Children's camps in Soviet times. My pioneer childhood or summer pioneer camps in the USSR

It was

Little kids are little troubles

This year I resolutely refused to work with 14-16 year old “pioneers”, because such shifts are like a descent into hell. Moreover, every year the children become more impudent and uncontrollable. Ten-year-olds are also not great, but at least they are still timid before the authority of their elders. It’s not like milk for harmfulness to the leaders of senior detachments - medals must be awarded when the entire detachment remains alive at the end of the shift. Including for the fact that he endured and did not kill someone himself, because no pedagogical patience is enough.

So it became

It’s true - in modern-style “pioneer camps” both counselors and children drink. Everything is done in secret. Moreover, drunkenness and alcoholism are generally the leaders’ “favorite” disease since Soviet times. Our senior teacher, who has been working in the camp every summer for thirty years (in civilian life he is a school teacher), said that in terms of entertainment for the teaching staff, nothing has changed: a couple of hours after lights out, when the bashi-bazouks calm down, everyone gathered around the fire and Of course, they weren’t drinking tea.

But the children didn’t drink before. Nowadays, a vomited bed or toilet is a common occurrence. They don’t know how to drink, they just want to show how grown up they are. And it is impossible to stop this process.

We rummage through bedside tables, bags, cabinets - they still manage to take them out and hide them. The camp is close to Minsk, and the comrades left at home are not even bringing beer - vodka. Why, they got the hang of making mash on the spot.

Moreover, girls drink no less willingly than boys. When these drunken lolitas are lying around and moaning in a hangover, it is especially fascinating to hear from their parents accusations that their daughters were such positive excellent students and were not noticed in anything like that, which means that it is the counselors who are to blame for the fact that the girls have deteriorated so much.

Dear parents, you are very, very naive people if you think that you know everything or at least half about your children. They are cunning, secretive and very resourceful. Therefore, your child at home is not the same person as at school, in the yard or at camp.

Smoking

Cigarettes are a real scourge of modern holiday camps. Starting from the age of 12-13, almost everyone smokes.

It’s better with girls in this regard, of course, but not much: the desire to please smoking boys plays a bad joke on them and, in order to join the company, they also begin to “tar.” We take away cigarettes, fine them for afternoon snacks, force them to clean the camp area, don’t let them into discos - they still smoke.

I remember that once a few years ago an inspection came to us from the Ministry of Education; they had some kind of competition against smoking in the camps. So we almost on our knees begged the “pioneers” not to smoke for at least one day, they forced us to lick the entire territory of the camp so that not a single cigarette butt could be found.

And my friend had an anecdotal incident before this event: in his unit, a boy drew well, he was assigned to paint posters about the dangers of smoking, for which he was allowed to stay awake during quiet hours. The counselor arrives and sees an oil painting: the artist is sitting at a table on the street, finishing painting the poster “Cigarettes are death!”, without taking the cigarette out of his teeth.

Love and sex

Previously, romance in a pioneer camp meant flowers, romantic notes and a timid kiss during the farewell bonfire. Nowadays, kids don’t waste any time on these unnecessary courtships.

At the evening disco you now need to make sure that couples do not wander off into the bushes. After lights out - so that they don’t go to each other’s rooms, because the presence of several neighbors does not stop modern accelerators. But patrolling doesn’t really help either - the buildings are one-story, you can’t stand under the windows all night (although this has happened), and “sweet couples” were more than once caught in the process of sexual intercourse.

The girls are promiscuous and pester the counselors. But for us this is a taboo, we only establish relationships with our own, the counselors, because the “pioneer girls” are minors and they only cause problems. And the boys are no better: a few years ago they stopped putting female counselors in senior squads after one 16-year-old idiot attempted to rape his teacher during quiet time.

There was a scandal in one of the neighboring camps: a fifteen-year-old “pioneer” left pregnant after two shifts in a row. And now at squad meetings we not only exhort people to abstain, but also remind them to use condoms.

Children's fun

What kind of nightly application of paste are we talking about? Modern counselors can only dream of such innocent pranks.

