Creating the appropriate surroundings, we gathered the heroes around a large fire overlooking the city at night. And so that they would be even more immersed in the atmosphere of the camp, they gave everyone a skewer and marshmallows, which they could fry over the fire. So, under the cozy crackling of the fire, our heroes began to share their memories from childhood...

— I have two stories from the camp. I was then eight or nine years old, I went to a camp located in the village of Borovoe. Everything about it was reminiscent of Soviet times. The very first day I went to brush my teeth—and the washbasins were outside—I really wanted to go to the restroom. It turned out that my brush accidentally fell into the toilet, and, naturally, I had no intention of getting it out. So I had to brush my teeth with my finger for the rest of the season.

— The second story happened in the same camp. One of the counselors told us that in the neighboring village a scary man wanders at night: either a fisherman or a lumberjack. When the camp is enveloped in darkness, he comes, knocks on the windows and scares the children. After the counselor told us this, one evening he decided to play a trick on us: he hung a keychain on a string above the window. Since there was always wind there, in the evenings this keychain was constantly knocking on the glass. It was wildly scary, because we were sure that this terrible man had come to us. All we could do was lie quietly under the blankets, holding our breath, and not move. Only later, when the season came to an end, were they revealed to us the secret of the keychain. It’s funny to remember now, but then, believe me, it was very scary.

We were told that it was a joke, but the White Lady really exists: she scared the counselors before we arrived. We believed and were always afraid to leave our rooms in the evenings and nights. Now I understand that this was a wonderful move by the counselors who found another way to control us!

— When I was 10 years old, I vacationed in the “Mountain Sun” camp. We were told a local legend about the White Lady. They said that her child was killed, and she, not coming to terms with such a loss, was constantly looking for him. They also said that when new children come to the camp, she comes and looks for her child among them. As I remember now: they even showed us the place where she usually sits. We, brave guys, decided to all go to that place together and see what the White Lady looked like. The counselor, who found out about our plans, decided to scare us: he threw a white sheet over himself and went there first.

“We waited for the ghost for a very long time, then the counselor suddenly appeared, and everyone ran away in fear. We were told that it was a joke, but the White Lady really exists: she scared the counselors before we arrived. We believed and were always afraid to leave our rooms in the evenings and nights. Now I understand that this was a wonderful move by the counselors who found another way to control us!

The youngest hero of the report told us a story that happened to him this summer:

— On July 28, I arrived from the Maralsai camp, which is located in the Talgar Gorge. On the seventh day, after breakfast, we were told to urgently pack our things because a mudflow was approaching. This information caused serious panic: everyone gathered hysterically and ran to the checkpoint. It was necessary to see this action from the outside - everything looked like a real end of the world. When everyone was gathered at the checkpoint, we, stunned by such terrible news, were told, without any embarrassment: “It was a joke!” I hope that such pranks will not happen again in my life!

Our journalist Svyatoslav was also once in the camp and shared his story:

— One day we were going to a health camp, which was located near hot springs. The journey to the camp from the city took approximately six hours. When we passed the Charyn Canyon along the way, everyone definitely had to stop near it and take pictures. Then, passing the Charyn River, everyone again wanted to stop, take pictures of themselves and have a snack.

“So instead of arriving at the camp at six o’clock, we were there at ten. Everyone was glad that they had finally arrived and prepared their hungry stomachs for a delicious dinner. However, we were all herded into the hall, and some representative professor began to give a lecture on the benefits of healing water. First he read it in Russian, then he read it in Kazakh, then for some reason he started reading it in English. By the end of the lecture, only three people remained in the hall. When we went to the dining room, we were informed that they would not feed us because it was already late and there was no food. At night, no one fell asleep from hunger, and in the morning everyone attacked the disgusting porridge, as if it were the most delicious dish in the world!

— My story happened a long time ago, in the Petropavlovsk region. Now I am already 30 years old. Once upon a time, in the seventh grade, we were sent to military-patriotic training, which took place on the banks of the Irtysh. There we were placed in a tent camp. The main purpose of the trip was to develop a patriotic spirit and instill basic survival skills. There was a regime in the camp - everything was very strict. On the fifth night, when everyone was already tired of the constant heat and mosquitoes, someone wanted to play a joke. I only remember how a boot flew past and hit one boy in the eye.

“There was a serious noise, and we were instantly lifted up and given full combat uniform: a gas mask on our heads, a backpack of combat equipment weighing about twenty kilograms, and tarpaulin boots on our feet. We lined up along the shore and began to do fifty push-ups. Afterwards we were sent on a run - 40 kilometers. Since then we have had no problems with discipline. It was a very cruel but effective punishment.

