How can I tell you about Artek?
It is beautiful at dawn and in the daytime.
Even if you write in a notebook,
You still can’t tell about it!
These words from an unpretentious children’s song are true. It is simply impossible to tell about Artek in a few paragraphs, just as it is impossible to describe all the beauties of Latin America in two words or to tell about Africa in passing. Yes, perhaps Artek is not a continent, but it is certainly a separate state — a country ruled by Childhood. Today Artek is a huge international children’s camp, where children from different countries come all year round. It is the center of the Children’s Universe, it is, if you like, a summer residence of arts! Why? Because for many years, this scattering of camps has been hosting the famous Artek International Film Festival, and more recently, the children’s New Wave, a competition that ignites small but very bright stars of the Russian pop music scene.
On Artek paths and beaches in summer one can meet celebrities of absolutely any size, starting from outstanding actors and singers and ending with no less famous political and public figures. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves and start the story about Artek with its origins and creators, with those who deserve a low bow and great human gratitude for the fact that the World of Childhood is not just words, it is reality, thriving on the Crimean coast and uniting the souls, hearts and smiles of millions of children.
…On November 5, 1924, all those who came to the Moscow Pioneer holiday heard the unexpected but pleasant news that very soon a camp-sanatorium would open on the Black Sea coast, which every summer would host children suffering from tuberculosis intoxication. It was about Artek, a camp created in the village of Gurzuf by the hands and thoughts of Zinovy Petrovich Solovyov — a legendary man who was the head of the Red Cross Society. The initiative was not only welcomed, but also physically supported: everyone, from the Union of Communist Youth to young pioneers, was preparing for the opening of the camp. Artek was born on June 16, 1925. Since then, the camp has been celebrating every birthday cheerfully and loudly, annually inviting more and more guests to the celebration and turning a modest event into a European-scale event.
Talking about Artek, it is impossible not to mention what amazing sights of Crimea surround it. «Artek is a whole exposition created by nature in collaboration with man. The invariable symbol of the camp is Bear Mountain Ayu-Dag, as well as Adalary twins, which are marked as White Rocks on the cartographic products resting in the pockets of tourists. The international children’s center has also become home to such a significant attraction of Ukraine as the Suuk-Su Palace. Artek residents even formed a saying about it: «Artek has Suuk-Su nestled on its nose». 
This man-made monument, created in palace style, was built in 1903. At that time there was no children’s camp, nor ten of its druzhiny. There was only a resort of the same name with the palace, founded by the widow of the famous engineer Berezin — Olga Solovieva.
In the «Cypress» camp, the imprint was left in ancient times. It is here that millions of tourists come to gaze at the ruins of the «old» Genoese fortress, built back in the XI century. Distinguished by the beauty and camp «Lazurny». Its pride is Shalyapinskaya rock, towering above the sea surface. Olga Solovyova, who at one time was the owner of this stunning Crimean corner, presented this rock to Fyodor Chaliapin. This is how it remained «Shalyapin’s».
You can talk about Artek for hours, but it is still impossible to convey in words the beauty of this unmarked on the map country of childhood. They say that here the sun shines brighter, and the sea is warmer, and the breeze is more gentle than usual, and even the stars fall three times more often, so that everyone who came to this magical land, had time to make his cherished wish. A wish that comes from childhood….