Although there was once a case when the girls did smear the boys with paste. And now toothpastes are not the same as in the past, they are nuclear, super-whitening, stuffed with all sorts of chemicals. In general, one boy had a three-letter swear word written on his forehead in paste. And his skin gave a strong allergic reaction, so then he even slept in a baseball cap until the end of his shift, because the inscription did not disappear.

Sewing with threads to a mattress or a falling ceiling are also uninteresting entertainments for today’s “pioneers.” But to squeeze and undress a girl in the toilet is welcome, as much as you like.
There is no way to fight swearing at all. Senior detachments, as in the old joke, do not swear at them, they speak it.

Camp activities

These “pioneers” are violet in everything they are trying to introduce them to. They are lazy, they are not interested in anything other than playing on phones, computers or pocket game consoles, lying in bed or on a blanket in the fresh air. Boys can sometimes play football.

But any attempt to attract someone to something often meets with decisive resistance. The children refer to the fact that they came here to relax, and not to collect cones or invent skits.
Every event is hard labor. Watching TV brings the most sincere joy - if this item is excluded from the program, the children will simply rebel.

No, there are, of course, active children who are interested in games, wall newspapers, and competitions between squads. We encourage these, we allow them to stay awake during quiet time, for example, we get them a double afternoon snack or compote during lunch.

Fights and squabbles

This is another danger for senior squad leaders. Children fight in such a way that they can be seriously injured. And girls are ahead of boys in this matter.

Last summer, two beauties did not share a guy. They decided to investigate on the roof of the building. And one pushed the other down. Fortunately, there are pine needles there, the building is one-story. But the arm was broken.

Another problem is when guys go wall to wall. They find the reasons, it’s not difficult - the senior detachment said to the younger ones: “Hey, you puppies!” They were offended and challenged the offenders to a fight. It was not possible to prevent the fight, and not only did they walk around with black eyes and wounds, but also for a week everyone was deprived of afternoon snacks, discos and went to bed an hour earlier.

What’s funny is that there was a boy in one of these detachments who didn’t get into the fight, either his parents came to see him or something else. But out of a sense of solidarity, all week he punished himself in the same way as his comrades were punished.
On the counselor’s forum I read a story about how a ten-year-old boy ran after girls with a knife across their body, for which he was immediately expelled from the camp, because it was unknown what inclinations could later manifest themselves in this “child.”

Theft

If previously they mostly stole sweets brought by parents from bedside tables, now children have a lot of quite expensive equipment - phones, players, computers. Thefts become more active towards the end of the shift: in the camp itself you won’t be able to use stolen goods, and there’s nowhere to hide them - the counselors have the right to check all personal belongings.

So this is only for parents and inspection authorities: children's camps are a heavenly place where the worst thing that can happen is a cold dinner. But in fact, there is sometimes such chaos going on there that one would like to limit the “camp” age to 12 years...

Soviet pioneer camp - what was it like?

Summer in a red tie

The favorite time for a Soviet schoolchild is the end school year! Before the last bell rings at school, the briefcase is already pushed into the closet, the school uniform is placed in the closet.

Single attribute school uniform, which remained in plain sight - this, of course, was the Pioneer red tie, because without it there was nothing to do in the Pioneer camp!

Parents who had a child aged 7-15 years received a ticket to a pioneer camp at the enterprise. The cost of a 21-day voucher was 9-12 rubles, which is 10% of its total cost, the rest was paid by the trade union. And now the treasured piece of coated paper, smelling of printing ink, lies in a visible place, the medical examination has been passed, the suitcase has been packed, the iconic “Gvozdika” cologne, supposedly repelling mosquitoes, has not been forgotten, just as the Bulgarian toothpaste “Pomorin” has not been forgotten. And on the day of departure for the camp, the child wakes up before everyone else, hurries the elders, patiently endures the registration procedure for the detachment, slowly looking closely at future friends, and, finally, the children and counselors are placed in cars or buses. Forward to new adventures and discoveries, to independent life without parents and grandparents, duty in the canteen and pioneer lines with songs and chants!