— And I’ll tell you a very lyrical story. I was a fairly calm child and rarely traveled alone beyond my city. Once I myself insisted that my parents send me to the camp. I pestered them quite a lot with this request, and in the end my parents couldn’t stand it and sent me to a camp that was very far from our city - somewhere near Balkhash. The funny thing is that in such a remote place from home I found my fellow countrymen: two boys with whom I began to communicate closely. There was nothing special, but these two friends began to fight for my affection. The fact is that I was always such an “excellent student”, “first in the squad”, and did not particularly pay attention to such things.

“But one of these two still won my heart.” Their competition was so frantic that I had to leave the camp ahead of time, because they began to build terrible intrigues for each other: they drew paste on each other’s faces, and sorted things out with their fists. I was forced to call my parents to pick me up. Then it turned out that these two boys studied at my school. And, as you understand, all this continued at school, but I no longer went to the camp.

— My story from the camp began at school, in fifth grade. There was a girl at school a year younger than me. As I remember now: her name was Victoria. She was a “bandit”, and all the boys were afraid of her, probably because she was not small in build. Even the guys who studied in higher classes were afraid of this girl. We didn’t communicate at all, but she always tried to ruin my mood with some trick or caustic statement. And I was all like “a good boy in a suit.” When I got to the camp, I absolutely loved everything there, except that Vika also ended up there. Naturally, I tried not to catch her eye. But one day her classmate comes up and says: “Arthur, we need to talk to you.”

“She handed me a note and told me to read it when I returned to the room.” Finally, she asked if I would go to the evening disco, and I gave a positive answer. And then I noticed that Vika had hidden behind the building and was watching us. Only then did I begin to figure out what was going on. I opened the note, which, of course, was from Vika, and it said: “Arthur, I love you. Let's meet at the disco today. I want to kiss you." That day I was still at the disco, but I tried my best not to catch her eye, as in all subsequent days of my stay in the camp.

— My entire pioneer childhood was spent in camps. I bet that out of everyone here, I have the most extensive camp experience. It started for me at the age of seven and continued until the tenth grade. My favorite place was the Montazhnik camp, it is located in Kargaly. Nowadays it is called “Signalman”. At that time, the ticket cost four rubles, the rest of the cost was paid by the trade union. My sister and I were sent to this camp: my sister left there in tears after a week, but I “partied” until the end of the season and stayed for another one. Every season there was some unforgettable incident, every season I had a separate “love story”. I remember that cosmetics were in short supply at that time. I’ll never forget how I stole my mother’s blue eye shadow and lipstick. And the whole squad of us painted ourselves with these shadows and lipstick and looked, excuse me, like young girls of easy virtue. We did these procedures before every disco and firmly believed that we looked cool. They also always exchanged clothes among themselves. We felt like grown-up girls.

- It was such an awkward story. In our building, there was a dining room on the first floor, boys lived on the second, and girls on the third. At the very bottom there was a canopy for the dining room. In general, we washed and hung our panties on the grill, and they were always blown away by the wind onto this canopy. There was no way we could get them back except by asking the boys to climb out of the window onto the canopy and get our underpants. But we were embarrassed to do it and never asked for it. By the end of the season, about ten girls' panties had accumulated on the visor.

— And at night, in addition to smearing each other with paste, we staged the “Africa” prank. The man is sleeping, you go up to him and cover him with blankets from the whole squad. When the sleeper got hot, we shouted: “Africa! Africa!" - and ran away.

I just remembered another incident! One day, the guys and I climbed into the dining room through that same ill-fated canopy and started rummaging around in the kitchen, looking for something edible. We found a large refrigerator with a cup of Olivier in it. We were quite surprised, because the children in the camp were not fed such dishes. Rejoicing at the find, they ate this entire large cup, despite the fact that the loss would be discovered in the morning. It was fun!

To be honest, as a loving person, I went to camps more to fall in love. This is the moment when there is no one to love in the class, all the boys in the yard are boring, and you understand that you need to go to camp and look for a new joy for your heart.

— To be honest, as a loving person, I went to camps more to fall in love. This is the moment when there is no one to love in the class, all the boys in the yard are boring, and you understand that you need to go to camp and look for a new joy for your heart. From the first day at the Ogonyok camp I liked a boy whose name was either Dima or Denis. I was about 12 years old then, he was about 15. I remember how on the first day I looked at him intently. All season I cast my glances at him, and he also answered me. And on the day of departure, at the farewell bonfire, I looked at him and thought: “Eh, I should have approached him, met him. Why didn’t I do this?” However, after returning home for a year, I kept bumping into this boy. Wherever I went, I met him. I saw him so often that I became sick of him! Such an ironic story...

Rinna

— When I was 11 years old, I was on vacation at the UDS camp. Every season there was a day in the camp when all units had to put on a skit-parody of any video clip. Not without the help of cool counselors, we decided to show our video for the song “Eggs” by the group “Disco Accident”. And here we are on stage: eight girls are standing as backup dancers, and in the middle is a guy in a chef’s costume. In front of him is a table on which lie all sorts of utensils, as well as raw vegetables and about a dozen raw eggs.

