own September 11

The history of Artek almost ended ahead of schedule on September 11, 1927 at 00:20, when a strong earthquake of up to 9 points turned everything that had been done in two years into ruins. Fortunately, the children had already gone home by that time. The Soviet Union could no longer refuse the All-Union health resort - too serious ideological tasks were assigned to this institution. After the disaster, the Central Bureau of Young Pioneers announced a fundraiser across the country for the restoration of Artek. This time, Zinovy ​​Solovyov insisted on the construction of wooden houses. By the summer of 1928, at the foot of Ayu-Dag, there were 6 stationary plywood buildings with electric lighting, an outpatient clinic with an isolation room in case of infectious diseases, and an administrative and economic complex. In addition, 2 doctors, 11 nurses and 3 nurses were added to the staff.

"Honorary Artek" Henri Barbusse. 1928

In 1928, the First All-Union Pioneer Rally was held in Artek, which was attended by delegates from the International Congress of Proletarian Children. The children of Austrian Schutzbundons, Spanish Republicans, and dark-skinned boys from the USA came to Crimea. The French revolutionary writer Henri Barbusse was invited to meet with them, who was solemnly accepted as an “honorary pioneer”. From now on, this ritual will become traditional in Artek. Barbusse was completely delighted with the Crimean health resort and called it nothing more than "a kingdom without a king and without subjects, where there are a lot of little brothers around several big brothers." “Artek is a real paradise, but an earthly paradise, a real one, where children spend their lives in improving their physical strength, acquiring knowledge and sports”, Barbus wrote. In the same year, already being seriously ill, Zinovy ​​​​Soloviev met with the writer. Leaving the camp, Zinovy ​​Petrovich wrote his farewell message to the pioneers: “The significance of our institution - the camp-sanatorium associated with my name - makes me stronger, more courageous. Saying goodbye to you, dear comrades and friends, I send you with all my heart the desire to remember the work that you have done here.

In "Artek" there is still a house in which "Milady" from the novel by Dumas ended her days

Zinovy ​​Solovyov died on November 6, 1928. He was only 52 years old. He was buried with honors at the Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow, and a year later a monument to the founder of the All-Union Pioneer Health Resort was solemnly opened in Artek itself. During the life of Zinovy ​​Petrovich, about 3,000 Soviet pioneers managed to improve their health in the Crimean camp. Surely each of them until the end of his life with a smile recalled how the gray-haired head of "Artek" got on all fours and portrayed the legendary bear Ayu-Dag for them. Children covered him with a greatcoat and rode. In the house of Zinovy ​​Petrovich, where, according to legend, at the beginning of the 19th century, the famous milady Jeanne de la Motte, who stole the pendants from Louis XV, ended her earthly days, a museum has been created. The camp itself after the death of Zinovy ​​\u200b\u200bSoloviev began to bear his name. True, not for long. Until 1938.

Artek continued to develop after the death of its founder. In 1930, the second sanatorium camp for 250 people per shift was opened in the Black Sea health resort - "Upper". The fact is that the first camp - "Lower" (today - "Marine"), located near the sea, could no longer cope with the growing flow of children from all over the USSR. The new buildings had spacious and bright bedrooms for the children, a dining room, a library, and shower rooms. This made it possible to make it year-round by the first anniversary of Artek.

"Lower" camp. 1930

The life and leisure of the Artek residents of those years today gives at least some idea of ​​the 1930 magazine “For Sanitary Defense”, found by enthusiasts, published under the auspices of the ROCK. The fuzzy black-and-white photographs capture collective swimming in the sea, listening to a lecturer, and playing volleyball - traditional pioneer pastimes. If you look closely, these photographs are not very different from those that were taken in the 70s and 80s - in both, the children are equally happy.

In 1931, a Rest House for counselors appeared in Artek, in 1932, a children's technical station was equipped in the former dacha of the Crimean doctor V.N. Dmitriev - a favorite place for young inventors. From a small tent city, the camp slowly but surely turned into a real pioneer town. Even then, it was incredibly difficult to get into this “pioneer republic”. Apparently, since the beginning of the 30s, children began to be sent to Artek not so much for medical reasons, but "on merit." It is known, for example, that in the summer of 1934 the Central Committee of the Komsomol awarded 200 best pioneers of the country with vouchers to the camp. Today, it is a little creepy to read that among them was the pioneer Olya Balykina from Tataria, who exposed her father and, along with him, a group of plunderers of collective farm crops. Mitya Bortsov, Petya Ivankovsky and Marusya Nikolaeva from the Leningrad region earned the right to go to Artek for their help in raising collective farm young animals, Sasha Kataev, Fedya Zhigovsky and Kolya Klementyev prevented a train crash, and Tonya Dudarenko helped the Dutch guys organize a pioneer detachment. As you can see, the merits could be different.

It was possible to earn a ticket to Artek in the 30s with a simple denunciation

On the 10th anniversary of Artek, which was celebrated with great fanfare, many pioneers wrote enthusiastic letters about their favorite camp. Some of these messages were published in the Soviet press. So, on June 17, 1935, Komsomolskaya Pravda published on its pages a touching letter from a 12-year-old Ukrainian schoolboy Kolya Verbovoy to his village teacher (we will not give a translation, since the language is quite understandable):

Letter from Ukrainian schoolboy Kolya

“Good afternoon, Oles Timofiovich, and good afternoon, scholar, pass the fifth to the class, scholars, Ivan Oleksandrovich, as I am good here. Why am I not messing around here. I don’t just drink here, I don’t drink bird’s milk alone. Like I’m on fire here! Mount "Vedmіd" is such that you need to lift your head in a good way. There are a lot of trees on the mountain and on top of the mountain, the tree grows. It's such a good climate. We live near the sea, we bathe the skin day. Yak I fish, like she floats on the sea, like snakes I bat: yellow and so red. And the birds are like that tree here, why don’t you walk, it smells there. Like budinki here, how many people I am bachiv. People come to Artek and Chinese and Moldovans, from whichever country you want to come. The Chinese like to come, that stench just doesn’t vibrate tricks, and others sing so beautifully, even “Artek” is singing. And early physical education is robimo, before evening we go to the line. I am in the third detachment, I sleep in the sixth ward. It's beautiful here."
However, it is worth reading the editorial note to this note to the end, and the initial tenderness is instantly replaced by shock: it turns out that “Kolya Verbova was sent to Artek for revealing the plans of the fists of Tatyana Pryadun, who wanted to ruin all the collective farm calves.” Like this: vigilant Kolya to Artek, and his fellow villager to Solovki. However, not all Artek residents were so conscious. Even among them there were loafers, truants, and even future dissidents.

Elena Bonner (left) in Artek. 1936

So, one of the pupils of the camp was the future well-known human rights activist Elena Bonner - at that time she was 13 years old. Her stepfather Gevork Alikhanyan, a prominent party member who worked in the Executive Committee of the Comintern in 1936, arranged for her in Artek (two years later he was arrested and shot) . Here is how Elena Georgievna describes her life in the camp: “We lived in spacious, long, barrack-like rooms—probably 50 or more girls from the four divisions of the lower camp. Everyone went in official clothes - blue shorts and shirts with short sleeves, blue or white. They could be changed every day at the housekeeper, who came to the tent in the morning. There were two heroes in our second squad. A girl named Wanda who caught a trespassing spy somewhere. And the second hero is Barazbi Khamgokov. He raised a horse either for Budyonny or for Voroshilov and, it seems, received an order for this. I received a lot of comments from the counselors - there were two of them, a guy and a girl. All the remarks were due to the fact that I constantly tried to evade the general detachment events. She wandered a lot alone along the sea towards Ayu-Dag or climbed up from the camp to the Tatar gardens. And a couple of times I was caught when I was swimming alone. And this was strictly forbidden and, it seems, was considered the main crime. I also went to the reading room to read newspapers every day. This habit has remained with me for the rest of my life since the day of Kirov's assassination. Every evening there was a bonfire. And about once a week - all-camp on a very large bonfire site, equipped with stands similar to the stands on Red Square. Squad fires were good and even with baked potatoes. Once we were taken to Suuk-su to meet various chiefs. As I now understand, the leaders there were not of the first, but of the second rank. Whether Molotov was there, I don't know. But I was not in the Kremlin at the meeting with him.”