The first pioneer camps in the USSR appeared in the early 20s.

The well-known “Artek” was organized in 1925 in Crimea as a camp for the treatment of children with tuberculosis. Its founder was the chairman of the Russian Red Cross Society, Zinovy ​​Petrovich Solovyov. Later, this camp became an all-Union children's health resort, where not only Soviet children, but also children from friendly countries rested. Pioneer camps were organized everywhere; before their collapse there were about 40 thousand. Of course, the camps differed in location, level of comfort, and number of units.

Pioneer camps on the Black Sea and Azov coasts were either all-Union or republican (Young Guard in Odessa was a Ukrainian republican camp), or belonged to large and wealthy enterprises that had enough funds to maintain buildings, infrastructure, provide good food and rest for children .

But, most often, children rested in country camps located in forest areas, near clean rivers or lakes, far from highways and industrial enterprises, far from swamps.

Pioneer camps were also organized in cities, at schools and housing offices, but this was not the most best view rest, during the day the children are at the same school or not far from home on the housing office site, and in the evening they go home to come back to school or to the site in the morning.

The dream of many pioneers is to vacation in “Artek”, “Orlyonok” or “Young Guard”.

But getting the coveted ticket was very difficult! Holidays there were a reward for excellent studies and active participation in public life, for a feat accomplished or another notable and significant act.

Why were pioneer camps created?

First of all, of course, for the health and recreation of children of workers and employees. Secondly, to educate the younger generation in the spirit of patriotism and collectivism, because in the Soviet Union, raising children was not left to chance. Octobrists, pioneers, Komsomol members - these were the stages that future communists had to go through, and in addition, soviet man must be healthy in order to defend the Motherland, and subsequently give birth to healthy children, and besides, a sick person is a bad worker.
But the children, of course, had nothing to do with party politics.

They quite sincerely sang “Let the fires fly” or “Get up early”, participated in sports competitions, swam and sunbathed, waited for parent’s day, and when at the end of the shift they received certificates of commendation, they were absolutely sure that they had managed to excel in something others. And the parents weren’t particularly worried about their children; they knew that the counselors and educators were good people and, very often, employees of their own enterprise.

With the collapse of the Union, there was a collapse in all areas of such previously familiar life. The pioneer organization was cancelled, enterprises and the people who worked for them were brought to the brink of survival, and there was no time for organized summer holidays for children. Cynicism and pragmatism have become the new ideology. There are very few health camps left; most are in disrepair. That's why summer rest Today's children directly depend on the thickness of their parents' wallets. But the state doesn’t care about children; it will wait until the children grow up and become taxpayers.

• The best Soviet cartoons for children
• Were there summer labor camps for children in the USSR?

Summer is in full swing, and many parents have sent their children to various children's camps so that their beloved children can improve their health and find new friends, and the parents themselves periodically need rest. But I would like to remember the legendary Soviet camps, which, despite the past decades, host thousands of children from all over the post-Soviet space. Yes, and there is a certain reason, which we will talk about later.

Naturally, Artek has always been and remains the first, although regular visitors to Orlyonok can refute this statement, but we will talk about this camp below. "Artek" is located on the Black Sea coast, and until recent events, belonged to Ukraine. But everything is changing, and now Artek has become Russian again. The area of ​​the camp is more than 200 hectares, and the coastline stretches from Bear Mountain to the village of Gurzuf.


For the first time about creation children's camp in Artek it was announced on November 5, 1924 at the Moscow Pioneer Festival, and already on June 16, 1925, 80 pioneers from Moscow, Ivanovo-Voznesensk and Crimea arrived for the first shift. So today the famous camp turns 90 years old, for which we congratulate it!

During the Great Patriotic War"Artek" was evacuated through Moscow to Stalingrad. Immediately after the liberation of Crimea in April 1944, restoration of the famous camp began. The first post-war shift opened in August, and a year later Artek Square began to meet modern standards. But already in the 60s, large-scale reconstruction began, as a result of which medical centers, schools, a film studio, swimming pools, a stadium and other buildings necessary for the life of the camp appeared.

