Artek Pioneer Camp the Pioneer

ARTEK Pioneer Camp

The Pioneer summer camp called ARTEK was founded in 1925 in the former Soviet Union; and according to the Historical Boy's Uniforms (HBU) Web site, it may have been the first Pioneer camp. It also may have been the brainchild of Nikita Khrushchev, since it was mentioned in the book Khrushchev Remembers. The theory in setting up a camp like this was that "Soviet and Communist ideals can best be implanted in youth" since young people's minds "are most malleable," the HBU explains. Basically, the theory behind isolating young people away from their parents and their communities was that indoctrination into the Communist philosophy would be easier in this camp setting, according to HBU. Also, foreign children were welcomed to the camp, and the hope was that they would get a favorable view of the Soviet Union.

The site for ARTEK is along the Black Sea, a beautiful setting in Crimea near Yalta, which is now the Ukraine. The camp had access to several kilometers of Black Sea shoreline. Initially the campers had only tents to sleep in, but by 1928, military huts replaced the tents. Unlike Scouting, which offered support for the family (offering leadership roles for parents) the ARTEK approach, the HBU information continues, "...Was to formulate the new Soviet man." During the German occupation of Crimea in World War II, Nazi soldiers occupied ARTEK but by the end of the war it was apparent that they didn't cause much structural damage.

In 1957, the architect Anatoli T. Polianski designed new buildings for ARTEK, which were reportedly completed in 1962; as a result, the were not 250 buildings at ARTEK, made of concrete, metal and glass - quite in contrast to typical American summer camps which have, as a rule, more humble facilities for campers.

How was the camp run? According to a Russian TV documentary (which probably puts the best light on the camp for public relations purposes), "At ARTEK the individual disappears within the group." Also, ARTEK is a place for "...collective life, but which emphasizes individual excellence" and is operated like a military unit. In the TV documentary the day begins with a trumpet call, young boys performing skits and singing songs about how to be a good Communist. "There were arts and crafts" including creating designs using sea shells, along with sailing, rowing, campfire sessions, nature hikes and "sporting activities" for the youth.

The New York Times ran an article (Specter, 1997) asserting "Millions of Young Pioneers, Soviet children, draped proudly in red kerchiefs and bursting with socialist ideals, always considered [ARTEK] the promised land." Back in the early days of the camp, it was considered "the highest reward that a worker's state could bestow upon a promising youngster." This camp was considered the best of all the Soviet youth camps during its heyday, Specter writes. When Soviet leaders wanted to "show off the ruddy perfection of their next generation," Specter goes on, "ARTEK was always the display case."

No matter how well connected a child was within the framework of the Communist Soviet hierarchy at that time, the Times' writer explains, and even if you were the best student in your class or the child of a "Hero of Soviet Labor," you were only allowed to spend one summer of your life at ARTEK.

It was a high honor to qualify to go to ARTEK, although it wasn't all singing songs, sailing, swimming and having arts and crafts sessions, Specter continues. The students were marched through potato fields in gas masks, and made to perform military-themed exercises.

One can get an idea of why pioneer camps were so important to the Soviet culture by reading a 1943 article in the journal Social Forces by Nathan Berman. He writes that the number of youthful offenders in the country between 1900 and 1910 "more than doubled" as "arrests and incarcerations tried to keep pace with the mounting of delinquency among the young" (p. 446). There was a 100% increase in the number of children "sentenced to imprisonment in Moscow" between the years 1913 and 1916. Why were these children getting into so much trouble? Berman writes that the "underlying causes" of the nefarious activities of these youth was largely based on the fact that they weren't in school. Of all the children arrested in Moscow in 1909, "...almost 99%" had not been attending a school at the time of their arrest.

Moreover, between 1911 and 1915, roughly half of the youth incarcerated in juvenile reform schools "had already been gainfully employed at the time they got into difficulty" (p. 446) (Berman 1943). Of those in reform school in that period, ten percent listed their occupations as "begging and bumming" and two thirds indicated they were not living at home and in fact had been orphaned and were fatherless, Berman explains.

Lenin was aware of the terrible problem among Soviet youth and in 1918, Lenin put a degree out that provided "...no juvenile delinquent under 17 years of age, regardless of his offense, could be held under arrest in ordinary jails or police stations" (p. 447) and also could not be tried in adult courts, according to Berman's article.

