Super construction "Artek"

What is happening with the legendary camp, which Russia now owns. Reporting Ilya Zheguleva

Over the next four years, Russia plans to invest more than 17 billion rubles in the Artek Crimean Camp system. This is a project of national scale: reconstruction is supervised by Deputy Prime Minister Olga Golodets; The director of the camp was appointed a young and very ambitious official Alexei Kasprzhak, who worked as the vice-governor of the Tver region. At Artek, a construction is in full swing. Despite the fact that the Ukrainian authorities never paid such attention to the children's camp, local residents are more outraged by what was happening. The special correspondent of Medusa Ilya Zhegulev went to Artek to find out how the camp with the arrival of the new owner changes.

“Artek” is a crazy country where everyone is a little out of their own mind. But you are returning to a normal house. Or is something wrong in it? ”-the boy with glasses carefully pronounces the text of the scene. “Who is the next one?” - The counselor is casting a partner for a boy: she should cry, portraying how she does not want to part with the camp.

“You know, guys who will come to you now?” Suddenly interrupts the counselor, an enthusiastic employee of the Artek newspaper, jumping off the electric car on which the inscription “Gazprom” flaunts. - The main prosecutor of Crimea! " Children react sluggishly.

Artek never felt a shortage of attention from seniorly. All the presidents of Ukraine, who were elected over the past 25 years - from Kravchuk to Yanukovych came here. Artek has always been more than a pioneer camp - with its own rules and its own, like the state in the state, territory. The Russians regretted the Artek almost more than about the entire Crimea and the Soviet Union, since the camp was an ideal world, a real paradise for the younger generation - more precisely, for the elected from this generation. Now the picture from Artek is one of the main symbols used by Moscow bosses to cause nostalgic emotions among the inhabitants of the Russian Federation.

In the Russian “Artek”, the first step was repainted by the corps, delivering them from yellow and blue - the colors of the Ukrainian flag. However, they decided not to stop there. “Artek” was taken under special control of the government; Its “curator” in Moscow was Deputy Prime Minister Olga Golodets, who personally selected the director, and is now following the reconstruction of the camp. Moscow is trying to breathe a new life into the Soviet project “Teenage Paradise”, and at the same time give it a federal scale. Therefore, the development of Artek is going to invest 17.3 billion rubles in four years. The expenses for the reconstruction are comparable to the Olympic construction site: say, the “lower” Olympic village in Sochi for 3,000 apartments, entrepreneur Oleg Deripaska built for 24.2 billion rubles; Of these, 15.5 billion were a loan of Vnesheconombank. Unlike the Olympics, in which Russian investors participated in state support, Artek is not even trying to portray a screen in the form of “private” investments: the pioneer camp will be remade completely at the expense of the Russian budget.

A terrible past

“When I was smaller, I dreamed that someday I would be an artician. And today my dream came true,” said the President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych three years ago, visiting Artek (other political leaders-for example, the current head of the Odessa region Mikhail Saakashvili and Prime Minister of Ukraine Arseniy Yatsenyuk-this dream was carried out early, even at a pioneer age). The financial situation “Artek” depended on how often the heads of the Ukrainian state came here. According to Yuri Malyshev, who began to work as counselors here during the time of the USSR, the most of all, Leonid Kuchma was not indifferent to the camp. “Here, they built one of the best schools in the territory of Artek,” he shows me to a new building that is distinguished from the common architectural ensemble.

The Artek International Children's Center was created in 1924 with the participation of the Red Cross - as a hospital for children who should recover after the Civil War. Over the years, the value of the camp for the whole country has grown; He himself increased, capturing the territory of 208 hectares, of which 102 hectares are parks. The coastline with children's beaches stretches seven kilometers from the Ayu-Dag Mountain (Bear-Gora) to the village of Gurzuf. Modern Artek is ten children's camps united by a common name. After the collapse of the Union, Artek went to Ukraine, which with varying success supported the former glory of the All -Union Children's Camp.

In 2004, on the 80th anniversary of Artek, not only school should have been built here. Reconstruction plans were, of course, more modest than Russian, but in their own ambitious ones. The authorities were going to restore and re -furnish the corps, a stadium, five swimming pools, ten canteens, a hotel complex - 100 million dollars were sent to a specially created fund.

After the Orange Revolution, it turned out that nothing was restored to Artek, and there was no more money in the fund. The main defendant in the criminal case of embezzlement was the Minister of Transport George Kirpa. The former head of the railways of Ukraine (Ukrainian Yakunin) was supposed to oversee the transfer of Money Artek from the railway, which formally acted a “sponsor” of reconstruction. Kirpa committed suicide on December 27, 2004 - the day after the second round of elections, as a result of which Viktor Yushchenko defeated Yanukovych.

Yushchenko discovered that bypassing the Law “Artek” sold to his “wisteria” boarding house to the Russian VTB. The bank managed to transfer a third of the amount; The media wrote that “wisteria” - the former cottage Leonid Brezhnev - could become one of the summer residences of Vladimir Putin. But it did not work out: VTB’s money was returned, and the “wisteria” was sued from Artek in favor of the Ukrainian parliament (the Verkhovna Rada successfully handed over the numbers to vacationers until the Crimea was annexed to Russia; now the State Duma was nationalized and transferred free of charge to the FSO).

