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Soviet Pioneer camos varied greatly in quality. Like schools and stores for privlidged adults there were some very impressive camps and reportedly hard to get into. Pioneer camps varied sunstantially in terms of facilities, especially lodging and other facilities. Meals also varied widely. Location was another variable. Especially important was proximity to bodies of water, forests, or other attractions. [Kondorsky] Most camps attended by the great bulk of the children were reportedly not very well equipped, although we have only limited sources of information. One observer indicates that except for the few well-equipped camps that they were rather boring places. Of course competent leaders can dream ip fun actibities without much in the way of facilities. A Russian reader writes, "Facities did vary. At least meals and medical care were always very good. The state carefully kept eye on that. Though some camps were lodged in buildings, some only had tents. They were almost always loacted rivers or lakes and in forest or other natural settings. Some were in suburbs and others in especially nice resort spots like the Crimea." [Prokiof] A Canadian author spent a summer in one of the showcase camps, but during the summer her group was taken for a visit to one of the regular camps. She was struck by the difference. She tells us, "To be honest I'm still so surprised the Soviet Government let westerners even see the regular camps and I can only guess that it was their own strange naivety." The Soviets running the camps having never visited the West had no idea about how far below American and Canadian standards these camps were. "Just read my experience at the regular camps in my book Lost in Moscow. It is really a fast fun sometimes-scary bizarre experience that is written so it reads like fiction even though it is true---I tell it through my 11-year-old eyes---I kept a day-to-day diary while I was in the USSR and I didn't miss a day. [Koza] To some extent, camp facilities were a matterbof chronology. Facilities except at prestige camps were very nasiv brfore World War Ii. Gradually as confitions improved after the War, facilitoes were improved. Ecen suringbthera of stahanatiin as the Soviet ecinmy exoerienved problems, camp facilities were not high cost projects.
Koza, Kirsten. Lost in Moscow (2005).
Koza, Kirsten. E-mail messages, September 25 and 26, 2005.
Prokiof, Ivan. E-mail message, October 2, 2002.
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