By Vestnik Kavkaza
A 12-year-old girl asked Vladimir Putin during yesterday's live TV call-in show: “Let’s build a bridge across the Kerch Strait as a symbol of the unity of Russia, collect money with the help of TV and SMS. I dream about going to Crimea and Artek.” Putin said that “the project is rather expensive, but we will do our best to fulfill it as soon as possible and in an inexpensive way.” Absence of a direct connection with the new Russian regions is a big problem. However, Artek is a symbolic place and the authorities try to find opportunities for transferring children there.
The children's camp of Artek began operating on June 16th, 1925, near Mount Ayu-Dag. The first 80 Artek guests lived in four tents on the seashore. In general that summer Artek welcomed 320 children. In the 1920s children and adults from Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, Poland, France, and Sweden rested in Artek.
Many prominent people visited the camp with their children: Arkady Gaidar, Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi, Ho Chi Minh…
After the dissolution of the USSR, changes happened in the post-Soviet space influenced the camp.
The deputy Director General, the head of Artek’s Moscow office, Alexander Ryabinin, told Vestnik Kavkaza about prospects of the camp after the merger of Crimea into Russia: “Artek will meet promising future, as it returned to the land where it was founded. In 1925 Crimea was a part of Russia. We hope that Artek will be a presidential center, and everything will be wonderful in Artek. The staff is ready for this.”
According to Ryabinin, “the camp demands 1.5 billion rubles annually. It includes complete supplies of Artek, including construction. In summer Artek where nine camps work welcomes 3600 children in each session; there are four summer sessions. In winter five camps work; these are about 1700-1800 children in each session. Annually Artek is able to welcome 30 thousand people. Crimea is not Ukraine anymore, and Artek has its own guard service, security service, the Artek police, and internal services which provide security of children in the camp.”
A round trip from Moscow to Simferopol costs about 10 thousand rubles; the price varies in regions. Ryabinin says that “St. Petersburg is ready to sell tickets for 11 500 rubles. A round trip from Irkutsk will cost 6 thousand only. The price is nicer, it is funded, but it is great. Children from all regions come to the camp. Foreigners visit the camp as well. This year the issue is difficult, but last year 34 countries were represented. The biggest number of represented countries was in the late 1970s, when the “Let the sun shine!” Festival took place.”
The festival was the main event in the international history of Artek. The program required that it would have started in Moscow and continued in Artek. 1500 children and 500 honor guests from 158 international, regional, and national children organizations from 103 countries arrived to the camp. “The Soviet Union collapsed, but Artek is alive. However, we don’t know how the list of children who should visit Artek will be formed. On the one hand, this is business, but 90% of tickets used to be paid by the Ukrainian budget,” Ryabinin recalls.