“Artek” was rightly called an international camp, because in different years guests of honor were: Jean-Bedel Bokassa, Leonid Brezhnev, Yuri Gagarin, Indira Gandhi, Nikita Khrushchev, Jawaharlal Nehru, Otto Schmidt, Lydia Skoblikova, Palmiro Tolyatti, Ho Chi Minh, Valentina Tereshkova, Lev Yashin, Samantha Smith.


Time passed, and over the 90 years of the camp’s existence, a lot changed, and after the return of Crimea to Russian Federation the revival of the camp began, which in previous years even ceased its work due to problems with financing. In the fall of 2014, work began on the improvement and overhaul of the buildings, which had fallen into disrepair over the past years. In addition, new furniture was brought in, the dining room was refurbished, sports grounds were restored, swimming pools were renovated and modern computers were installed. The total amount of financing amounted to 5 billion rubles



In March 2015, the Government of the Russian Federation approved the Artek Development Program until 2020, and a ticket to this camp, according to modern concept, becomes an encouragement for the child for achievements in various fields of activity, although it can also be purchased for money. In 2015, the cost of a trip to this camp is about 65 thousand rubles. But, most likely, we should count on 2016, since the demand for vouchers is extremely high.

The second most important and popular pioneer camp was and remains “Orlyonok”, which is located 45 kilometers from Tuapse. “Eaglet” also boasts a huge territory of 200 hectares, and the length of the coastline is almost 4 kilometers.

The reason for the creation of the camp was the transfer of the Crimean peninsula and the Artek camp to the control of the Ukrainian SSR in 1954. A new pioneer camp was needed, construction of which began on March 27, 1959. Of course, a competitive element was always present in the life of the two largest pioneer camps, but Artek and Orlyonok also had close friendly ties.

The calling card of “Eaglet” is the “Bonfire” monument, which greets all vacationers.




Currently, there are 8 camps in Orlyonok: four year-round and four summer. Also on the territory of the center there is a nine-story building of counselors, a palace of culture and sports with a swimming pool with sea ​​water, Yunost stadium, a reception building decorated with colorful panels, a hotel and a motor town.

At the other end of our huge country there is an equally famous camp - “Ocean”, which was founded in 1983 on the shores of the Pacific Ocean.


Currently, there are 4 squads working in the All-Russian Children's Center: “Brigantine”, “Parus”, “Kityonok” and “Tiger Cub”. All 5 buildings of the Parus squad were completely restored after the fire of 1993.

In 1924, the “Young Guard” camp was opened in Odessa, and in 1935, the children’s sanatorium “Ukrainian Artek” was organized on the basis of the camp.

In 1956, a new era began in the history of the Children's Center. It is transferred to the Central Committee of the Komsomol of Ukraine. From the sanatorium it was reorganized into a pioneer camp called “Young Guard” in memory of the young underground fighters of the city of Krasnodon who fought against the fascist occupiers. Since December 2011, the Young Guard UDC has been subordinate to the Ministry social policy Ukraine.

Currently given child Center occupies an area of ​​30 hectares and on its territory there are two camps “Zvezdny” and “Solnechny”, and in the summer “Pribrezhny” opens.

Extremely popular in Soviet time there was a camp “Zubrenok”, which, as can be understood from the name, is located on the territory of Belarus.

The opening of this camp took place on August 17, 1969. Throughout the history of Zubrenok, it grew and new administrative, sports, residential and other buildings appeared.

Currently, the complex includes five dormitory buildings, play pavilions, a recreation building for family orphanages, a school, a swimming pool, a cinema and concert hall, a gym, a stadium tennis court and an intellectual center, and a trip to this camp is still extremely prestigious and expected by children.

The most unusual, in our opinion, is the pioneer camp “Zapolyarye”, which is located near Tula on the banks of the Oka.