— At some point, chaos begins on stage: we, girls from the backup dancers, begin to grab eggs from the table and throw them at the false cook, who, as best he can, hides from the eggs and beats them off with a frying pan. The whole stage was covered in egg liquid, the audience applauded, and the administration screamed so loudly that it would be better if we didn’t hear it. We were sent to clean up after ourselves on the stage, disqualified, not allowed into the evening disco, and the next day we were forced to collect five bags of garbage. But this didn’t upset us at all, because all the guys from the camp came up to us and said: “Everyone understands that you were the best! It was cool! "

Madina

— When I was twelve years old, I vacationed in the Tau Turan camp with my two older sisters. Our parents are so caring that they brought us food almost every day, although they fed us very well there. It turned out that we couldn’t really rest there!

“And also, since I was in the camp for the first time, I was placed with my sisters in the most senior detachment. I, like a very amorous girl, fell in love with a new adult boy every day.

— I’ve been to the camp many times. I think that I managed to check in at all the camps in our city. The most memorable for me was the Romantic camp. It was a camp where we were fed terribly, slept with huge bugs and spiders over our beds, but despite this, it was always the best because it had an amazing atmosphere, good counselors and a fun program. This is probably why, when I found myself there for the first time, the next five times I went exclusively to “Romantic”. And this despite the fact that they fed us there almost sandwiches with mayonnaise.

“And this was also the first and last time I worked as a counselor.” It turned out to be very difficult. We only slept for three or four hours. There was a planning meeting at six o’clock in the morning, and we didn’t go to bed until about two in the morning, because after lights out we were “hanging out” with the counselors. So we sat at the planning meeting, putting matches in our eyes, and then prepared ourselves mentally for the whole day, because for the kids we always had to be the most cheerful and proactive!

Kate

— My childhood was also spent in the camp. Only I always went to the same one, although I can’t remember its name now. And, to be honest, I didn’t start going there of my own free will. At first I didn’t like it there, but then they couldn’t take me out of there! My relatives also came to see me almost every day and fed me.

“I remember that in the morning we went to douse ourselves with ice water as a group. And in the last year of my stay at the camp, I had love. It was a boy who told me about the seven wonders of the world. This is exactly what struck me. I thought he was very smart.

Suddenly Anastasia remembered another story, which she immediately told us:

“I just once also vacationed at Romantika and remembered the most brilliant competition!” I don’t know if they came up with it on purpose, or simply because the camp was very dirty that season, but the competition was like this: which squad would collect the most garbage.

- By God, this was the only time in my life when we tried to steal each other’s dirty candy wrappers, bags of chips and generally all sorts of nasty things! We went into every nook and cranny just to find at least one plug that was stuck in the ground. Moreover, the administrators organized this at the end of the season, so that they themselves would have to clean less. Every time I remember this, I think about how great they are!

Do you, dear readers, have any stories from the camp? We'd love to know them!

We thank the Vzletnaya project for providing the location for filming the report.

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Children drink vodka, fight with counselors and have sex. After the story of a student who underwent teaching practice while working as a counselor in one of the departmental children's recreation camps, it becomes scary to let your children go on this so-called vacation.

Little kids are little troubles

"- This year I resolutely refused to work with 14-16 year old “pioneers”, because such shifts are like a descent into hell. Moreover, every year the kids become more and more impudent and uncontrollable. Ten-year-olds are also not sugar, but at least they are still They are shy in front of the authority of their elders. It’s not just milk for the leaders of older detachments - they must be awarded medals when at the end of the shift the entire detachment remains alive, including for the fact that they endured and did not kill someone, because there is nothing. there is not enough pedagogical patience.

Everyone drinks

It’s true – in modern-style “pioneer camps” both counselors and children drink. Everything is done in secret. Moreover, drunkenness and alcoholism have generally been the leaders’ “favorite” disease since Soviet times. Our senior teacher, who has been working in the camp every summer for thirty years (in civilian life he is a school teacher), said that in terms of entertainment for the teaching staff, nothing has changed: a couple of hours after lights out, when the bashi-bazouks calm down, everyone gathered around the fire and Of course, they weren’t drinking tea. But the children didn’t drink before. Nowadays, a vomited bed or toilet is a common occurrence. They don’t know how to drink, they just want to show how grown up they are. And it is impossible to stop this process. We rummage through bedside tables, bags, cabinets - they still manage to take them out and hide them. The camp is close to Minsk, and the comrades left at home are not even bringing beer - vodka. Why, they got the hang of making mash on the spot. Moreover, girls drink no less willingly than boys. When these drunken lolitas are lying around and moaning in a hangover, it is especially fascinating to hear from their parents accusations that their daughters were such positive excellent students and were not noticed in anything like that, which means that it is the counselors who are to blame for the fact that the girls have deteriorated so much.
Dear parents, you are very, very naive people if you think that you know everything or at least half about your children. They are cunning, secretive and very resourceful. Therefore, your child at home is not the same person as at school, in the yard or at camp.

