Abstract

The problem of children’s summer vacations became particularly acute in the USSR at the beginning of the 1960s, due to a number of reasons. A large number of children in the cities, an increase in juvenile crime etc. are some of the them. The 21st Congress of the CPSU in 1959 set the task of involving schoolchildren in production activities and, at the same time, it was the starting point for increasing the number of children’s camps. In 1960 afterschool care groups were set up to supervise children in school. In the summer, supervision was provided by camps, however their number was not enough to satisfy demand. Pioneer camps were predominantly built and maintained at the expense of large factories and trade unions. The Komsomol organisations played an active role in the functioning of the camps. They were engaged in the training of counselors, development of methodical instructions for extracurricular work. Creation of new camps became an additional line of work for them. The Komsomol budget in the 1960s and 1970s was very modest, as its source was mainly membership fees. This led to close cooperation between the Komsomol and house management, collective farms and schools. The Komsomol organisations promoted the creation of such camps, the maintenance of which did not require large financial investments. The author, relying upon a wide range of sources (documents of the Secretariat, the Bureau and the school departments of the Central Committee of the Komsomol, preserved in the fonds of the RGASPI), highlights a number of problems in this area in the 1960s and 1970s. The reports of Komsomol committees clearly show that they attempted various forms of summer recreation for children while searching for financial resources. In particular, the Central Committee of the Komsomol recommended that children should be involved in economic activities during the summer holidays. Thus, a characteristic feature of labour and rest, school, industrial, sports camps and camps for Komsomol activists established in the 1960s and 1970s was their tendency to be selfsufficient.