About Yushchenko in Artek speak with anger. Under him, the camp was almost brought to bankruptcy. The government stopped the financing of Artek, the camp tried to survive himself, selling tickets, but did not succeed in this. At the end of 2008, employees outraged by the situation blocked the route to Simferopol; In January 2009, the camp director Boris Novozhilov announced a hunger strike, and then went to the hospital with a heart attack. The money for Artek ultimately ordered the government of Yulia Tymoshenko.

With the coming to power, Viktor Yanukovych, by tradition, the inspectors came to the “Artek” - and also found the theft, but for a much smaller amount - one and a half million dollars.

Under Yanukovych, “Artek” returned to the Soviet model of existence, again becoming a camp, in which the children go for free for special merits. Kyiv invested another 55 million dollars in Artek - at least, for such amounts, they made state contracts for the improvement of the camp, the construction of a new hospital and the reconstruction of the stadium. They did not manage to build the hospital, but the modern indoor stadium overlooking the cliffs and the sea proudly shows me pioneering officers.

A bright future

“You see, they all have a lot of“ Wishlist ”! - A scream is heard from the office of the director of Artek. - Here, let them all their “Wishlist” are put in one program, where they will be formulated there correctly. And not every time I say new to me! ” A man with his hair comes out almost to his shoulders. The new director of Artek, sent here from Moscow, is the youngest in the history of the camp.

However, the 35-year-old Kasprzhak managed to work a lot. Back in 2007, he was invited by the Governor of the Tver region and the former top manager of Norilsklya Dmitry Zelenin-to manage the Department of Education. Reducing expenses, Kasprzhak began to fight with local heads of districts for enlargement of schools; Then he became the head of the finance department, and then the vice-governor.

Kasprzhak does not know anything about the “competition” for the position of director “Artek”, however, according to him, before his appointment, Deputy Prime Minister Olga Golodets asked him to prepare a brief vision of the development of Artek. Kasprzhak says that he presented “Artek” as a point of growth of the educational system - and the government liked this idea.

Now the kasprzhak is in the same person both the director of the camp and the foreman. “The guys from the camp, not familiar with me, once meet me and ask me: what kind of construction company do you work in?” - the director laughs.

A new investment stream in Artek is the most powerful over the past 25 years. Only in 2015 they will master 5.7 billion rubles. So far, the head of the Crimea, Sergei Aksenov, cannot bring republican companies to repair roads, Artek has already managed to transform. By the 90th anniversary of the camp, a pool and canteens were repaired. The “sea” corps - the closest to the sea and the prestigious of the “artic” camps - was re -re -reassured and equipped with new furniture and air conditioners.

Unlike other state buildings, there were neither contests of architectural projects, nor contests of contractors in Artek. From the very beginning, it was known that the Stroygazmontazh company, owned by Putin Arkady Rotenberg, will be reconstructed by the camp. The details were discussed on the spot; What is good, Kasprzhak believes: he could personally participate in the project and offer his decisions. For example, the new team “Artek” decided to paint the buildings of “sea” in beige. “We argued very much in the style. We left the variegation. We tried to tie all the camps in the same color. We agreed that from the point of view of architecture we influence; we also influence the choice of materials. Everywhere the Chevrons of the Logers of the Artek camps appeared, the general colors of the camp were chosen from the local flora,” the Caspragzak reports. According to the director of the camp, to have time to be in time. By the 90th anniversary of Artek, Stroygazmontazh in matters of logistics made the impossible: “Sand is traveling with barges from Krasnodar. Pebbles are traveling from Abkhazia. Storms are prepared-120 trucks are waiting for good weather”.

The state is going to spend 17.3 billion on the reconstruction of the entire camp, that is, $ 300 million to $ 155 million to Ukraine invested. If you add this money, it turns out 114 thousand dollars of investments per bed-month (their number in the process of reconstruction should increase from the current 3,500 to 4000).

The new-11th Sunny camp-was conceived back in Soviet times, says Kasprzhak. Now it is a piece of the territory, clamped between the two other artican camps. On a special passing through the gate, local go to the sea - this is the only free beach in the area. When Golodets announced the construction of new buildings here, the inhabitants of the surrounding settlements were worried.

Stormy present

The gate to the beach “Gurovsky stones” is a place of power. Small entrepreneurs selling towels, taxi drivers and real estate owners flock here. “Half-gurzuf goes here, and if the beach is taken away, Gurzuf will cease to exist like a resort,” says Lyudmila Kostenko. Kostenko registered in Gurzuf has long moved to Moscow, but comes to his Crimean house every summer.

In 2015, another surprise was waiting for her at home. Kasprzhak promised to evict all the buildings built on the territory of Artek in Soviet times. Now these are three streets on which 1700 people live.

Against the backdrop of the “Gurovsky stones”, the local resident Yuri Skorik, who said that the territory between the camps actually belongs to the village council, recorded his appeal to President Putin, and the Kasprzhak is misleading: “Successful children will rest in Artek. And our children will look at the sea through the fence. "According to him, Kasprzhak deprived the children of Gurzuf's rights to human, and not a" submitted "life.