Smoking

“Cigarettes are a real scourge of modern holiday camps. Starting from the age of 12-13, almost everyone smokes. With girls it’s better in this regard, of course, but not much: the desire to please boys who smoke plays a bad joke on them and, in order to join the company, they too they begin to “tar”.

We take away cigarettes, fine them for afternoon snacks, force them to clean the camp area, don’t let them into discos—they still smoke. I remember that once a few years ago an inspection came to us from the Ministry of Education; they had some kind of competition against smoking in the camps.

So we almost on our knees begged the “pioneers” not to smoke for at least one day, they forced us to lick the entire territory of the camp so that not a single cigarette butt could be found. And my friend had an anecdotal incident before this event: in his unit, a boy drew well, he was assigned to paint posters about the dangers of smoking, for which he was allowed to stay awake during quiet hours. The counselor comes and sees an oil painting: the artist is sitting at a table on the street, finishing the poster “Cigarettes are death!”, without taking the cigarette out of his teeth.

Love and sex

Previously, romance in a pioneer camp meant flowers, romantic notes and a timid kiss during the farewell bonfire. Nowadays, kids don’t waste any time on these unnecessary courtships. At the evening disco you now need to make sure that couples do not wander off into the bushes.

After lights out - so that they don’t go to each other’s rooms, because the presence of several neighbors does not stop modern accelerators. But patrolling doesn’t really help either - the buildings are one-story, you can’t stand under the windows all night (although this has happened), and “sweet couples” were more than once caught in the process of sexual intercourse. The girls are promiscuous and pester the counselors. But for us this is a taboo, we only establish relationships with our own, the counselors, because the “pioneer girls” are minors and they only cause problems.

And the boys are no better: a few years ago they stopped putting female counselors in senior squads after one 16-year-old idiot attempted to rape his teacher during quiet time. There was a scandal in one of the neighboring camps: a fifteen-year-old “pioneer” left pregnant after two shifts in a row. And now at squad meetings we not only exhort people to abstain, but also remind them to use condoms.

Children's fun

What kind of nightly application of paste are we talking about? Modern counselors can only dream of such innocent pranks. Although there was once a case when the girls did smear the boys with paste. And now toothpastes are not the same as in the past, they are nuclear, super-whitening, stuffed with all sorts of chemicals. In general, one boy had a three-letter swear word written on his forehead in paste. And his skin gave a strong allergic reaction, so then he even slept in a baseball cap until the end of his shift, because the inscription did not disappear. Sewing with threads to a mattress or a falling ceiling are also uninteresting entertainments for today’s “pioneers.” But to squeeze and undress a girl in the toilet - that’s welcome, as much as you like.
There is no way to fight swearing at all. Senior detachments, as in the old joke, do not swear at them, they speak it. “These “pioneers” are violet in everything they are trying to introduce them to. They are lazy, they are not interested in anything except playing on phones, computers or pocket game consoles, lying in bed or on a blanket in the fresh air. Boys can sometimes play football.

But any attempt to attract someone to something often meets with decisive resistance. The children refer to the fact that they came here to relax, and not to collect cones or invent skits.
Every event is hard labor. Watching TV brings the most sincere joy - if this item is excluded from the program, the children will simply rebel.

No, there are, of course, active children who are interested in games, wall newspapers, and competitions between squads. We encourage these, we allow them to stay awake during quiet time, for example, we get them a double afternoon snack or compote during lunch.

Fights and squabbles

This is another danger for senior squad leaders. Children fight in such a way that they can be seriously injured. And girls are ahead of boys in this matter.

Last summer, two beauties did not share a guy. They decided to investigate on the roof of the building. And one pushed the other down. Fortunately, there are pine needles there, the building is one-story. But the arm was broken.

Another problem is when guys go wall to wall. They find the reasons, it’s not difficult - the older squad said to the younger ones: “Hey, you puppies!” They were offended and challenged the offenders to a fight. It was not possible to prevent the fight, and not only did they walk around with black eyes and wounds, but also for a week everyone was deprived of afternoon snacks, discos and went to bed an hour earlier.

What’s funny is that there was a boy in one of these detachments who didn’t get into the fight, either his parents came to see him or something else. But out of a sense of solidarity, all week he punished himself in the same way as his comrades were punished.
On the counselor’s forum I read a story about how a ten-year-old boy ran after girls with a knife across their body, for which he was immediately expelled from the camp, because it was unknown what inclinations could later manifest themselves in this “child.”

Theft

If previously they mostly stole sweets brought by their parents from bedside tables, now children have a lot of quite expensive equipment - phones, players, computers. Thefts become more active towards the end of the shift: in the camp itself you won’t be able to use stolen goods, and there’s nowhere to hide them - the counselors have the right to check all personal belongings.