A child welfare law went into effect in 1921, establishing a permanent commission to provide for "...the betterment of the conditions of children." Also in 1921, following a terrible famine that wiped out many people, the Soviets established "Industrial Homes" as "shelters for wandering youths." In these shelters an attempt was made to teach youth trades, give them an education and indoctrinate them with socialist ideology, the writer goes on. Then in 1924, according to the article, "the first open, self-administrative commune for the reclamation of young" (and in some cases for hardened offenders) was established. It was such a success that "...other similar communes were soon established all over the country, often with the aid of improved offenders." These communes soon took the place of "...the obsolete Industrial Homes...and the walled-in penal institutions" (p. 447).

Although Berman does not indicate this specifically, it would appear that these "communes" were actually what is now called pioneer camps. On page 448 of his essay, Berman notes that in 1935 a law was put into effect that put adults in prison for five years if they were convicted of "driving, influencing or encouraging juveniles to commit crime, engage in begging, speculation trade, or prostitution" (p. 448). On page 450 of the essay ("The Place of the Child in Present-Day Russia") Berman discusses various "character-building organizations in the Soviet Union" that included "the nationwide network of camps" that "meet the needs of every boy and girl in the country." Berman continues on page 450, writing that "The outstanding example" of a youth camp in the Soviet Union is "the national Camp Artek, located off Gurzuf, on the black sea."

He refers to ARTEK as the "...prize camp, which annually accommodates thousands of the most conscientious and gifted youths from all over the country." The ARTEK camp (this article was published in 1943, sixty-four years ago) "also maintains a camp during the winter for certain youths presenting health problems." He goes on to mention that because of the huge success that ARTEK and the other camps proved to be, schools, housing projects, factories in every city "of any appreciable size" by this time has it's children theater. Besides the youthful theater - in which members of the cast address the youthful spectators on the "significance of the play...and asks for comments and criticisms" - there were at that time "Young Pioneer Palaces." These institutions, "children's clubs in the finest sense of the word" (p. 450), were "located all over the country, free and accessible to all" as well as featuring "miniature museums, exhibits, libraries, playrooms."

Also, the "Young Pioneers" - who served as counsellors in the camps - were in a position of leadership "not because they were placed there by the authorities from above," but rather, because they were accepted by the young people in the camps because of their "...proven ability and initiative." In an example of the responsibility that Young Pioneers had at the camps, including ARTEK, Berman actually witness two Young Pioneers (about ten or twelve years of age) who testified at a trial. The trial was to prove the guilt or innocence of the parents of one of the Young Pioneers' school mates "who had been badly neglected" by the parents. The woman judge, "after listening to their testimony, "gave them a severe tongue-lashing for not having acted in this matter much sooner" to have brought the parents to justice at that time. "She told them that by having failed to act in time, they had neglected their duty as Young Pioneers," Berman writes on page 450.

An article in Radio Free Europe (Bransten, 2005) points out that in the early days of ARTEK "...pre-Revolutionary luminaries such as Anton Chekhov and even Tsar Nicholas II" enjoyed the seaside environment. Reportedly "the best students and children of the Party elite from all across the Soviet Union" spend summer vacations "swimming, singing songs, and learning to be loyal Communists," Bransten explains. But as for the modern version of ARTEK, the writer claims "...the camp has little in common with the ideology that reigned at ARTEK in Soviet times... [and] is similar to boy and girl scout camps in the West."

Indeed, Bransten writes that during the 80th anniversary of ARTEK (August 18, 2005), show business stars like soccer player Andrei Shevchenko and pop music star Ruslana along with movie star (of Ukrainian origin) Milla Jovovich arrived for the celebration. Also attending: Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko, Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski, Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, and Lithuanian President Valdas Adamkus.

Tim Jackson, a British electronics professional and technical programmer visited ARTEK Pioneer Camp in August 1965, when the camp was still under the control of course of the Communist Soviet Union authorities. On his Web site Jackson write poignantly about his stay at ARTEK. He remembers boarding a bus in Simferopol and saying goodbye to his parents, much as hundreds of thousands of Soviet youths did in the years between 1925 and 1965. "We sand pioneer songs all the way," Jackson writes (http://www.tim-jackson.co.uk/lyuda/artek.html).