“Fairy Tale for Pioneers”: Deconstruction of Official Ideology in Memories About Artek 1960s–1980s

Abstract

This article focuses on the memories of the Soviet pioneer camp Artek among camp leaders and Pioneers who visited this camp in the 1960s–1980s. The study examines the interaction between the ideology discourse of the late Soviet epoch about Artek and personal autobiographical memories. Turning to analysis of narrative structure and the pragmatic context of the memories, the article describes why Artek may be understood as a nonideological and—in some cases—non-Soviet project. Artek as a private realization of the “general” communist utopian project had features that enabled some people to perceive (and remember) it as an “exception” from the usual Soviet everyday life (distance from the center, exoticization of nature, material world) and, as a consequence, the social world.

Notes

¹Here and below biographical details about authors are given when these details are known and published. Vladimir T. Svistov, pioneer in the Nizhnii camp (1936–1937), head of the Artek technical study groups for children (from 1945), senior pioneer leader in Verkhnii and Nizhnii camps (1949–52). Director of the Nizhnii camp (1953–1956), director of camp No. 3 (Kiparisnii) (from 1956), head of the Artek curriculum office, history teacher in the Artek school (1960–1987), supervisor of the Artek Museum Complex (1993–2003). Author of the book Artek: Year after Year. The Chronicles of the International Center for Children (1995).

²Elena N. Sorochinskaia, pioneer leader of Iantarnaia and Khrustalnaia squads (1972–1978).

³In the early years it was called “camp in Artek”; the name is from the land where the camp is located (Lavrov, 1929, p. 3).

⁴For example, a documentary about Artek, broadcast on the national television on the camp’s 90th anniversary, begins with this rhetorical passage: “Artek is the largest children’s resort in the world. The Principality of Monaco with all its casinos, or, for example, the island of Tenerife with all are five-star hotels could fit on its territory. But in our country, a one-of-a-kind city for children was built in such place, which is 90 years old now and everyone living in our country dreams to be there” (Artek, 2015).

⁵They were published in Russia: In Artek Today— in Artek Forever: 90th Anniversary of Artek (Moscow: Prosveshchenie, 2015); G. Shatunova (Ed.), Artek—a Dream, a Fairy Tale, a Blessing (2015, Voronezh); and in Ukraine: L. Ivanova (Ed), A World Called Artek (Kharkiv, 2010) and L. Ivanova (Ed), Our Artek (Ivanovo-Frankovsk, 2015).

⁶Many of these essays and memoires have been published in the social networks Vkontakte and Odnoklassniki under the title “Artek: History and Persons” (http://vk.com/artekstory).

⁷I mostly used the data found on the forum Artek-Romashka for finding friends from Artek, chatting, and sharing memories of the camp (http://www.artek-romashka.ru/forum/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=15116&start=30), as well as the unofficial camp website Artekovets (http://www.artekovetc.ru). All Internet sources quoted in this article are accessible.

⁸Collecting of paper for recycling was a popular practice of daily life in Soviet schools and Pioneer squads since 1960. The annual rate of paper collection was established for all schools, moreover, there were competitions among them on the amount of collected paper.

⁹A letter-memories to Administration of Artek written in connection with the anniversary of Artek on March 17, 2015. Author born in Irkutsky district, female, pioneer of Artek in 1957. The letter kept in the Archive of Artek’s history museum.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Anna Kozlova

Anna Kozlova is a first-year cultural anthropology graduate student at the European University in St. Petersburg. She received her bachelor’s degree in philology from St. Petersburg State University and a master’s degree in cultural anthropology from the European University in St. Petersburg, Russia. Her research focuses on the anthropology of the childhood and schooling, sociology of everyday life, Soviet subjectivity, and memory studies.