Vyacheslav Molotov was considered the guardian of Artek and once gave one of the pioneers a Stradivarius violin

In these memoirs there is an indication of one very important event in the life of Artek residents. In August 1936, a group of the best pioneers - young order bearers, poets, musicians and dancers - visited the chairman of the Council of People's Commissars Vyacheslav Molotov at his government dacha in the Crimea. Their next meeting was already in the Kremlin. In those years, Molotov was considered the official curator of the All-Union health resort, assisted her, encouraged the best Artekites with expensive gifts (for example, one of the pioneers was presented with a Stradivarius violin). It happened that Vyacheslav Mikhailovich came to the camp personally - for the first time in 1934. So the pioneers decided to pay him a return visit - to please the old Bolshevik, to demonstrate their talents. During dacha gatherings, the Artekites received an official invitation from Comrade Molotov to visit the Moscow Kremlin. The Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars did not deceive: on September 17, 1936, he really received two hundred tanned pioneers in the Kremlin. This event was described in detail by the newspaper Krasny Krym in its September 18, 1936 issue:
“A cheerful cheerful noise and a happy hubbub roll over the hall. Everyone turns to the door, through which the chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the Union enters. Children rise from their chairs, meeting their friend with enthusiastic applause and smiles. Voiced cries merge into a common, friendly greeting:
"Greetings, comrade Molotov!"
— Hello Artek people! - Comrade exclaims in response. Molotov.
The smallest order bearer, dark-skinned Mamlyakat Nakhangova, reports Comrade. Molotov a huge bouquet of flowers and an album with pictures of Artek. The guys were taken to the meeting room of the Council of People's Commissars, where all vital issues for the country of the Soviets were resolved. As part of the cultural program, Artek residents recited poetry, danced, played musical instruments, and, most importantly, sang. Glancing slyly at Vyacheslav Mikhailovich, Artek sang a comic song that “Suuk-Su sheltered on Artek’s nose.”

Resort "Suuk-su". Pre-revolutionary postcard

The material tells in detail about the meetings of the pioneers with the head of the Council of People's Commissars, their sincere friendship and various joint leisure activities. I must say that the theme of a happy pioneer childhood in those years was the key to Soviet propaganda, so the material about the friendship of the people's commissar with the Artek people in Ogonyok is given a special place. The article is accompanied by two black-and-white photographs taken by photographer V. Gorshkov. Both frames, apparently, were taken at the same time - they show a happy Molotov, dressed in a light Ukrainian embroidered shirt, surrounded by no less happy pioneers. The publication ends with a description of the visit by the Artekites to the Kremlin, which we have already mentioned, which resulted in the transfer of the Suuk-Su resort camp to the balance sheet.

I. Stalin never visited Artek, and his monument, according to legend, was drowned in the sea after the debunking of the "cult of personality"

It can be said that the Artekites had to be content with meetings with Molotov - after all, Stalin never condescended to a personal conversation with them. Pioneers regularly called the leader to the Crimea. Here is an episode from a letter written by the Artekites to the “Father of Nations”, from which it becomes clear how much they wanted to attract his attention: “From the 500 shock workers of study sent by the Komsomol to the All-Union Pioneer Camp “Artek”, from the happiest among the happy children of the Soviet Union, we send you, dear and beloved, our heartfelt pioneer greetings. Please accept our childish thanks and pass it on to the entire Party, the entire worker-peasant government, and our honorary Artek Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Molotov and all the workers and collective farmers for everything, for everything that you have done for Soviet children. In "Artek" we are brought up communist, tempered, swim in the sea, improve our health. And when we grow up, we will definitely join the Komsomol andthen to our Communist Party, which you, Joseph Vissarionovich, lead, which made our life so happy. We wish you health and many, many years of life and we kindly ask you, dear Joseph Vissarionovich, to come to us together with our beloved honorary Artek citizen Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Molotov. We look forward to seeing you. You will see for yourself how fun and good we have here. Give us a call and come visit us."

"Artek". 1937

But "dear and beloved Iosif Vissarionovich" will not only never come to Artek, but will not even answer his young fans. There were always more important things to do. So, for example, in 1948, he was forced to cancel a planned visit to the Crimea due to the arrival of the new president of Czechoslovakia, Klement Gottwald, in the USSR - the expansion of the social bloc was, of course, much more important than empty conversations at a pioneer campfire. And yet, the cult of personality of the Secretary General in Artek was almost sacred. In the absence of the deity himself, the pioneers organized places to worship him. For example, in 1936, in commemoration of the adoption of the Stalinist constitution, a six-meter portrait of Iosif Vissarionovich was installed on the central square of the camp, at the bottom of which they wrote: “To the best friend of the pioneers.” And in 1949, a granite monument to the “father of nations” was erected on the territory of Artek. They say that in the mid-50s, after the debunking of the "cult of personality", this monument was secretly demolished and drowned in the sea.

In fairness, we note that the Secretary General still sometimes talked with the pioneers. Already familiar to us, Mamlyakat Nakhangova, an 11-year-old girl from a Tajik village, from whom Soviet propaganda made the youngest Stakhanovite in the country, met with Stalin a year earlier than with Molotov.

Joseph Stalin and Mamlyakat Nakhangova

« Mamlyakat did not become “proud”, but remained as friendly and modest as she was. In Artek, she quickly became friends with the guys, and everyone began to call her not Mamlakat, but simply Ma-rusya, or Marusenka.- Soviet newspapers will perpetuate the name of Marusenka Nakhangova's artek.

In 1937, the leadership of Artek was not accused of terrorism, attempts to poison the pioneers, and even the desire to sail on a rowboat to America

The mass repressions that swept through the USSR in 1937-1939 also affected Artek. One of these criminal cases against the camp staff was unearthed in the archives by the authors of the unofficial website of the Artek ICC, Artekovets. They managed to find out that in the early summer of 1937, an NKVD officer Nikolai Ivanov appeared in the camp, who was instructed to identify "enemy elements" in the staff of the Black Sea health resort. The uninvited guest coped with his task famously: already in June, the senior pioneer leader Lev Olkhovsky was arrested and charged with an attempt on Comrade Molotov, counter-revolutionary Trotskyist activities and an attempt to escape to America on a rowboat. It is difficult to come up with more delusional slander. And in July, Boris Ovchukov, deputy director of the camp for educational work, was arrested, who was considered the leader of a counter-revolutionary group. This gang allegedly included doctor Erport, head of the nursery Shilman, head of cultural inventory Gorshkov, counselors Balashov, Petrov, Kondakov, Krotov, Bocharnikova, Lugovaya, Latushkina, Kryuchkovich and dozens of others.

In the archives of the NKVD, the “Memorandum of Enemy Work in the Artek Pioneer Camp” has been preserved. Here are just some excerpts from this document, which are simply striking in their absurdity, but eloquently reflect the specifics of that difficult time: “In the subsidiary farm of Artek, enemies are operating: cows are infected with brucellosis, 34 bee colonies, 19 gilts have died. Glasses, nails, buttons were found in the food of the pioneers, matches were found in the bread. Eight workers were poisoned, the radio center was disrupted, an attempt was made to set fire to the building where Spanish children lived, Komsomol, trade union and party work was ruined. Everyday decay flourished in Artek: drunkenness entered the system ... systematic drinking parties were organized in apartments ... They drank at the expense of Artek, drank from the cellars of Artek, drank 20-30 rubles from their brother together ... At drunks, they slandered the party and her leaders. Leader Malyutin beat 8-year-old Elya Schukina, and raped the pioneer Tamara Kastradze. There were cases when children, under the guise of a hike, were taken away in groups for the whole night to Ayu-Dag and returned them with a cold "...