In general, this camp is a standard pioneer camp of its time, if not for one thing. It was in this camp that the film “Welcome or No Trespassing” was filmed. Of course, the wooden buildings of that time have not survived, and the camp as a whole looks different, but its fame gained through cinema has been preserved.

How did you spend your childhood? Have you gone to camps and what stories do you have associated with such trips?

“Artek” is the most famous pioneer camp of the USSR and the calling card of the country’s Pioneer organization. Located on the southern coast of Crimea in the village of Gurzuf.

“Artek” was founded as a camp-sanatorium for children suffering from tuberculosis intoxication, on the initiative of the chairman of the Russian Red Cross Society, Zinovy ​​Petrovich Solovyov. The creation of a children's camp in Artek was first announced on November 5, 1924 at the Moscow Pioneer Festival. They took an active part in preparing for the opening of the camp Russian Society Red Cross (ROKK), Russian Communist Youth Union (future Komsomol) and the Central Bureau of Young Pioneers. The preparation was personally supervised by Z. P. Solovyov.

The camp was opened on June 16, 1925. The first shift brought 80 pioneers from Moscow, Ivanovo-Voznesensk and Crimea. The first Artek residents lived near the sea, in four canvas tents. In the first year, Artek accepted 320 children over four summer shifts. They were placed in tents, tall, light, with wooden floors. Although their furniture consisted of simple wooden, canvas-covered beds, wooden stools and rough bedside tables, everything was kept in great order. The best tent was reserved for the isolation ward, which stood at a considerable distance from the camp. For the dining area, a place under the tent was used, where six dining tables and benches were placed. And although the tables were roughly made of wood, they were covered with snow-white tablecloths, and each pioneer had a napkin and a napkin ring. Near the sea itself, where there is now a “bonfire” area with an amphitheater for guests, there was a physical training ground. Artek bonfires were lit here in the early years.

Two years later, light plywood houses were erected on the shore. And in the 1930s, thanks to the winter building built in the upper park, Artek was gradually transferred to year-round operation. In 1936, Artek hosted a change of order-bearing pioneers who were awarded government awards, and in 1937 the camp accepted children from the affected region. Civil War Spain.

During the Great Patriotic War, Artek was evacuated through Moscow to Stalingrad, and then to Belokurikha, located in the Altai foothills. There, along with the children who found themselves in Crimea at the beginning of the war, Siberian schoolchildren also rested. Immediately after the liberation of Crimea in April 1944, the restoration of Artek began. The first post-war shift opened in August. A year later, the camp area was expanded to its current size.

Since the beginning of the 1960s, the camp has been reconstructed according to the design of A. T. Polyansky. By 1969, Artek already had 150 buildings, 3 medical centers, a school, the ArtekFilm film studio, 3 swimming pools, a stadium with 7,000 seats and playgrounds for various needs.

In the 1930s, Artek for some time bore the name of its founder, Z. P. Solovyov. Then, in 1938, the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR and the Central Committee of the Komsomol granted the request of the pioneers to name the camp after V. M. Molotov, who oversaw Artek in the government and often came to the camp. In 1957, on the eve of the 40th anniversary October revolution, “Artek” was named after V.I. Lenin.

In Soviet times, a trip to Artek was considered a prestigious award for both Soviet children and foreign ones. Within one school, the best of the pioneers were awarded vouchers based on numerous indicators (participation in the affairs of the pioneer squad, behavior, academic performance, etc.). In its heyday, the annual number of trips to Artek was 27,000. In the period between 1925-1969. Artek accepted 300,000 children, including more than 13,000 children from seventeen foreign countries.

Honorary guests of Artek over the years have included Jean-Bedel Bokassa, Leonid Brezhnev, Yuri Gagarin, Indira Gandhi, Urho Kekkonen, Nikita Khrushchev, Jawaharlal Nehru, Otto Schmidt, Lydia Skoblikova, Palmiro Tolyatti, Ho Chi Minh City, Benjamin Spock, Mikhail Tal , Valentina Tereshkova, Lev Yashin. In July 1983, Artek was visited by an American girl, Samantha Smith.

