On the website of the Russian children’s library hosted the premiere of the documentary “Artek temper” Tatiana Miroshnik.
In the days of the 75-th anniversary of Victory to show it on TV failed. The heroes of the movie are the elderly, who are children in June 1941, went across the country in the main young pioneer camp “Artek”. Their shift lasted for more than four years and turned into a great trip to the Soviet Union. Their parents children saw soon.
after Learning about this unusual story in the newspaper, Tatiana Miroshnik immersed in the study material, planned to shoot a feature film “Diary of a leader”. It’s her family: her father is producer Vladimir Esin – did a trilogy with an unusual name “Private pioneer”. Tatyana money on your project not found and decided to shoot a documentary picture, on which work lasted for three years. A few months with her colleagues, she was looking for in Estonia of former Artek campers. Found three, but only two agreed to recall its pioneer past. With them and the story begins. 92-year-old Victor Keskkula from Tallinn and 90-year-old Ethel Aasma living in Paide in the boarding house for the elderly, was found in April 2019. They had not seen for over thirty years, even though I live a hundred kilometers from each other.
the management of the boarding house where Ethel lives in its fourth year, was not allowed the film crew to meet with her, citing age and health condition of the ward. But the authors of the film found in social networks of her grandson, called Ethel, which she decided all questions with a management of boarding house. She has a great memory. She remembers all the names and details of children’s travel in the Soviet Union.
Former pioneers themselves surprised are still alive. On the screen – a 96-year-old Valentin Williamso, who was a pioneer in the 1940s. Ethel Aasma 15 June 1941 went to “Artek” together with nine girls and fifteen boys from Estonia. The Russian language did not know, and the first words learned is “eat”, “sleep”, “fool”. In the Crimea for the first time tasted the grapes. The only thing they bothered, is unknown buckwheat. Ethel recalls: “It was brown, ugly. Gave it to the dogs.”
on 22 June, the children learned about the beginning of the war. For guys from the Caucasus and Central Asia came to parents. Those who were from the Baltic States, Western Ukraine and Moldova (in total about 300 children from the Western part of the USSR), headed by the leaders (there were only four) 5 Jul evacuated from the Crimea in the suburbs. Went there by train, located in the estate grandmother Lermontov “novice.” The front was approaching, and I had to go to Stalingrad, and then in the city itself, where they lived from November 1941 to may 1942, met the New year at a pine in the absence of a Christmas tree. But Stalingrad was bombed. First took refuge in the basement, and then go to the steppe. T��now Ethel recalls how bloom there cherry. Children fished, cooked, engaged in weeding, washing clothes. During breaks between the bombing, they were taken by truck and ship in Kamyshin, Ufa, Biysk, along with belongings – pots, pans, trousers. Endpoint military transit was Belokurikha. Along the way someone took the parents were in evacuation in the Urals. On Altai left 200 children. In Belokurikha they came as foreigners. Only one was not then in the Altai – Estonian, Kazakh, German from Kiev… Their new classmate guy Averchenko, now living in Tver, says that the Artek campers were not at all as local children: better dressed, always well-fed in contrast to the starving village children. Local painted beetroot and soot, diluted with milk, and the Artek campers had crayons, some in Belokurikha he has never seen.
in Addition to stories of eyewitnesses, the Museum employees of the Altai, the film used footage of the 1940s, where children are involved in adult Affairs, chopping wood. All the crumbs. A little more than an ax.
In January 1945, the Estonian guys left the camp in the Altai. Ethel recalls how her house was met by a small sister. In 1972 she wrote a book in Estonian about how survived. Helped own diaries and letters of the Artek campers. And illustrated book of the Estonian artist Kalo Polly. He Artek resident 40s. But now he tells his son.
Recalls the longest shift and a 91-year-old Muscovite Valentina Babel – woman of rare beauty and nobility. She went to the Crimea after the fifth class for 45-day tour. Managed to give an interview and died shortly after filming. Children overcame 7750 km, their evacuation lasted for 432 days. In General, the change amounted to 1301 day was the longest in the history of the main young pioneer camps of the Soviet Union.