Polina Zhemchuzhina

The wife of the leader Olkhovsky allegedly told Zhemchuzhina, who at that time was already predicted to be the people's commissar of the fishing industry, that her husband was accused of attempting to assassinate Molotov himself. Polina Semyonovna conveyed her words to her powerful husband. The "Honorary Artekian" decided to stand up for his wards and allegedly sent the following telegram to the right place: “I don’t believe in the guilt of Ovchukov and Olkhovsky. The case was ordered to be withdrawn from the bodies of the NKVD. Be that as it may, soon the "enemies of the people" were released. By the way, the main "Artek gangster" Boris Ovchukov conscientiously worked as the director of the All-Union health resort until the end of the 50s, and leader Aron Kryuchkovich, who almost disappeared in the Gulag, returned from the front with the rank of colonel and repeatedly became the guest of honor of Artek. They say that in the early 60s, already a former NKVD officer, Nikolai Ivanov, came to the camp to apologize and drink "peace" with those whom he almost ruined.

By the 15th anniversary of Artek, the number of its full-time doctors was brought up to 23 people. From now on, the work plans of the detachments were necessarily coordinated with the doctors, and the attending physician, along with the leaders, was responsible for the correct dosage of loads and the implementation of the educational program. According to the project of architects D.S. Vitukhin and A.T. Polyansky on the territory of the health resort, modern buildings were erected that meet all the requirements for organizing children's recreation. By this time, four camps were already operating in Artek - Upper, Lower, Suuk-Su and 15th Dacha. Moreover, each has its own line, its own banner, its own senior counselor, its own cultural program. But the morning of all the resting pioneers began the same way - with a greeting that was started by Zinovy ​​Solovyov: "Everyone, everyone, everyone good morning!". In the anniversary year of 1940, 5150 pioneers visited the camp, and most of them became the heroes of the one and a half hour documentary film "By the Warm Sea", filmed by director Nikolai Solovyov specifically for the 15th anniversary of the All-Union Children's Health Resort.

Nowadays, some scenes from this archival tape seem a little strange - take, for example, the episode with sunbathing, which for some reason the pioneers take naked. Everything falls into place a little when you remember that the mixed recruitment of detachments in Artek was introduced only in 1954 - before that, boys and girls lived in different camps, bathed and sunbathed separately. But in any case, today it is difficult to imagine such procedures. As well as the captions to some archival photographs that depict pioneers from Africa or the USA. Now an inscription like “Negro pioneers in Artek” would be considered at least politically incorrect, but in the USSR this word was considered the norm. Soviet pioneers were brought up in love for the unfortunate Negroes and hatred for the Americans who oppress them. It was not for nothing that one of the favorite books of our schoolchildren was "Uncle Tom's Cabin", and under the film "Circus" about the misadventures of the circus performer Marion and her black son Jimmy, the whole country sobbed.
Spaniards, blacks, Russians
In one bunch.
This is where our muscles grow
In one fight...- is sung in one Artek song.

June 20, 1941 "Artek" met the next arrival of the pioneer shift. On Sunday, June 22, the children were waiting for honored guests - Red Army soldiers from the Gurzuf military sanatorium. However, the commanders for some reason did not come.

Girls of the 8th squad. Camp "Suuk-Su". June 1941

“Long before the rise, the Artek workers woke up and listened warily, peered at the incomprehensible, disturbing movement in the corridors and in the yard. The excited voices of adults, the tearful eyes of the old nanny who looked into the bedroom, the stern faces of the pioneer leaders - everything indicated that something significant and very serious had happened, ”- describes the Artek morning on June 22, 1941, Vladimir Svistov. During the second breakfast, the guys heard radio call signs and a government message about the treacherous attack on the Soviet Union by Nazi Germany, which, as you know, was read out by the best friend of the Artekites, Vyacheslav Molotov.

Schoolchildren from the occupied regions of the country who ended up in Artek on June 22 traveled from Crimea to Altai for more than a year

On the very first day of the war, the Black Sea health resort was literally inundated with telegrams from parents worried about the fate of their children. The management of "Artek" decided to immediately separate the guys, accompanied by counselors, to their homes. But there were also those who by that time had nowhere to return - in June 1941, the Germans were already in charge in the Baltic states, Belarus, Western Ukraine and Moldova. Then the Central Committee of the Komsomol and the People's Commissariat of Health of the USSR decided to urgently form a special group of these pioneers and evacuate them from the Crimea. There were about 200 of them.

They were the last to leave Artek. These schoolchildren faced the longest route in their life of 8,000 kilometers: Artek - Simferopol - Moscow - Gorky - Kazan - Stalingrad - Ufa - Omsk - Novosibirsk - Barnaul - Biysk - Belokurikha. For a long 16 months, the Artek people traveled from the Crimea to Altai. From September 11, 1942 to January 12, 1945, the Black Sea health resort was located in the Belokurikha sanatorium and was called the Altai Artek. In less than four years, about 500 schoolchildren from Siberia rested there. And for those who came to Altai from the Crimea, the holidays turned out to be the longest in the history of the camp. The military shift made these children friends forever.

Palace "Suuk-Su", destroyed by the Nazis

But what about Crimea? On November 6, 1941, the German-Romanian units occupied Artek, burned the Suuk-Su Palace, destroyed the piers of the Lower Camp, built their fortifications in the luxurious parks of the Black Sea health resort, dug trenches, surrounded them with barbed wire. “From the museum came the sound of breaking glass. Boxes, boxes with collections of minerals, lovingly collected by many generations of Artek people, flew through the windows. The wind raised a heap of feathers from torn stuffed birds. The Nazis brought horses into the wide open doors of the museum. Strong explosions echoed in the mountains with repeated heavy echoes. The invaders blew up the Artek piers. Along the balustrade of the Lower Camp, their sappers dug trenches and built dugouts. In the park of the Upper Camp, sequoias, yews and cedars were cut down for furnaces. The camp club was also turned into a stable. Shots were heard from the Suuk-Su camp. It was drunken Nazi officers who vented their anger by shooting porcelain sculptures of the Alley of Nationalities with pistols and machine guns. Black days have come in Artek," describes the Artek autumn of 1941 by Vladimir Svistov.

The Nazis did not spare the people who remained in the camp. Lyubov Aronovna Verbitskaya, a pediatrician at Artek, was unable to evacuate along with everyone due to a serious illness. Back in the spring of 1941, the woman fell ill and turned out to be untransportable. Her family stayed with her in the camp. Today it is unlikely that it will be possible to find out who betrayed her - perhaps the Gestapo themselves discovered a Jewish doctor from the camp lists. Be that as it may, on a December morning in 1941, a car drove up to the camp building in which the Verbitskys lived. Lyubov Aronovna was dragged out of bed, pushed into a car, her 11-year-old son Vladek was also thrown there, and her husband Nikolai Gnedenko (he was not a Jew) was left behind. But he could not abandon his family and climbed into the body himself. They were taken to the Massandra barracks and shot along with 2,000 Yalta Jews on December 18, 1941. The official website of "Artek" contains a list of employees of "Artek" who died during the years of fascist occupation. Let's remember the names of some of them:
Barinov - supply manager of the "Upper" camp,
Bruslavsky Naum - pioneer leader of the Suuk-Su camp,
Gnedenko Nikolai Fedorovich - senior doctor,
Dorokhin Vladimir - camp leader "Suuk-Su",
Kornienko Olga - pioneer leader of the Suuk-Su camp,
Malyanchikov Alexander Alekseevich - senior counselor, deputy director of Artek,
Manzhos Anatoly Petrovich - driver,
Mironov Konstantin - pioneer leader of the Nizhny and Suuk-Su camps,
Ozik Faina - pioneer leader of the Suuk-Su camp,
Parfenov Ivan Andreevich - foreman of the repair section,
Raabe Adolf Andreevich - projectionist,
Raabe Oskar Andreevich - driver,
Stolyarova Lyubov - pioneer leader of the "Upper" camp,
Tabachkov Mikhail - pioneer leader of the camp "Suuk-Su",
Fil Vladimir - driver,
Tsigelman Anatoly Markovich - Director of Artek,
Chernov Boris - pioneer leader of the "Upper" camp.