Initially, the tent city on the seashore was simply called “Children’s camp in Artek.” The name of the Artek tract became established as the proper name of the camp a little later, by 1930, when the first building for year-round reception of children was built in the upper park. It was named “Upper Camp”, and the tent camp by the sea was called “Lower”. The third Artek camp was “Suuk-Su” in 1937, created on the basis of the rest home of the same name transferred to Artek. After the Great Patriotic War in 1944, the “Collective Farm Youth” rest home was transferred to “Artek”, and it became another camp.

In the 1950s, Artek was officially considered a complex of several camps. Its directorate was called the “Administration of All-Union Pioneer Camps,” and the camps themselves were usually called by numbers “Camp No. 1” - “Camp No. 4.”

In 1959, work began on implementing the so-called “Big Artek” project. In 1961, the first name of the camp, familiar to today’s Artek residents, appeared on the map of Artek - “Morskoy”. It was built on the site of Nizhny. And soon the entire “Artek” was accepted into general outline current appearance. The camp built on the site of “Verkhny” was named “Mountain”. According to the authors' plans, it was supposed to consist of three pioneer squads, each of which was housed in a separate large building. A new Pribrezhny camp was built on the previously empty territory in the center of Artek. It became the largest camp and united 4 squads. The camps “Suuk-Su” and “Collective Farm Youth” did not undergo major external changes, but received new names: “Azure” and “Cypress”, respectively. Each of them, as well as Morskoe, housed one pioneer squad. The main work was completed by 1964. The authors of the project, a group of architects headed by Anatoly Polyansky, were awarded the USSR State Prize in the field of architecture in 1967.

Thus, at the time of the collapse of the USSR, “Artek” consisted of 5 camps uniting 10 squads: “Morskoy” (the “Morskaya” squad), “Gorny” (the “Almaznaya”, “Khrustalnaya”, “Yantarnaya” squads), “Pribrezhny” (teams “Lesnaya”, “Ozernaya”, “Polevaya”, “Rechnaya”), “Lazurny” (team “Azure”) and “Kiparisny” (team “Kiparisnaya”).

In the 1960s, it was assumed that the construction of Artek would continue. Polyansky’s group designed the “Solnechny” and “Air” camps, a number of cultural and educational facilities, but these plans were not destined to come true.

Time passed, and over the 90 years of the camp’s existence, a lot has changed, and after the return of Crimea to the Russian Federation, the revival of the camp began, which in past years even ceased its work due to problems with financing. In the fall of 2014, work began on the improvement and overhaul of the buildings, which had fallen into disrepair over the past years. New furniture was brought in, the dining room was refurbished, sports grounds were restored, swimming pools were renovated and modern computers were installed.

Legendary Soviet camps, which, despite the passing decades, host thousands of children from all over the post-Soviet space.
Naturally, Artek has always been and remains the first, although regular visitors to Orlyonok can refute this statement, but we will talk about this camp below. "Artek" is located on the Black Sea coast, and until recent events, belonged to Ukraine. But everything is changing, and now Artek has become Russian again. The area of ​​the camp is more than 200 hectares, and the coastline stretches from Bear Mountain to the village of Gurzuf.


The creation of a children's camp in Artek was first announced on November 5, 1924 at the Moscow Pioneer Festival, and already on June 16, 1925, 80 pioneers from Moscow, Ivanovo-Voznesensk and Crimea arrived for the first shift. So today the famous camp turns 90 years old, for which we congratulate it!


During the Great Patriotic War, Artek was evacuated through Moscow to Stalingrad. Immediately after the liberation of Crimea in April 1944, restoration of the famous camp began. The first post-war shift opened in August, and a year later Artek Square began to meet modern standards. But already in the 60s, large-scale reconstruction began, as a result of which medical centers, schools, a film studio, swimming pools, a stadium and other buildings necessary for the life of the camp appeared.