So this is only for parents and inspection authorities: children's camps are a heavenly place where the worst thing that can happen is a cold dinner. But in fact, there is sometimes such chaos going on there that one would like to limit the “camp” age to 12 years...

Tatiana Prudinnik

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0 0 One morning in one camp, children wake up and go for morning exercises. And then they see that on the sports ground, under a basketball basket, leaning his back against an iron post, a homeless man is sitting. It sits and smells. Well, of course, they began to curse at him and chase him away. But the homeless man did not move. He turned out to be a dead homeless person.
They called an ambulance, but they refused to take the stinking homeless man and told him to cope without them. The children then decided, and the adults supported them, that they should bury the homeless man themselves.
By evening they dug a grave. A "pioneer fire" was lit. Musicians gathered to perform a funeral march. The musicians were children who went to music school. Various instruments were collected for them: two guitars, one drum, one trumpet and one accordion were found.
None of the musicians knew how to perform a funeral march. Then they decided to play something in the rap style. One boy came up with rap verses about this homeless man. They say what a hard life this man had, that he couldn’t stand it and broke down, started drinking vodka, and then sold his apartment, and then died, and that’s good, because he finally got rest and peace. In the second verse it was about the childhood of a homeless person, about the fact that he, too, was once small and rested in camps, studied at school, but this did not help him, and now he finally received rest and peace.
The musicians started playing a funeral rap. One boy, the author of poetry, sang a rap, and one girl helped him, beautifully saying in the chorus: “Rest and peace, rest and peace, rest and peace, na-na na-na na.” All the spectators really liked it. It turned out both beautiful and sad. When the song ended, they asked me to perform it again. And no one refused. Viewers took out their phones and began filming videos.
When the song ended, they finally remembered the homeless man. But he was not in the box that represented the coffin. The box itself lay on its side. Either the homeless man himself woke up and ran away, or someone kidnapped him for fun while everyone was listening to the funeral rap. The homeless man was never found, the funeral did not take place.
One girl began to cry. She was asked: “What’s the matter?” She said that she remembered that there is such a sign: if the funeral did not take place, then it is very bad, someone will die soon. And then all the children in the camp were seized with fear...
A few days later, the children wake up in the morning and go for morning exercises. And then they see that a boy is hanging on a basketball basket, the one who composed the poems for the funeral rap. The boy's face is blue, his hands are tied behind his back, and there is a sign hanging on his chest: “I will show you rest and peace!!!”

The Village correspondent Valya Aseeva walked through Moscow schools and collected the most terrible stories that children told each other in camps this summer. The editors are not responsible for what may happen to you after reading these stories.

About the spirit of Regina, who brings peace to children

DANA,
13 years old, children's recreation center "Zhigulevsky Artek"

One day a girl named Regina came to the camp. She was not very sociable: she argued with everyone and was generally nasty. She often ran away from the building and did not obey. Every time she quarreled with someone, she would run to the swing that stood on the playground in the camp and swing on it. So, when she quarreled with her friend, she, as usual, ran off to ride on the swing. At first no one noticed that she was missing. But by evening the whole camp was looking for her; after several hours of searching, the counselor remembered where Regina was going and ran to the swing, but when she got there, neither the swing nor Regina was there. Many years have passed, Regina has not been found, there are rumors that Regina's spirit walks around the camp, and if someone quarrels, she comes to these people at night and looks into their eyes, after which the children cannot sleep until they sincerely apologize.

About the ghost photo

KATE,
16 years old, Gorky Children's Palace

A girl arrived at the camp, her name was Olesya. One day everyone went to an event, but she didn’t want to go and hid so as not to be seen. And so it happened. Everyone has left, she sits alone. Then rumors circulated around the camp about maniacs who came to the camp. She sat there, had nothing to do, went into the forest (it was an evening event, and it was already dark). She was walking, and suddenly someone’s hands grabbed her - she didn’t even have time to scream. Well, these freaks raped her and ran away, the poor girl, unable to scream, crawled on her knees towards the building, could not get there, and died right in front of the building. Now, when you take pictures near the two-story building (where the little ones always live), it appears in the photographs.

About the mark on the asphalt

LERA,
11 years old, Gorky Children's Palace

Once upon a time a boy and a girl came to the camp. The boy really fell in love with this girl. He looked after her the entire shift. And the girl humiliated him and commanded him. She says: “Jump!” - he jumps. He says: “Dance” - he dances. And then the end of the shift came. The boy thought that the girl would at least now say a few kind words to him, but she slapped him in the face in front of everyone. The boy was very ashamed: out of sadness and even anger, he burned a mark on the asphalt. This trace still exists on the central alley, although the asphalt has been re-laid several times. And now the ghost of this boy sometimes appears, he walks along the central alley, reaches the trail and appears behind the fence.