In 1957, a small memorial plaque was installed in Artek with the names of the Artek heroes who died during the war. To this day, this place is called the Hill of Glory. The author of the monument was the Artek artist Georgy Devyatovsky.

Fortunately, the list was not entirely accurate. As the daughter of one of the people on the list, leader Nikolai Kulakov, told Little Stories, her father was on this list by accident, survived the war safely and worked as a leader for many years after it.

But back to Artek. As soon as the Germans were finally driven out of the Crimean peninsula, construction began again in Artek. The material damage to the camp was estimated at 11.5 million rubles, an astronomical amount by Soviet standards. To restore the favorite resting place of the Soviet pioneers, the government decided to transfer the Collective Farm Youth Rest House to the All-Union health resort - it eventually housed the fifth camp of the sanatorium complex. The fighting was still raging on the outskirts of Berlin, and the first post-war shift had already arrived at Artek.

At the same time, a story happened here, thanks to which the name of the Soviet camp became known to the whole planet. In February 1945, the famous Yalta Conference was held in Crimea, at which the leaders of the countries of the anti-Hitler coalition discussed plans for the post-war structure of Europe. While Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill were dividing Germany, the wife of the British Prime Minister Clementine Churchill presented Artek with fifteen large hospital tents for 40 people each (which, by the way, served the Artek residents until the 60th year). US Ambassador Averell Harriman also became generous - he wrote out a check for 10 thousand dollars for the restoration of the health resort. Of course, the Artek people had to give the guests a return gift. It is not known which herbariums they presented to Clementine Churchill, but Harriman knows all the details about the present.

In 1945, the Artek people presented the American ambassador with a wooden coat of arms with a “bug” embedded inside.

On February 8, 1945, the pioneers solemnly presented the American coat of arms, made of precious woods (sandalwood, boxwood, sequoia, elephant palm, parrotia, red and ebony, black alder), to a diplomat. They say the ambassador even shed a tear. Stalin's personal translator, Valentin Berezhnoy, who accompanied Harriman, advised him to hang the children's gift in his office. The touched American did just that. The eagle hung in the embassy for eight years. During this time, four US ambassadors to the USSR were replaced - Averell Harriman, Walter Smith, Elan Kern, George Kennan. Each of them completely changed the interior of the office - but did not touch the Artek present. They could not even imagine that a "bug" was hidden in the coat of arms. Its design was such that it could work indefinitely - the microphone was powered not by a battery, but by radiation from an antenna installed on a neighboring residential building. The operation to introduce the microphone was called "Chrysostom". They say that it was personally supervised by Joseph Stalin and Lavrenty Beria. Listening to the cabinet was codenamed "Confession". “We didn’t even suspect then that we unwittingly became participants in the loudest and most successful intelligence operation of the Soviet special services,” recalls Vladimir Svistov. In early 1953, the Americans nevertheless found out that a listening device was hidden in the coat of arms. According to one version, the operation was discovered by a Soviet defector, according to another, the microphone was found by accident. Until 1960, Washington kept the discovery of the "bug" secret. But after a U-2 spy plane was shot down in the USSR, the White House declassified the story and showed the coat of arms and microphone at an emergency session of the UN General Assembly. Currently, the Artek gift is stored in the CIA Museum in Langley.

The Artek people themselves, of course, had no idea that big politics were being made with their hands. They continued to sing songs, go on hikes, study in circles, go on excursions, receive guests of honor, swim in the sea, enjoy the Crimean sun and honor their heroes. And there were many such heroes.

The mother of the pioneer hero Pavlik Morozov lived in Alupka and was not loved by the neighbors

So, in 1947, the newspaper "Pionerskaya Pravda" on July 25 made a special issue dedicated to the letters of the delegates of the II Republican meeting of the pioneers of Ukraine. This number . On its front page, the editors placed a small note "Artek Pioneers visiting the mother of Pavlik Morozov." From the material we learn that, by decision of the government, a monument to Pavlik Morozov will be erected in Moscow. Note that in the eyes of all Soviet pioneers, the boy brutally murdered in 1932 was not only a fearless fighter with fists, but also "organizer and chairman of the first pioneer detachment in the village of Gerasimovka." We will not now go into the details of this murder and the moral side of Pavlik's act, we only note that he was never a pioneer - Soviet propaganda tied a red tie around his neck posthumously. The article is accompanied by a photograph taken by photographer F. Tokel. In addition to the pioneers themselves with a bouquet and Tatyana Morozova, the photo shows the director of Artek, B.Ya. Ovchukov-Suvorov, with military orders on his chest. Please note that the pioneer ties in this black and white photograph are tinted with red.

Newspaper "Pionerskaya Pravda" from the collection of "Little Stories"

It is impossible not to notice that everyone is smiling in the photo, except for the mother of the deceased boy. It is likely that these meetings were not easy for her, but were considered mandatory. It is known that the Artek residents regularly arranged conversations with Tatyana Semyonovna - they were part of the program for the patriotic education of the pioneers. Fortunately, there was no need to travel far - after the war, the government allocated Morozova a small house in Alupka. She always came to meetings in the same snow-white scarf on her head and a black dress. In 1948, in Moscow, in a children's park on Druzhinnikovskaya Street, a monument to her son was indeed erected. However, in 1957, being again in Artek, Tatyana Semyonovna sincerely lamented that she was not invited to the opening of the monument, and everyone else was told that she was sick.

Tatyana Morozova with her youngest son and a portrait of her eldest. Late 1970s

Well, the inhabitants of Alupka remember Pavlik's mother as a rather unfriendly woman. In 1979, the Crimean journalist Mikhail Lezinsky managed to interview her. His recollections of this conversation are noteworthy: “Morozova turned out to be a rude, unfriendly woman. Only when she drank did her tongue loosen. It was then that she rolled a barrel at the obkom members who supervised her, did not let her go abroad. By the way, her chest of drawers was littered with invitations. And she communicated with foreign journalists strictly under the supervision of the relevant authorities. True, this is the only revelation that we managed to pull out of a cunning grandmother. About her Pashka, she conscientiously hollowed out that memorized version that the propaganda department of the regional committee had prepared for her. Tatyana Morozova died in 1983. She was buried in Alupka in the old cemetery. At parting, they drove a detachment of pioneers from Artek. According to rumors, none of the local residents went to the funeral. Today, the old-timers of Alupka cannot even indicate the place where the grave of the mother of the pioneer hero is located. As for her deceased son, in the early 90s, monuments to Pavlik Morozov began to be demolished everywhere. The same fate befell the monument on Druzhinnikovskaya Street in Moscow.

The monument to Pavlik Morozov thrown from the pedestal in Moscow. 1991

Returning to Artek, we note that the international fame of the camp grew. He even got followers. In 1952, in the GDR, the pioneer organization named after Ernst Thalmann built a pioneer camp very similar to Artek and called it the Wilhelm Pieck Pioneer Republic. However, the German twin was far from the Soviet "Artek": after all, in addition to the camp itself in "Artek" there was a completely unique nature and its main attraction - Mount Ayu-Dag, against which absolutely all generations of Artek residents were photographed, as well as two pioneers from the picture from the collection "Little Stories".

