Russian holidays - Artek's birthday

The recreation of scouts and representatives of other youth movements takes place in camps In these educational and health organizations, children spend their holidays with pleasure, participating in various activities In the USSR, most factories, educational and sports institutions had their own pioneer camps Artek was in first place in the ranking of the most popular vacation spots for schoolchildren The pioneer camp first opened its doors on June 16, 1925 In this shift there were 80 schoolchildren from Moscow, Ivanovo-Voznesensk and the cities of Crimea For almost 100 years since its opening, millions of Soviet children and children from abroad have rested in the Crimean health resort The sounds of the bugle, the initiation into Artek members, the “Zarnitsa” and the farewell bonfire, the coal from which, according to tradition, was taken home, remained forever in their hearts The health resort did not stop its work during the Great Patriotic War; it continued to accept children after the collapse of the USSR and the cessation of the All-Union Pioneer Organization in 1991 In honor of the founding of the international camp, Artek’s birthday is solemnly celebrated on June 16 The calling card of the Soviet pioneers, located on the southern coast of Crimea at the foot of Mount Ayu-Dag, worked all year round In the summer, the camp was mainly attended by the children of executive committee employees, enterprise directors, heads of local CPSU organizations and other representatives of the nomenklatura This trend was very clearly visible by 1940 In the fall and winter, ordinary children who studied well at school, were winners of Olympiads, competitions in collecting scrap metal or cotton could get into Artek There was a quota for holidays in the camp for orphans Every schoolchild from the USSR dreamed of going to Artek, where peers from friendly countries of the socialist camp also came - Czechoslovakia, Poland, Romania, Mongolia and some African countries Already in the second year after its opening, the camp accepted children of German communists, and in 1937 - children from Spain Artek was also visited by such celebrities as Samantha Smith, a girl who, in her letter in 1982 to Yu Andropov, the head of the USSR, expressed concern about the possibility of a nuclear war between the Soviet Union and the United States The pride of the camp was its friendship with Yuri Gagarin He came to Artek every day from a nearby sanatorium, where he was resting on a voucher In addition to Gagarin, the camp was visited by NS Khrushchev and LI Brezhnev, state leaders and famous politicians: Indira Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Ho Chi Minh, Otto Schmidt Today, Artek still opens its doors wide to children from Russia and other countries of the world who are winners of international competitions held by the Russian Federation The camp hosts many large-scale events and festivals throughout the year: “Scarlet Sails”, children’s “New Wave”, etc But the most important and dearest holiday to young hearts for decades remains the Birthday of “Artek”