About the pioneer in black tie

LERA,
11 years old, Gorky Children's Palace

One day a boy came to camp. He wore black clothes all the time, and had a pioneer tie around his neck. Nobody was friends with him. And then one day a group of friends came up to him and said: “If you complete our task, you and I will be friends.” The boy agreed. At night they left the camp. They tell him: “You need to jump away from the train when it gets very close.” And then the first train was coming, the boy got scared and jumped away when the train was still very far away. They tell him: “That won’t do.” The second train is coming, the boy pulled back a little closer to the train. They tell him: “That won’t work either, let’s do it again!” The third train is coming, the boy’s leg got stuck in the rails, and he was crushed by the train. Now the ghost of the boy comes every day after the rain at 23:00. He walks throughout the camp. Then he walks along the central alley, disappears and then appears behind the gate.

About the cleaning lady's lover

VETCH,
15 years old, “Burevestnik” recreation center

We have an old toilet in the camp - “Zelyonka”. So: a few years ago there was a meeting between a cleaning lady and her boyfriend, he was with flowers, everything was as it should be. But when he arrived, he discovered the corpse of his beloved. A bouquet of roses remained at this place.
And since then, every month on a certain date at a certain time, the ghost of this gentleman walks around the camp in a black cloak and with an ax and looks for his beloved among the cleaning women.

About SIM card "MTS"

ANYA,
12 years old, Gvozdika COLLEGE

We lived in the fourth building. First, we had a size 40 mark on our ceiling. Well, we looked at the ceiling a hundred times, and it was not there. Everything would have been fine if something else hadn’t happened a couple of days later! First, my roommate found an MTS SIM card on her bed, which lay perfectly flat, which is basically impossible. The next day I found a Life SIM card, which, by the way, also lay perfectly flat, which is basically impossible, because it was before the disco, my nightstand was such a mess! Like in a garbage dump. And if we didn’t notice them, then we are blind! And before quiet time, under the mattress (where I always looked very well) I found a memory card! When we looked at what was on the map, we were shocked! It was all stupid about Minecraft!

About the hanged girl

SASHA,
12 years old, school "Vympel"

In our camp, in Vympel, a girl once hanged herself because she did not want to leave there, and the building in which she hanged herself was closed. But still her spirit walks around the camp at night and smiles and waves her hand in greeting, but she appears so unexpectedly and out of nowhere that it becomes scary. We call her the white girl because she wears a white dress and has chin-length bangs. What’s most important is that it’s real, because I and many other guys from my squad and other squads, even the counselors, saw her.

About the bride in the sheet

NASTYA,
17 years old, Polenovo recreation center

The girls were adults, about 16 years old, telling each other horror stories about some brides, and one allegedly saw something in the window at night. Then one of the counselors decided to laugh, pulled a white sheet over herself, combed her hair over her face and began to walk in front of the windows behind the trees. The girls were very scared, the squeal was half a body length high. But then, of course, I had to confess.

About an abandoned camp with no exit

ANYA,
11 years old, DOL "Premiere"

This is a legend about an abandoned camp. When everyone goes to the sea to swim, they pass it all the time. They say that all the teachers there died in one day, and children now walk there, looking for a way out, but there is no way out. These children are walking, some teachers' souls are too, and the director's skeleton is sitting. From there you can hear sounds, rustling, and sometimes laughter.

About naughty pioneers

JRA,
11 years old, Robin Hood Children's Center

We had a house there, abandoned, and we all thought that ghosts lived there, because at night there was always a window knocking, lights turning on and off, doors creaking and everything. We had a legend that a very old counselor worked there and there were such disobedient pioneers that she hanged herself because they didn’t listen to her. Nobody ever went there anymore because her ghost haunted it.

About the unlucky sports corps

JRA,
11 years old, Robin Hood Children's Center

They say that our old sports building on the camp grounds was unlucky. Everyone who played there received all sorts of fractures, bruises, and abrasions. Every time. And that's why it was demolished. There was only a rusty fence left. And they built a new one, where more or less this did not exist. But still, everyone is afraid to go there, because they are afraid that they will trip as soon as they enter.

About a rich but crazy man

VETCH,
13 years old, “Pearl Coast” recreation center

Our camp was located in the old place, there were even prehistoric buildings there. One building in which we lived was called “Ledontju”. A long time ago, one of the rich men lived there. He never had a family or children. He always dreamed about this and once found a family for himself, but soon went crazy due to circumstances in his life. Well, in general, I became poor. And soon he killed his daughter and wife. After that, every night, since the camp was built, he walks around and scares the children. Opens the windows, knocks on the floor. Our lights went out very often. The switch was twitching on its own, but we thought it was the counselors scaring us!