Photo from the collection of "Little Stories"

Indeed: the Bear Mountain in the background is the best proof that you really were in Artek, and not in some regional Smena. Children who had a rest in the Crimea generally had a special attitude to Mount Ayu-Dag - to take at least the traditional ascent to its peak with the whole camp, for which back in 1937 they were almost sent to the camps of pioneer leaders (supposedly children who caught a cold during this campaign). In front, with an accordion on his shoulders, drenched in sweat, a musician clambered up, playing some kind of bravura march. Behind him, stretching from the foot to the top, the whole squad. However, some lazy counselors were cunning: they brought the children to the nearest ledge - about 100 meters from the foot. The cornice hangs from above, the sky is not visible. "Vertex!" - the deceiver shouted, and all the happy ones went downstairs. But on the other hand, those who honestly conquered Bear Mountain were waiting for an interesting rite: forest nymphs grabbed the Artek people from the bushes by the legs, a bearded old man fell out of the hollow, yelling Artek songs, and each conqueror was stamped on the cheek with a raw potato - a large letter "A". Another tradition is connected with Ayu-Dag - the transfer of a stone from the foot of the mountain to its top to the "Pyramid of Desires". There was a belief: if you make a wish and lower a stone brought from below to the top, it will immediately come true. Artek, of course, chose stones with a weight corresponding to the global scale of what was planned. Of course, the desires of the Soviet pioneers were also Soviet: that there be peace in the whole world or that blacks would not be offended in America. And in 1957, Artek changed the name of Molotov (at that time already a disgraced Soviet functionary) to the name of V.I. Lenin. Note two very similar shots taken before and after 1957. On each, a pioneer girl is depicted against the background of the Artek banner. However, in the photograph of 1960, the inscriptions “named after V.M. Molotov" is no more. After 1957

And in 1958, Artek, which had been working under the auspices of the USSR Ministry of Health for the last 22 years, came under the jurisdiction of the Komsomol Central Committee. From that moment on, the Black Sea complex began to be officially considered a “pioneer asset camp” . This decision was made at the highest party level. And although Artek was still habitually called a health resort, but gradually the medical and health-improving function of the camp, on which Zinovy ​​Solovyov once insisted so, gave way to educational, sociocultural and educational functions. Children in Artek were no longer treated, but they were provided with active and varied recreation.

Since 1958, Artek has ceased to be considered a health camp

Moreover, by the 1960s, there was even a whole list of restrictions for sending to Artek for health reasons - for example, schoolchildren with tuberculosis, as was the case in the early years, were no longer taken to the camp. Since the end of the 50s, in addition to pictures against the backdrop of the sea and Ayu-Dag, Artek residents have got one more proof of their stay in the All-Russian health resort - they began to issue vacationers "Personal books of an Artek pioneer". It was a very solid 22-page document, which was solemnly handed over at the gathering of the detachment. The pages of the book indicated all the events in which the Artek resident participated during the shift, as well as the new knowledge and skills acquired by him during the Crimean holidays - for example, studying the history of memorial places associated with Lenin, the ability to conduct detachment lines, kindle pioneer bonfires, possession of the semaphore alphabet etc. At the end of the shift, the children took these books with them, but not just as a souvenir. Very often, notes were made in it for the administration of the school or the House of Pioneers about, for example, which circle or section an Artek student could independently lead. So this document first helped many to receive an additional social burden, and then to advance along the pioneer-Komsomol line. Many Artek residents keep their “personal books” to this day. As well as a ticket to the All-Russian Children's Health Resort. One of these vouchers is presented in the collection of "Little Stories".

Direction to Artek from the collection of "Little Stories"

“A ticket to Artek is the highest award for a pioneer for his glorious deeds”- every student knew about this in the 60-80s. In the era of "developed socialism" from the pioneers, fortunately, no one expected the capture of imaginary spies or wreckers. Children had to prove their right to visit Artek by excellent academic performance, discipline, sports and social activity. (read about how vouchers to pioneer camps were distributed in the USSR in history). In the 60s, referrals to Artek were issued by decision of the School's Pioneer Squad Council. One of these areas is an exhibit of the "Little Stories" collection. Its cover depicts the slope of Ayu-Dag already familiar to us, the sea bay, the spacious Artek embankment, the rising morning sun and the pioneer bugler in unchanging white shorts and panama, announcing the beginning of a new day.

The direction was issued in the name of the pioneer Tamara Yermoltseva on May 15, 1962. The council of the school team in this way encouraged her for her good studies and active participation in pioneer life. By the way, our artifact once again proves that children from all over the USSR visited Artek - the pioneer Yermoltseva, for example, went to the Crimea across the country from Kamchatka itself. I wonder if she carried with her a national costume, a report card and a musical instrument, as required by the memo on the direction? She probably took the diary, but the costumes and instruments were usually brought by schoolchildren from Uzbekistan and other southern republics. It is noteworthy that the gender identity of the pioneer (“For a girl”) is still indicated on the letterhead of our direction, although, as we remember, mixed units appeared in Artek back in 1954.

In 1962, Ho Chi Minh was confused with Mao Tse-tung at Artek

Surely, Tamara Yermoltseva, as well as the pioneer Volodya Vinokur, who also rested in Artek in 1962, remembered the meeting with the Vietnamese revolutionary Ho Chi Minh. However, not all pioneers recognized the invited guests, and sometimes even the camp staff got into trouble. There is still a story in Artek about how, while Ho Chi Minh was walking through a cypress park, a tipsy gardener approached him and respectfully extended his hand to him with the words: "So that's what you are, Mao Zedong!" In general, the pioneers warmly welcomed all distinguished guests, who were centrally brought to admire the "showcase of a happy Soviet childhood."

Ho Chi Minh in Artek. 1962

During the 90 years of its existence, hundreds of celebrities - kings, princes, presidents, writers, singers - have visited the exemplary Black Sea health resort. Some meetings were then savored in the Soviet press for years, while others were almost never mentioned. As, for example, about the arrival of the Cuban revolutionary Ernesto Che Guevara to Artek in the fall of 1960. Only a few old photographs remind of this visit today - not a word is mentioned about this meeting in the archives of the camp, nor in the Cuban embassy. But somewhere on the paths of Artek grows cypress, planted by Che Guevara 55 years ago. Or maybe it was not Che Guevara at all, but someone very similar to him. Today, we hardly know about it.

Why Ernesto Che Guevara visited Artek incognito is still not known

But still, Gagarin was the most dear and welcome guest in Artek. Yuri Alekseevich met with the Artekites seven times. The theme "Pioneers meet the first cosmonaut" has become one of the most common subjects of socialist realism. Pictures, posters, mosaic panels with similar names flaunted in the lobbies of pioneer palaces, schools, children's libraries, clubs and, of course, decorated the territory of pioneer camps.

By the way, many Artek residents today recall that Yuri Alekseevich in Artek talked more not with the pioneers, but with the leaders - he spent many hours with them in the local billiard room and often lost to them. The Gagarin Museum was created in the camp itself. To this day, its unique exhibits excite the imagination of boys who dream of space. What is Gagarin's spacesuit alone worth. True, not the one in which the legendary flight into space was accomplished, but a training one. But the real one, right off the shoulder of a legendary man. And the museum also has a catapult chair - only two of them were created. Of particular joy is a mannequin in children, which you can shake hands with. His name is Ivan Ivanovich - he flew into space twice before Gagarin. In total, 42 cosmonauts visited Artek in different years, including American astronauts Tony Stafford and Francis Borman, as well as Czech Vladimir Remek. Almost all of them came with gifts for the Gagarin Museum, met with Artek residents and talked with them for a long time. They say that Valentina Tereshkova was an exception in this series. Of course, she visited the "Republic of Pioneers", but for some reason she refused to meet with the pioneers.

Asteroid No. 1956 named after Artek

In general, Artek was connected with space not only through astronauts. On October 8, 1969, Lyudmila Chernykh, a researcher at the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory, discovered a minor planet (asteroid) No. 1956, which she later gave the name Artek. By the way, the Crimean astronomer Chernykh discovered 268 asteroids, including Gagarin and Samantha Smith.