Skorik himself refused to communicate with me. His neighbors say that he does not talk with the liberal enemy press. " Apparently, so that the president does not consider him an enemy. However, loyalty to the Moscow authorities does not deprive him of problems with local security forces. At the Skorik rally held in May 2015, they detained and taken to the department. According to Kasprzhak, he himself took him out of the department, persuading the representatives of the organs to simply write him out a fine, without depriving him of freedom.

According to the director of Artek, he learned about the dissatisfaction of the population from the press. “I go without protection, the cabinet is open. But no one came,” Kasprzhak shrugs his hands. Realizing that the case could end with a rebellion, Kasprzhak created a public council and is now trying to communicate with the people as far as possible.

However, sometimes they pass the nerves. Valery Kaurov, physical education instructor “Artek” and the head of the initiative group for resolving housing issues, retells my conversation with the kasprzhak. Kaurov discovered changes in the protocol of the meeting of the working group and told the director “Artek” that he would sign the protocol only when he “discusses this with the people”.

- What people, did you tell me? The people are cattle. Which must be controlled!

- Who are you?

- And I am Alexey Anatolyevich Kasprzhak.

- The people entrusted me ...

- Yes, all this is for ***.

With local, the kasprzhak does not add up. In the office of the head of the local independent trade union Yevgeny Bazhenov, a passing yard. Here came the medical service doctor Ilimdar Muratov. He signs a letter to the head of the republic Sergei Aksenov that the Festival of Uraz Bayram was canceled at the Artek at the last moment, while he was recognized as a day off in Crimea. So the teacher of the astronomical circle Yuri Onishchenko jumped up. According to him, he used to follow the observatory and gave the children a workshop at night - and he was paid for a night clock, but now it turned into a public burden, in protest he closed the laboratory.

“If they invite the Korchagin Pavka, then after three months he will begin to go -ahead,” Onishchenko predicts. “They are trying to project a communist matrix of attitude to work in the system of wild capitalism.” And the truth: at that time, serious money is being spent on the reconstruction of the camps, they are still saving in the education of children, urging teachers to work “for the glory of the brand”. And if the counselors reconciled with small salaries, then when Rodchenko called from Artek and asked teachers to work for free, they were a little surprised there.

“We all with outstretched arms were waiting for entry into Russia,” says the trade union leader Bazhenov. According to him, the former Ukrainian camp director Igor Lysy forbade the Artek employees to vote in a referendum - and the trade union had to fight for this. “I had to go to the authorities to give a team from the Supreme Council,” says Bazhenov.

After the referendum, Lysy went on business to Kyiv and no longer returned. Now Bazhenov reapes the fruits of his efforts: “Not everything turned out to be as sweet as they said.” According to him, the main trouble that happened to Artek is outsourcing: Kasprzhak decided to remove all the canteens from the balance of the camp; Employees were forced to quit and go to another organization. “And if a person should work out before a year and a half? He refuses to him - for example, the head of the dining room - is offered to transfer to the work of the janitor then,” Bazhenov is indignant.

Getting rid of non -core assets is one of the priority tasks of the camp, Kasprzhak believes: “I was struck by the scale of the camp. It is like an autonomous city. It independently produces water, filters it through its treatment facilities, eats electricity from its transformer substations.” He took out everything that is connected with the form of children and their “uniforms”: “There are investors who are ready to invest in these functions. Why do we use this equipment of the 1970s? From all that does not have a pedagogical meaning, we will either get rid of or look for educational content in this.”

An investor who is engaged in a form for children also turned out to be a familiar public - this is Bosco Mikhail Kusnirovich, which dressed the entire Olympics. In 2015, the company took a contract for 142 million rubles to provide all the necessary pupils of Artek. In the set: shorts, T -shirts and shirts of unisex, as well as dresses and skirts to the knee for girls. In addition, the children received belts, moisture resistant jackets and sweatshirts. Специальный комплект предоставят участникам кружка „Морская флотилия“, в него войдут тельняшка и бескозырка. Bosco также поставит в „Артек“ постельное белье и полотенца.

„Они пришли и сказали: „Шить мы будем в одном городе, стирать в другом, вы все нам не нужны, нам нужно только несколько человек, чтобы возить и раскладывать спецодежду“, — рассказывает Баженов. А инструктор по физкультуре Кауров удивляется качеству одежды: „Попробовали постирать; как постирали, в дождь попали — вся форма потекла. Я Алексею Анатольевичу [Каспржаку] сказал: это ж крутая фирма Bosco! А почему ж все потекло?“

Пока Кауров и Баженов ворчат по поводу нового руководства „Артека“ и московских бизнесменов, дети голосуют за лагерь рублем. Возле новеньких красивых грузовиков с надписью Bosco на территории „Артека“ — очередь из „пионеров“. В грузовиках можно купить сувениры и форму — домой на память (лагерную придется сдать). Бренд Bosco — такой же надежный, как пионерский галстук; и пускай в прежние времена красный шелк был гораздо прочнее.

Ilya Zhegulev

Crimea