About an abandoned mental hospital

NASTYA,
12 years old, Orlyonok Children's School

We once went for a walk in the forest near the camp, and ran away during a disco. It was already dark, and there the fence was broken, and anyone could crawl through. We saw some tall guy with black hair and white clothes - at first we thought that someone was playing tricks. But then it became clear that he had been playing around like this all week... He was running like this from tree to tree. We were scared, one girl even cried, and we went back to the room. And the next day someone found information that he comes once every twenty years. I don’t know whether this is true or not, but I somehow don’t believe that whoever saw him first will be killed in three months, and whoever is second will be killed in a month. I've seen him many times. One girl was actually calmed down by a psychologist.

Legend of the Ninth Floor

DARIA,
13 years old, DOL "VKS"

I want to tell you about a horror story called “The Legend of the Ninth Floor.” In our camp, the building has only eight floors of residential space. The ninth was always closed, no one knew why. And there were rumors that one boy (well, there was a strict rule in the camp - never go out onto the balcony) did not listen to the senior counselor Olga, went out onto the balcony, and the balcony, since the building was old, collapsed, and the boy died. And he lived just on this ninth floor. They say his soul still wanders there. That's why the ninth floor is always closed. From the ninth floor, many units hear creaking doors and various other phenomena. But no one saw the ghost.

About bloody hands

GLEB,
13 years old, "Mayak" children's school

The counselors called this story “Bloody Revenge.” The story is this: in the 60s, ten years before the opening of the camp, an orphanage was built nearby. And usually the orphanage residents walked around the camp, picking wild berries. One of the girls climbed over the fence and went to look there. And those who were in the camp seemed to beat her and throw her over the fence. The guys from the orphanage found her and decided to take revenge... They picked up pitchforks, axes, knives - anything - and went to the camp. At one o'clock in the morning we heard people screaming. The whole camp became agitated, and the orphanage residents began to kill them, one by one. 40 people died. After that, every year after one in the morning the screams of the dead are heard. Until now, human remains have not even been found. After one o'clock in the morning, strange sounds are heard in the camp, and bloody handprints are sometimes visible on the windows in the morning.

About lonely swings

VETCH,
13 years old, DOL Like

The story is about how two girls went to swing on a swing. Well, one just went to swing, and the other runs up to her and waits until it’s her turn. But she couldn’t wait, and the swing was big, one swung, and some side part hit the other one right in the face... She flew off, lay unconscious, and when the ambulance arrived, she could no longer be saved. And every year at midnight, almost every day, there is a swing there. And sometimes screams are heard, and sometimes she is seen walking around the camp... This was seven years ago.

About murders for disobedience

VETCH,
13 years old, DOL Like

We had many stories about the bunker. There was a bunker on the camp grounds. One of the most terrible ones was that when this bunker was found, there were people there, and they were killed, and ghosts still walk there. And one of the ghosts was released from the bunker, he walks around and kills for disobedience. They say that one girl was already killed a long time ago.

Text: Valya Aseeva

Little kids are little troubles

This year I resolutely refused to work with 14-16 year old “pioneers”, because such shifts are like a descent into hell. Moreover, every year the children become more impudent and uncontrollable. Ten-year-olds are also not great, but at least they are still timid before the authority of their elders. It’s not like milk for harmfulness to the leaders of senior detachments - medals must be awarded when the entire detachment remains alive at the end of the shift. Including for the fact that he endured and did not kill someone himself, because no pedagogical patience is enough.

Everyone drinks

It’s true - in modern-style “pioneer camps” both counselors and children drink. Everything is done secretly. Moreover, drunkenness and alcoholism are generally the leaders’ “favorite” disease since Soviet times. Our senior teacher, who has been working in the camp every summer for thirty years (in civilian life he is a school teacher), said that in terms of entertainment for the teaching staff, nothing has changed: a couple of hours after lights out, when the bashi-bazouks calm down, everyone gathered around the fire and Of course, they weren’t drinking tea.

But the children didn’t drink before. Nowadays, a vomited bed or toilet is a common occurrence. They don’t know how to drink, they just want to show how grown up they are. And it is impossible to stop this process.

We rummage through bedside tables, bags, cabinets - they still manage to take them out and hide them. The camp is close to Minsk, and the comrades left at home are not even bringing beer - vodka. Why, they got the hang of making mash on the spot.

Moreover, girls drink no less willingly than boys. When these drunken lolitas are lying around and moaning in a hangover, it is especially fascinating to hear from their parents accusations that their daughters were such positive excellent students and were not noticed in anything like that, which means that it is the counselors who are to blame for the fact that the girls have deteriorated so much.

Dear parents, you are very, very naive people if you think that you know everything or at least half about your children. They are cunning, secretive and very resourceful. Therefore, your child at home is not the same person as at school, in the yard or at camp.

Smoking

Cigarettes are a real scourge of modern holiday camps. Starting from the age of 12-13, almost everyone smokes.

