Young Pioneer camp (Russian: Пионерский лагерь) was the name for the vacation or summer camp of Young Pioneers. In the 20th century these camps existed in many socialist countries, particularly in the Soviet Union.
The Young Pioneer camps of the Soviet Union were the place of vacation for children from the Young Pioneer organization of the Soviet Union during summer and winter holidays. The first All-Union Young Pioneer camp, Artek was formed on June 16, 1925. The Young Pioneer camp phenomenon grew in popularity and in the USSR there existed approximately forty thousand Young Pioneer camps in 1973. Approximately 9,300,000 children had vacations in these camps that year. There were different types of camps: sanitation camps, sports camps, tourist camps, thematic camps (for young technicians, young naturalists, young geologists and children of other potential careers). Generally speaking if parents wanted their child or children to go to one of these Young Pioneer camps, they had to pay a fee to apply for accommodation in the camp. However, typically the state organization where the parent worked "sponsored" the child by allotting the worker's child a place in the camp free of charge to the parent or parents as an incident to the parent's employment.
The main Young Pioneer camps of the Soviet Union were All-Union Young Pioneer camp Artek (near Gurzuf), republican camps: Orlyonok (near Tuapse, Russian SFSR, opened in 1960), Okean (near Vladivostok, Russian SFSR, opened in 1983) Molodaya Gvardiya (near Odessa, Ukrainian SSR) and Zubryonok (in Minsk Oblast, Byelorussian SSR). It was very difficult to apply for accommodation to the main camps, especially to Artek, as they were very popular.
In 1977 a group of Canadian teens and pre-teens from across Canada were sent to the Soviet Young Pioneer camp, Orlyonok. The book Lost in Moscow by Kirsten Koza details their unusual escapades at this elite summer camp in the USSR.
In East Germany the Ernst Thälmann Pioneer Organisation built a pioneer camp (known as a "pioneer republic") in 1952 at Werbellinsee north-east of Berlin. It was based on the Artek. It was considered a privilege to be chosen to go to this camp.
Famous quotes containing the words young, pioneer and/or camp:
“But that I am forbid
To tell the secrets of my prison-house,
I could a tale unfold whose lightest word
Would harrow up thy soul, freeze thy young blood.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“The poet is no tender slip of fairy stock, who requires peculiar institutions and edicts for his defense, but the toughest son of earth and of Heaven, and by his greater strength and endurance his fainting companions will recognize the God in him. It is the worshipers of beauty, after all, who have done the real pioneer work of the world.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The Indians invited us to lodge with them, but my companion inclined to go to the log camp on the carry. This camp was close and dirty, and had an ill smell, and I preferred to accept the Indians’ offer, if we did not make a camp for ourselves; for, though they were dirty, too, they were more in the open air, and were much more agreeable, and even refined company, than the lumberers.... So we went to the Indians’ camp or wigwam.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)