Samantha Smith in Artek. 1983

Everyone in the USSR knew the name of this smiling American girl from Maine in the mid-80s. It was she who sent an anti-war letter to Yuri Andropov in 1982, in which she directly asked him: “Dear Mr. Andropov, I really don’t want war, please explain to me if you really want it?” The Soviet leader was so impressed by this act that he invited Samantha to the USSR. During her two-week visit in 1983, the young American visited Moscow and Leningrad, and also lived for several days the life of an ordinary pioneer in Artek - she wore a uniform, lived according to a camp schedule, swam in the sea and went to the mountains. Photos of Samantha in a cap, on a ruler, in a tie saluting bypassed almost all world news agencies. In Artek, they prepared for her arrival for a whole month. Samantha was assigned the best double room, which was equipped with a color TV - an unaffordable luxury even for such a prestigious camp. Only the most exemplary Artek residents, who could at least somehow speak English, were allowed to see the American girl. By the way, note that in the photographs Samantha is depicted either in a blue tie or without it at all. Apparently, they decided not to put the schoolgirl from the United States in an uncomfortable position. She never met Andropov - the Soviet leader was very ill by that time, so he limited himself to a five-minute telephone conversation. But when she left, Samantha was sure that Mr. Andropov did not want war. “If people all over the world live the way children live in Artek, then there will be no enmity, there will be no war. May all presidents and other rulers come here to learn how to rule the world.” wrote a little American. Perhaps because of this, upon returning to the United States, the FBI interrogated Samantha - they tried to find out if the girl was zombified by Soviet propaganda. Well, in the USSR, after her departure, a real Samantomania began. The girls grew their hair long, wore plaid skirts to look like an American schoolgirl. Her sudden death (in August 1985, the plane in which Samantha and her father flew crashed) became a great tragedy for the Artek residents. The memory of an American schoolgirl is immortalized in Artek on Samantha Smith Alley.

L.I. Brezhnev was called Lenin in Artek, and he himself was 100 years wrong in the date of his visit

Yuri Andropov never visited Artek, but his predecessor Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev came twice. The last time was in August 1979, already being sick. The General Secretary did not feel well: he moved with difficulty, constantly sat down past the chair. Before his arrival, the camp leadership picked up a pretty pioneer who was supposed to give a welcoming speech by heart. The text was carefully prepared and rehearsed in advance. But, apparently, the girl was so excited at the sight of the head of state that at the solemn line she turned to him with the words: "Dear Leonid Ilyich Lenin..." There was a long pause, after which Brezhnev allegedly muttered displeasedly: "It's good that it's not Stalin."

Leonid Brezhnev in "Artek"

I remember that visit of "dear Leonid Ilyich" and one more curiosity. Brezhnev, by tradition, left his imperishable signature in the Book of Honored Guests of Artek. Already after his departure, the leaders realized that the aged leader put the date next to the autograph - 1879. The mistake was, of course, imperceptibly corrected.

In 1985, Artek celebrated its 60th anniversary. It was celebrated very solemnly - Mikhail Gorbachev with his wife Raisa Maksimovna and granddaughter took part in the festive events. The anniversary of the camp was presented as an event of national importance; A 25-minute program about the celebration of the anniversary of the Black Sea health resort was broadcast on Central Television. The haberdashery industry of the USSR did not miss this event either. According to the Kievskiye Vedomosti newspaper, “During the years of Soviet power, more than 210 million children and adolescents visited the ranks of the All-Union Pioneer Organization. They constantly wore red ties in the shape of an isosceles triangle with sides 113.66 and 66 cm long. The movement was propagated by 28 pioneer newspapers and 35 magazines with a total one-time circulation of over 17 million copies.

But by the end of 1990, the prestige of the All-Union Pioneer Camp began to gradually decline. This was explained simply: the existence of the pioneers itself was declining. The collection of "Little Stories" contains an envelope and a cover of an unissued certificate of honor from the 10th rally of the All-Union Pioneer Organization. Lenin, which took place in Artek from September 20 to October 2, 1990.

Envelope for the diploma of the X Congress of the All-Union Pioneer Organization. Lenin

This anniversary forum was the last in the history of the Soviet Pioneers. The main issue on the agenda was the renaming of the organization, which was agonizing by that time. The majority voted for the "Union of Pioneer Organizations (Federation of Children's Organizations) of the USSR" option. The work of the congress was stormy and quite in the spirit of that time: all issues were resolved at meetings of adults and children, then these opinions were united and transferred to the working bodies of the conference, formed on a democratic elective basis. The most distinguished delegates received certificates of honor, similar to the one presented in our collection.

A year later, the pioneers were left without their "senior comrades" - after the August putsch of 1991, the CPSU was banned, and the Komsomol dissolved itself. And soon the Ukrainian SSR ceased to exist, becoming an independent state. On December 8, 1991, a week after his election, the new President of Ukraine Leonid Kravchuk, together with his Russian and Belarusian counterparts, signed an agreement in Belovezhskaya Pushcha on the liquidation of the USSR and the formation of the Commonwealth of Independent States. The pioneer camp "Artek" ended up abroad, and by the mid-90s the pioneers themselves had become only "extras" at the Communist Party rallies.

The last decade was marked by a number of high-profile corruption scandals both in Artek itself and in a number of state structures associated with it. This is the loss and misuse of funds allocated to the camp, debts to public utilities, inefficient distribution of vouchers. At the same time, the Artek land began to be sold at an incredible speed. Part of the camp was closed, and Ukrainian oligarchs erected an elite hotel, a sanatorium, and fashionable cottages in an empty place. At one time, Artek was going to be converted into a training base for the National Olympic Team. In January 2009, for the first time in its history, Artek stopped working completely. Then dirt poured on his employees - they were accused of pedophilia. But the defendants swore that they were victims of a savage form of revenge for having rebuffed the strategic plans of corrupt politicians who wanted to completely destroy the unique complex and create profitable organizations in its place.

This is how the pool in Artek looked like in 2009

In 2014, a new chapter began in the history of Artek - after the annexation of Crimea, the authorities of the Russian Federation allocated about a billion rubles for the overhaul and reconstruction of Artek buildings. In March 2015, in the year of its 90th anniversary, by decision of the Council of Ministers of Crimea, the Black Sea health resort was transferred to federal ownership, and in April the long-awaited sale of vouchers began.

The school of young animators in Artek continues its work. Artek workers of the ninth shift decided not just to film the already existing myths about various objects and traditions of Artek. The children made up their own stories. What were their first steps in animation, judge for yourself. For Artek residents, touching the world of animation has become an exciting and educational experience.

For example, the film "Bear in Paradise" Valeria Bondarenko(KhMAO - Yugra) began with the appearance of a bear and a magic apple tree on the screen, and ended with the formation of Ayu-Dag. And the legend drawn Polina Maleeva(Samara) and voiced Bogdan Galagan(Moscow) and Ekaterina Balabanova(Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug), explained why Artek is called the “quail island”. A sudden twist of the plot reveals the secret of the origin of the Artek people. If in legend a giant bear can be petrified, then why can't quail eggs hatch into tiny Artek pioneers in full uniform?

The creation of a legend turned out to be a laborious process for the guys Ekaterina Balabanova(KhMAO) about the battle of the "titans" - Godzilla and the revived Ayu-Dag. The finale is obvious - our Bear Mountain wins. But the fact that the petrified legs of Godzilla are, according to the idea of ​​the author, Adalara, could not leave Artek viewers indifferent.

All works were done on tracing paper, in notebooks specially assembled for this purpose. Then the sheets are laid out on the scanner and brought together already on the computer. The children do the voice-over on their own. Only the editing remains on the conscience of the head of the studio of young animators Yuri Zvegintsev. The main job of a teacher is to unleash the creative potential of children. They learn to tell stories in pictures and draw storyboards for their future cartoons. Some children claim to be bad at drawing, but often the initial skills are enough to produce their first film.