It’s better with girls in this regard, of course, but not much: the desire to please smoking boys plays a bad joke on them and, in order to join the company, they also begin to “tar.” We take away cigarettes, fine them for afternoon snacks, force them to clean the camp area, don’t let them into discos - they still smoke.

I remember that once a few years ago an inspection came to us from the Ministry of Education; they had some kind of competition against smoking in the camps. So we almost on our knees begged the “pioneers” not to smoke for at least one day, they forced us to lick the entire territory of the camp so that not a single cigarette butt could be found.

And my friend had an anecdotal incident before this event: in his unit, a boy drew well, he was assigned to paint posters about the dangers of smoking, for which he was allowed to stay awake during quiet hours. The counselor arrives and sees an oil painting: the artist is sitting at a table on the street, finishing painting the poster “Cigarettes are death!”, without taking the cigarette out of his teeth.

Love and sex

Previously, romance in a pioneer camp meant flowers, romantic notes and a timid kiss during the farewell bonfire. Nowadays, kids don’t waste any time on these unnecessary courtships.

At the evening disco you now need to make sure that couples do not wander off into the bushes. After lights out - so that they don’t go to each other’s rooms, because the presence of several neighbors does not stop modern accelerators. But patrolling doesn’t really help either - the buildings are one-story, you can’t stand under the windows all night (although this has happened), and “sweet couples” were more than once caught in the process of sexual intercourse.

The girls are promiscuous and pester the counselors. But for us this is a taboo, we only establish relationships with our own, the counselors, because the “pioneer girls” are minors and they only cause problems. And the boys are no better: a few years ago they stopped putting female counselors in senior squads after one 16-year-old idiot attempted to rape his teacher during quiet time.

There was a scandal in one of the neighboring camps: a fifteen-year-old “pioneer” left pregnant after two shifts in a row. And now at squad meetings we not only exhort people to abstain, but also remind them to use condoms.

Children's fun

What kind of nightly application of paste are we talking about? Modern counselors can only dream of such innocent pranks.

Although there was once a case when the girls did smear the boys with paste. And now toothpastes are not the same as in the past, they are nuclear, super-whitening, stuffed with all sorts of chemicals. In general, one boy had a three-letter swear word written on his forehead in paste. And his skin gave a strong allergic reaction, so then he even slept in a baseball cap until the end of his shift, because the inscription did not disappear.

Sewing with threads to a mattress or a falling ceiling are also uninteresting entertainments for today’s “pioneers.” But to squeeze and undress a girl in the toilet is welcome, as much as you like.

There is no way to fight swearing at all. Senior detachments, as in the old joke, do not swear at them, they speak it.

Camp activities

These “pioneers” are violet in everything they are trying to introduce them to. They are lazy, they are not interested in anything other than playing on phones, computers or pocket game consoles, lying in bed or on a blanket in the fresh air. Boys can sometimes play football.

But any attempt to attract someone to something often meets with decisive resistance. The children refer to the fact that they came here to relax, and not to collect cones or invent skits.

Every event is hard labor. Watching TV brings the most sincere joy - if this item is excluded from the program, the children will simply rebel.

No, there are, of course, active children who are interested in games, wall newspapers, and competitions between squads. We encourage these, we allow them to stay awake during quiet time, for example, we get them a double afternoon snack or compote during lunch.

Fights and squabbles

This is another danger for senior squad leaders. Children fight in such a way that they can be seriously injured. And girls are ahead of boys in this matter.

Last summer, two beauties did not share a guy. They decided to investigate on the roof of the building. And one pushed the other down. Fortunately, there are pine needles there, the building is one-story. But the arm was broken.

Another problem is when guys go wall to wall. They find the reasons, it’s not difficult - the senior detachment said to the younger ones: “Hey, you puppies!” They were offended and challenged the offenders to a fight. It was not possible to prevent the fight, and not only did they walk around with black eyes and wounds, but also for a week everyone was deprived of afternoon snacks, discos and went to bed an hour earlier.

What’s funny is that there was a boy in one of these detachments who didn’t get into the fight, either his parents came to see him or something else. But out of a sense of solidarity, all week he punished himself in the same way as his comrades were punished.

On the counselor’s forum I read a story about how a ten-year-old boy ran after girls with a knife across their body, for which he was immediately expelled from the camp, because it was unknown what inclinations could later manifest themselves in this “child.”

Theft

If previously they mostly stole sweets brought by parents from bedside tables, now children have a lot of quite expensive equipment - phones, players, computers. Thefts become more active towards the end of the shift: in the camp itself you won’t be able to use stolen goods, and there’s nowhere to hide them - the counselors have the right to check all personal belongings.

So this is only for parents and inspection authorities: children's camps are a heavenly place where the worst thing that can happen is a cold dinner. But in fact, there is sometimes such chaos going on there that one would like to limit the “camp” age to 12 years...