"Azov" or "Artek"?
Exactly 92 years ago, on June 16, 1925, near the Crimean resort of Suuk-Su at the foot of Bear Mountain, the Artek pioneer camp began its work, which consisted of only four large canvas tents, into which eighty pioneers initially settled. The very next year, not only Soviet pioneers, but also their peers from Germany rested in tents on the Black Sea coast, and thus the camp became international. And in the thirties, “Artek” acquired permanent buildings, began to operate year-round and became the main pioneer camp of the Soviet Union. “Artek” was a legend and the object of dreams of millions of Soviet schoolchildren. Many famous people can still be called Artek members - from Soviet cosmonauts to political figures, from Anna Netrebko, who sang in the Artek choir, to the former Artek cadet Leonid Parfenov.
After the collapse of the USSR, Artek went to Ukraine, and a grueling struggle for its survival began. The camp quickly became commercialized, but even this did not help adequately maintain the vast territory. Funds were steadily deteriorating, precious lands were stolen by business structures, and teaching activities - as throughout Ukraine - were increasingly immersed in Ukrainian things that were of little interest to children. Things have come to the point of pedophile scandals, in which the people's deputies of Ukraine were involved. But on April 24, 2008, before the arrival of the wife of the then President of Ukraine, Ekaterina Yushchenko-Chumachenko, at Artek, remembering her nationalist beliefs, the authorities slavishly dismantled the Soviet orders of the Red Banner of Labor and Friendship of Peoples from the main stele of the camp. Indeed, what kind of “friendship of peoples” could there be in a state that in those years officially adopted the ideology of nationalism, and training camps for young Banderaites sprang up in dozens throughout the country.
It is well known how the training of thousands of young people in these paramilitary training centers ended - the creation of disciplined, well-trained militant detachments that played a decisive role in the coup d'etat in the winter of 2014 (which led, in particular, to the secession of Crimea and Donbass). Similar “patriotic” camps continue to function in Ukraine to this day. Now the press is reporting the opening of a new camp for young nationalists in the Kharkov region - “Slobozhanin” under the auspices of the neo-Nazi battalion “Azov”. Educational program: applied military disciplines, indoctrination of children in the spirit of ultra-nationalism and the steady involvement of pupils in the political and military structures of “Azov”.
The general Nazification of education, that is, the introduction of Nazi servants, like Hauptmann Shukhevych, into the pantheon of national heroes, the inculcation of insane Russophobia, the strengthening of the archaic-ethnic component (with the simultaneous primitivization in the teaching of exact sciences) lead to an absolutely predictable division of Ukrainian society. A controlled mass of poorly educated semi-slaves (according to the teachings of the classic of Ukrainian nationalism Dmitry Dontsov, “swineherds”), trained in the camps in the “science of killing” militants (according to Dontsov – “Cossacks”) and a certain class of managers - the so-called “national democrats” (in fact, ordinary compradors).
Meanwhile, the Crimean “Artek” continues to develop the best traditions of humane, multifaceted education of children. And the state, which wants its continuation, is actively investing in its future today. In March 2015, by decision of the Government of the Russian Federation, the Development Program of the Artek International Children's Center until 2020 was approved and a huge amount of 13 billion rubles was allocated for its implementation. These funds are systematically spent on major repairs of residential buildings and outbuildings, the purchase of new furniture and computers, and the repair of communications and swimming pools. At the same time, the International Children's Center already today accepts up to three and a half thousand children from 45 countries (including, of course, from Ukraine). And vouchers to Artek are distributed as an incentive among the best in studies, social activities, or through special programs for young compatriots.
The birthday of “Artek” and its surrogate twins that appeared in Ukraine are celebrated: “Artek-Bukovel” and “Artek” in Pushcha-Voditsa. The strange ones, along with the Yalta Economic Forum in Kyiv and the Odessa Kazantip, are the creation of the gloomy Maidan “genius”. However, it is impossible to fake the sunny Yalta and “Artek”, just as it is impossible to replace the lines of Agnia Barto, Samuil Marshak or Sergei Mikhalkov dedicated to the true “Artek” with the “battle goosebumps” of the pathological Russophobe Larisa Nitsa. Children do not have to repeat the ridiculous mistakes of their parents, but should be friends with each other. This means that the real Crimean “Artek” has always been and remains open to its friends.
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