Some films were born from a character successfully molded from plasticine. There is a main character and a story is already being invented for him in which he could show himself in the best possible way. This is what happened to the snowman Olaf, who was blinded by girls Alina Yaremenko(Mound), Alisa Kuzkina(Moscow region), Violetta Reshetnyak(KChR). The story about the snowman "Sudden Happiness" amused the "blue eyes" of the 9th shift at the screening no less than other films.

Also in this shift, the animation technique of the translation was presented, in which they created their own cartoon Alexandra Grishantsova and Julia Meshcheryakova from Saratov. Translation allows you to make a cartoon and tell a story in a fairly short time. And it’s not even necessary to be able to draw at the same time - characters can be cut out of newspapers and magazines or printed on a printer. After all, the illusion of movement is created by moving pieces of paper or cardboard. You can also use natural materials - it all depends on the plot. For example, the film "Synergy" tells about the magical power of hugs, all-conquering friendship and kindness to one's neighbor. The girls used colored cardboard of various colors. When the material changes, the character's emotion also changes.

All the same, one of the main conditions for a successful cartoon show is a humorous component. Therefore, it is important that these cartoons were made by children for children, and Artek people understood the humor. The entire camp "Azure" took the work of the multi-squad with a storm of applause. The show was a success.

With the work of young animators "Artek" can be found at the links:

Crimean legends

The Crimean people have many wonderful stories and legends. This rich creativity becomes the property of the pioneers who came to Artek. The children are very fond of listening to the Crimean fairy tales and legends that the counselors tell them, but they are even more impressed by the meetings with local folk storytellers and singers. This impression is enhanced by the fact that the meetings take place in the poetic surroundings of the sea, mountains, coastal cliffs, which are often the objects of a listened legend, like the legend about the origin of Mount Ayu-Dag, beloved by the children.

“Sometimes he is gloomy and gloomy,

Sometimes - its charming appearance,

When the sunset is transparent.

He is entwined with evening mist.

(Vyazemsky.)

From the book Prison Encyclopedia author Kuchinsky Alexander Vladimirovich

Legends and myths The legends and myths of the prison and the zone include all kinds of personalities (mainly thieves in law), events (the arrival of a thief), the zones themselves (superstarvation or supersatiation), amnesty, escapes, and much more. In particular, allegedly on one forest zone, the craftsman built a helicopter from

From the book of the Inca. Gen. Culture. Religion author Boden Louis

From the book Theory of Military Art (collection) by William Cairns

From the book of everyday life of the brave author Semenyuta N.

People from the legend A wagon was moving along the dusty road along the Aksaut River. A bay horse was dragging a heavy cart behind him. Its wheels creaked strongly: apparently, they had not been lubricated for a long time. The August sun shone overhead. And to the right, the river was roaring. Her swift streams flowing from

From the book The Abyss. Document based storytelling author Ginzburg Lev Vladimirovich

Beyond the Legend In the Taganrog Gestapo, the Schreibstube was headed by the young Sonderführer Georg Bauer. He arrived in Taganrog in February 1943, shortly after the events on the Volga: he was returning from Germany, from vacation, to the field Gestapo at the Chir station, but Chir

From the book The Secret of the Death of the Dyatlov Group. Documentary investigation author Buyanov Evgeny Vadimovich

The Birth of a Legend On March 31 at 4 a.m., the orderly Meshcheryakov, who was on duty at the stove, left the tent for firewood and saw a bright star in the sky in a shining halo of a “fireball”. He gave a signal to the sleeping searchers, who jumped out and watched as the "star" slowly

From the book Everything I Know About Paris author Agalakova Zhanna Leonidovna

Legends, superstitions BRONZE STATUE BY MICHEL MONTAIN. The Renaissance writer and philosopher sits smiling and crossing his legs. They come to him to ... hold the philosopher by the right shoe. There is a belief that if you touch it, make a wish and say "Salute,

From the book Three Colors of the Banner. Generals and Commissars. 1914–1921 author Ikonnikov-Galitsky Andrzej

Legends and facts The battle path of Andrey Shkura in the First World War is drawn completely differently in two groups of sources, which can be called as follows: mythological and realistic. According to the mythological scheme, the centurion Shkur showed an unheard of

From the book The Secret of the Death of the Dyatlov Group author Buyanov Evgeny Vadimovich

Birth of a legend On March 31 at 4 o'clock in the morning, Sergei Sogrin left the tent and saw a bright star in the sky in a shining halo of a "fireball". He gave a signal to the orderly Meshcheryakov, and he - to the sleeping search engines, who jumped out and watched how the "star" slowly

From the book Natural disasters that shook the world author Zhmakin Maxim Sergeevich

CRIMEAN EARTHQUAKES The history of earthquakes in the Crimea has more than one thousand years. The oldest known cataclysm on the peninsula happened in 63 BC. e. It is believed that even the ancient Greek historian Herodotus mentioned him. Since that time, Crimea periodically

From the book Reflections on Personal Development author Adizes Itzhak Calderon

World and Legends While reading the book of prayers on the Days of Awe, some ideas came to me. Let's start with Hebrew. In a state of complete peace, you do not

From the book Around the World for $280. Internet bestseller now on bookshelves author Shanin Valery

Maori legends The weather turned bad. I did not dare to sleep under the open sky and went in search of a lodging for the night. A Catholic mission was found near the road: a church, a school, and a few more houses. The lights were on only in the school. That's where I went. And instead of a roof over his head he received advice:

From the book Notes of a treasure hunter author Ivanov Valery Grigorievich

Smolensk legends Thirty kilometers from the city of Vyazma, a little northwest towards Smolensk, there was a simple Russian village, the name of which was associated with a forest thicket. There were indeed forests all around. This is my homeland. This is where my ancestors lived. Already

From the book Modern Passion for Ancient Treasures author Averkov Stanislav Ivanovich

4. Legends of Akhtuba In his house on the banks of the Akhtuba, Mikhail Ivanovich Rodanev unrolled an atlas in front of us. On one of its pages we saw an old map of the Volga delta with the Akhtuba channel. Mikhail Ivanovich said that this map is a copy of the capta of 1614. This is the first notation

From the book Legends of Lviv. Volume 2 author Vinnichuk Yury Pavlovich

Jewish legends Honest community No one could say anything good about the Jewish community of Rudno. Everything that lay badly, Rudnovsky Jews deftly dragged home. Their barns were filled with various rubbish. Once a rabbi from the Czech Republic was traveling to Lvov, and the night caught him on the way. That's what he decided

From the book Legends of Lviv. Volume 1 author Vinnichuk Yury Pavlovich

Miracle Legends

Margarita Tikhonova | sixteen March 2016

event Ribbon

It is no secret that each children's camp has its own legends related to its geography and history. In this regard, Artek is especially famous. The exact number of Artek legends is difficult to name even experienced experienced counselors. In this article, we tried to collect the most interesting and beautiful legends of one of the best international camps, which were told by the kindest and sweetest leader of the "Crystal" Masha.

Fountain of Youth Ai-Petri

Where do you think all the leaders of Artek get good spirits, positive emotions and creative energy for many weeks to come?

A long time ago, at the foot of Mount Ai-Petri, on the very shore of the sea, an elderly couple lived. The old man and the old woman lived a long and happy life, but never had children. Feeling the approach of death, the old man decided to get money for a decent funeral: collect brushwood and sell it. He went to the forest at dawn and did not have time to notice how he ended up on the very top of the mountain. Noticing an unknown source from a distance, the old man, tired from the day, greedily clung to the water, and after drinking, he fell asleep. When he woke up, the sun was already setting below the horizon, worried about his wife, he picked up brushwood and headed towards the house. All the way he felt a surge of strength, the burden seemed to him light. The wife greeted her husband with strange words: “Have you seen, good fellow, my old man?” The grandfather answered her with surprise: "Don't you recognize your husband?" The old woman looked intently at the stranger: he was dressed exactly like her husband, but looked 40 years younger. He told his beloved about a wonderful mountain spring, the next morning the old woman went in search of him. Hours passed and she was still gone. The old man was alarmed and went after him. Already at the source I heard a child's cry: in the bushes lay a bundle with a baby. He picked up the baby, calmed her down, put her to bed in his house. And when it dawned, he saw that the girl was wrapped in the rags of his old woman.