“Artek” was rightfully called an international camp, because in different years the guests of honor were: Jean-Bedel Bokassa, Leonid Brezhnev, Yuri Gagarin, Indira Gandhi, Nikita Khrushchev, Jawaharlal Nehru, Otto Schmidt, Lydia Skoblikova, Palmiro Togliatti, Ho Chi Minh, Valentina Tereshkova, Lev Yashin, Samantha Smith.




Time passed, and over the 90 years of the camp’s existence, a lot has changed, and after the return of Crimea to the Russian Federation, the revival of the camp began, which in past years even ceased its work due to problems with financing. In the fall of 2014, work began on the improvement and overhaul of the buildings, which had fallen into disrepair over the past years. In addition, new furniture was brought in, the dining room was refurbished, sports grounds were restored, swimming pools were renovated and modern computers were installed. The total amount of financing amounted to 5 billion rubles






In March 2015, the Government of the Russian Federation approved the Artek Development Program until 2020, and a ticket to this camp, according to the modern concept, becomes an incentive for a child for achievements in various fields of activity, although it can also be purchased for money. In 2015, the cost of a trip to this camp is about 65 thousand rubles. But, most likely, we should count on 2016, since the demand for vouchers is extremely high.


The second most important and popular pioneer camp was and remains “Orlyonok”, which is located 45 kilometers from Tuapse. “Eaglet” also boasts a huge territory of 200 hectares, and the length of the coastline is almost 4 kilometers.


The reason for the creation of the camp was the transfer of the Crimean peninsula and the Artek camp to the control of the Ukrainian SSR in 1954. A new pioneer camp was needed, construction of which began on March 27, 1959. Of course, a competitive element was always present in the life of the two largest pioneer camps, but Artek and Orlyonok also had close friendly ties.


The calling card of “Eaglet” is the “Bonfire” monument, which greets all vacationers.








Currently, there are 8 camps in Orlyonok: four year-round and four summer. Also on the territory of the center there is a nine-story building for counselors, a palace of culture and sports with a swimming pool with sea water, the Yunost stadium, a reception building decorated with colorful panels, a hotel and a motor city.
At the other end of our huge country there is an equally famous camp - “Ocean”, which was founded in 1983 on the shores of the Pacific Ocean.




Currently, there are 4 squads working in the All-Russian Children's Center: “Brigantine”, “Parus”, “Kityonok” and “Tiger Cub”. All 5 buildings of the Parus squad were completely restored after the fire of 1993.


In 1924, the “Young Guard” camp was opened in Odessa, and in 1935, the children’s sanatorium “Ukrainian Artek” was organized on the basis of the camp.


In 1956, a new era began in the history of the Children's Center. It is transferred to the Central Committee of the Komsomol of Ukraine. From the sanatorium it was reorganized into a pioneer camp called “Young Guard” in memory of the young underground fighters of the city of Krasnodon who fought against the fascist occupiers. Since December 2011, the Young Guard UDC has been subordinate to the Ministry of Social Policy of Ukraine.


Currently, this children's center occupies an area of ​​30 hectares and on its territory there are two camps, “Zvezdny” and “Solnechny,” and “Coastal” opens in the summer.
The camp “Zubrenok” was extremely popular in Soviet times, which, as can be understood from the name, is located on the territory of Belarus.


The opening of this camp took place on August 17, 1969. Throughout the history of Zubrenok, it grew and new administrative, sports, residential and other buildings appeared.


Currently, the complex includes five dormitory buildings, play pavilions, a recreation building for family orphanages, a school, a swimming pool, a cinema and concert hall, a gym, a stadium tennis court and an intellectual center, and a trip to this camp is still extremely prestigious and expected by children.
The most unusual, in our opinion, is the pioneer camp “Zapolyarye”, which is located near Tula on the banks of the Oka.


In general, this camp is a standard pioneer camp of its time, if not for one thing. It was in this camp that the film “Welcome or No Trespassing” was filmed. Of course, the wooden buildings of that time have not survived, and the camp as a whole looks different, but its fame gained through cinema has been preserved.