Crimea’s Famed 'Artek' Camp Turns 100, Tainted By Links To Russia Invasion
The Artek summer camp was founded to "educate the citizens of a Socialist society." At the centenary of its founding, the camp's storied history has been overshadowed by its involvement in holding Ukrainian children amid the Russian invasion.
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A 2009 photo shows a section of the Artek pioneer camp and its statue of Vladimir Lenin on the Black Sea coast of the Crimean peninsula.
June 16 will mark a century since the camp was established, beginning a dramatic story of Soviet, Ukrainian and Russian history.
June 16 will mark a century since the camp was established, beginning a dramatic story of Soviet, Ukrainian and Russian history.
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A rare image of the first camp on Artek in 1925, established on Soviet Russia’s Crimean peninsula.
The first camp featured four large tents, where children suffering from tuberculosis were housed and encouraged to maximise their time under the sun in the dry climate of Crimea.
The first camp featured four large tents, where children suffering from tuberculosis were housed and encouraged to maximise their time under the sun in the dry climate of Crimea.
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Exercises on a pebbled beach at Artek in the 1930s.
The camp soon expanded to become a feature of the Soviet Union’s communist youth organization, the Young Pioneers. Places at Artek were set aside each summer for high-performing children, as well as for the offspring of well-connected communist party members.
The camp soon expanded to become a feature of the Soviet Union’s communist youth organization, the Young Pioneers. Places at Artek were set aside each summer for high-performing children, as well as for the offspring of well-connected communist party members.
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Marshal of the Soviet Union Semyon Budyonny visits the Artek Camp in 1946.
Politics soon crept into camp life, as it did elsewhere throughout the fledgling Soviet Union. Matthias Neumann, a history professor who has written extensively on the camp's background, explained to RFE/RL, “Artek served not merely as a recreational site but as a strategic institution for ideological formation.” The academic adds that along with a range of sports and education programs, politics “was very much in the centre of it.”
Politics soon crept into camp life, as it did elsewhere throughout the fledgling Soviet Union. Matthias Neumann, a history professor who has written extensively on the camp's background, explained to RFE/RL, “Artek served not merely as a recreational site but as a strategic institution for ideological formation.” The academic adds that along with a range of sports and education programs, politics “was very much in the centre of it.”