At the end of each artek shift, the guys go on an excursion to Sevastopol, passing through the modern resorts of Gaspra and Miskhor. Presumably here is the mysterious source of youth and at the same time a source of energy for our tireless guides.

History of Ayu-Dag

This legend is one of the oldest in Artek, and on the entire Crimean coast. Do you know why the Ayu-Dag mountain, the main symbol of the camp, was called “bear mountain” by the Turkic peoples who inhabited these lands many centuries ago?

A long time ago, when the southern coast of the Crimea still served as a home for the Greek quail-orteks, there was a plain in the place of the Crimean Mountains. According to ancient belief, mighty and wise bears lived on it. One day they found a lonely little girl and took in to be raised. They gave her food and shelter, raised her kind and hardworking. The girl responded to their caress with gratitude and love. When the bears went to get food, she looked after the household and maintained the hearth. On one such morning, when the bears went hunting, a raft was washed ashore with a beautiful young man who had been badly injured during a shipwreck. The girl decided to help the stranger at all costs: she went out, put him on his feet, returned the young man to peace of mind and ... fell in love with him. There were no bears for a long time, the hunt dragged on, and the young man began to beg his beloved to return to the world of people with him. And love was able to overcome the sense of duty. However, when the happy lovers had already set sail from the shore, the bears returned. Their leader became furious when he saw his adopted daughter floating away into the distance. He ordered his brothers to drink water from the sea to prevent her. Those, not wanting to destroy the girl's happiness, refused, and then the leader decided to drink the sea alone. Carried away, the bear increased to the size of a mountain and did not even notice how he swallowed the raft with his stepdaughter. Fate punished the loving "daddy" - he forever turned into a stone.

Today, Ayu-Dag is considered a place of power, a concentration of energy fields, a haven for UFOs. And indeed, if you look at the mountain from a certain angle, you can fully distinguish the bear's muzzle, head, tail, and even menacingly disheveled hair on the back.

Birth of mountains Cat, Diva and Monk

What do you think, what are the names of the Crimean mountains connected with? From time immemorial, the southerners gave them romantic names, associating them with animals that resemble the mountain silhouette. Most often, the stories of their origin were hidden behind a veil of secrecy, but some legends have survived to this day. For example, the legend of the birth of the mountains Monk, Diva (translated from Indo-Aryan as “living soul”) and Cat is known for certain.

Since ancient times, kind and friendly people settled near the Black Sea. Peace and harmony reigned in their communities. Once a stranger appeared in those parts, followed by a bad rumor: wherever he came, his constant companions were violence, robberies and murders. The Stranger wandered the world in search of a place where he could show his strength, anger and cruelty. He did not spare anyone in his path, but in his heart he understood that crimes did not bring him happiness. The man decided to choose the path of a hermit and went to the mountains, as far as possible from people. A righteous way of life cleansed his soul, and the years have erased the history of his terrible atrocities from the memory of people. More and more often pilgrims began to turn to the monk-sage for advice. The evil spirits that previously moved his actions were very surprised at such a rapid change and decided to teach him a lesson. To get closer, one of them turned into a cat and sneaked into his cave. The monk took pity and took her into his house. Often thoughts about the hearth, a caring wife, and children came into his head. But the spell of a cruel spirit, which always turns out to be near at such moments, caused a surge of anger and aggression in the soul of the hermit. So the evil ghost, in the guise of a cat, day after day burned out of the monk all the good that he had acquired over the years of renunciation of society. Only this was not enough for the dark ones, and soon the devil himself decided to laugh at him. One sunny day, walking along the sea coast, the monk saw the body of a beautiful girl washed ashore. Overwhelmed by her beauty, he could not resist and kissed her. But as soon as the girl opened her eyes, rage and indignation boiled in the heart of her savior. Not knowing what he was doing, he drowned the unfortunate victim. The angels, on the other hand, could not come to terms with such abuse of the most beautiful feeling on earth and turned the monk, his cat and the devil into terrible rocks dotted with grottoes and crevices.

The famous international children's camp "Artek", located on the southern coast of Crimea in the village of Gurzuf, was created more than 90 years ago. It was especially popular in Soviet times. Of course, over many decades this place has acquired many legends, among which there are mystical and eerie…

History of Artek

Initially, Artek was a sanatorium camp for children with tuberculosis. It was founded on the initiative of the chairman of the Russian Red Cross Society, Zinovy ​​Petrovich Solovyov. The camp got its name in honor of the tract with the same name at the location. The opening took place on June 16, 1925.

Gradually, from a sanatorium for tuberculosis patients, Artek turned into an elite camp complex, where children were sent for various merits, for example, academic success and social work. Also foreign children often came there.

Artek repressions

In the early summer of 1937, an NKVD officer Nikolai Ivanov arrived at the camp, who was instructed to identify "enemy elements" here. Ivanov’s memorandum read: “Enemies are operating in the subsidiary farm of Artek: cows are infected with brucellosis, 34 bee colonies, 19 gilts have died. Glasses, nails, buttons were found in the food of the pioneers, matches were found in the bread. Eight workers were poisoned, the radio center was disrupted, an attempt was made to set fire to the building where the Spanish children lived ... The counselor Malyutin beat 8-year-old Elya Schukina, and raped the pioneer Tamara Kastradze. There were cases when children, under the guise of a hike, were taken away in groups for the whole night to Ayu-Dag and returned them with a cold "...

As a result, 17 camp employees were expelled from the party and the Komsomol, 22 people were put on trial. Luckily for them, six months later they were all acquitted thanks to Molotov's wife, Polina Zhemchuzhina, who turned to her husband and persuaded him to prevent this crazy case from going ahead.

Mysterious burial

In 1966, a strange burial was discovered in a wasteland between the Cypress and Azure camps. In a stone box under the lid were six skeletons at once. All of them belonged to strong, tall men and were all devoid of heads and hands. Below was a layer of sea sand. When it was removed, another, smaller box was found under it, where the missing body parts lay. Under them, too, was a thick layer of sand. When they cleared it, they found the remains of an infant.

Why the bodies of men with severed heads and hands were buried on top of a children's grave remained a mystery.

dead children

Today, two girls, Lena and Anya, got jobs as nurses at Artek. In early October, the camp was almost empty. Lena and Anya lived in one of the small houses-buildings, together in one room. No one else lived in the house. And at night, the girls began to hear strange sounds: steps in the corridor, the murmur of water, and finally, in the middle of the night, someone pulls the handle of their bedroom door ... Sometimes, waking up, Lena and Anya found the door open, but they locked themselves at night! Or someone invisible threw books off the nightstands.

Once Anya went camping with the children, and Lena was left alone. At night, she had a dream: the door to the room opens and the children slowly enter. They were of different ages, both boys and girls. The children surrounded the girl's bed and, sadly looking at her, began to silently stretch their hands towards her ... Waking up, Lena saw that the door was open again. At breakfast, she shared this story with another nurse who had worked at the camp for a long time. She told her that when tuberculosis children were treated in Artek, the most severe ones were put in the same building. And many of them died right there ...

Phantom Countess

Until now, there is a legend in Artek about the French Countess Jeanne de Lamotte, who allegedly became the prototype of Milady from Dumas' Three Musketeers. In reality, this adventurer lived during the time of Louis XVI and stole a diamond necklace worth one and a half million livres from Queen Marie Antoinette. She was placed in a dungeon, from where she mysteriously disappeared. According to the unofficial version, the countess moved to the Crimea. One day she was severely injured when she fell off a horse. Having managed to hide her jewelry, the lady asked the servants after death not to take off her clothes in any case. But they disobeyed her. When the deceased was dressed, they saw a brand on her shoulder in the form of a royal lily ...