"young metro builder" - 80!

On June 3, 2025, the first shift at the children's health camp "Young Metro Builder" started. Its flag was raised to the sounds of Metrostroy's march. A wonderful summer holiday with friends has come into its own.

There would be nothing special about this event if it weren’t for the anniversary: the camp turned 80 this year. Representatives of the Council of War and Labor Veterans of Mosmetrostroy came to congratulate the guys on the double holiday: Chairman of the Council Boris Filippovich Prigoda, his first deputy Anatoly Nikolaevich Adadurov, deputy chairman and director of the Mosmetrostroy Museum named after T.V. Fedorova Pavel Yuryevich Kalinin, Chairman of the Veterans Council of the Mosmetrostroy Administration Lidiya Gurgenovna Arushanova, Chairman of the Terekomom of the Mosmetrostroy Trade Union Sergey Grigorievich Steshenko, Director of the Association “Promotion of the organization of recreation, health improvement and leisure activities for children and adolescents” Leonid Vladimirovich Podvoisky, Deputy Director of the Special Works Administration Alexander Vladimirovich Golubchikov, specialist of the Department of Social, Sports and Youth Programs Moscow Federation of Trade Unions Yulia Sergeevna Kirsanova.

While the guys were preparing for the ceremonial line-up and raising the flag, the guests toured the new club with a spacious hall and comfortable chairs, a huge stage and an almost entire wall of TV: the guys had a place to demonstrate their talents, watch films, hold competitions and quizzes in any weather. Many thanks for this to the Deputy General Director of Mosmetrostroy Vasily Grigorievich Lomakin, who oversaw everything that was recently built in the camp, and Alexander Golubchikov, who directly monitored the progress of construction.

The “Alley of Heroes” aroused genuine interest and pride. The stands along the path depict portraits and brief descriptions of the military and labor exploits of metro builders - Heroes of the Soviet Union, Hero of Russia and Heroes of Socialist Labor.

You can make a film or write a book about each of them. Today we know about this, and they fulfilled their duty, defending the country on the fronts of the Great Patriotic War, building the best metro in the world, without thinking that they would become Heroes, whose memory their descendants would carefully preserve and, using the example of their devotion to the Motherland and their work, raise their children and grandchildren.

The idea to introduce the children to the heroic metro builders belongs to the general director of Mosmetrostroy, Sergei Anatolyevich Zhukov.

The military-patriotic theme continued on stage. The guys listened carefully to Boris Prigoda and Leonid Podvoisky, who said that thousands of metro builders had gone to the front and fought heroically. 53 metro workers became heroes of the Soviet Union. One of them received the title of Hero of Russia posthumously. Metrostroevka Anna Egorova was a navigator of the 805th Aviation Regiment. The pioneer, twice Hero of the Soviet Union, fighter pilot Alexei Konstantinovich Ryazanov made 500 combat missions, conducted 97 air battles, shot down 31 aircraft himself and 16 in a group. He shot down his first German plane on June 22, 1941. A former mechanic at the Metrostroy auto repair plant, senior lieutenant Konstantin Yakovlevich Samsonov, in April 1945, commanded a battalion during the capture of Berlin and the storming of the Reichstag. In 1965, he, already a colonel, Hero of the Soviet Union, carried the Victory Banner at the parade in Moscow on May 9, 1965.

Anatoly Nikolaevich Adadurov recalled that the construction of the pioneer camp began in 1944 on the initiative of the fourth head of Metrostroy, Director General Mikhail Afanasyevich Samodurov. It was he who chose the place for the future camp in the Kaluga region on the banks of the Istya River and thought that the dining room would always have the necessary products: meat, milk, poultry, eggs, vegetables, herbs. To do this, he restored the Pobeda state farm, destroyed by the Germans, and agreed to supply food to the pioneer camp.

Today it seems unrealistic, but at that difficult time for the country, the leaders thought that post-war children - malnourished, underrested, underplayed, matured early - should have a place where they could feel like children. And on June 6, 1945, the Beryozka pioneer camp received its first shift. The guys were sent there by special personnel from the Kievsky railway station to the Balabanovo station, then transferred to Studebaker trucks equipped for transporting people. During the first Pioneer shift, 650 boys and girls rested in the camp.

"Berezka" - "Young Metro Builder" - has a rich history. Many sports competitions, football matches, concerts, and quizzes took place here. Tens of thousands of children rested and gained strength before school. Their guests were famous scientists, artists, public figures, and astronauts. Many pioneers who rested in the camp became famous metro builders, continuing the work of their fathers. For example, representatives of the famous metro construction dynasties Lidiya Arushanova and Anatoly Adadurov recalled how they had fun relaxing on the banks of Istya.

In conclusion, I want to say: the children's health camp of Mosmetrostroy is alive thanks to the titanic efforts of the general director of Mosmetrostroy, Sergei Zhukov. It was he who did not let it be sold and did everything so that the children of metro construction workers had their own recreation area.

Today we are talking not only about the health of children, but about family vacations: the demographic situation needs to be corrected. Therefore, the management of Mosmetrostroy is ready to meet the needs of its workers and employees. The plan includes the construction of new buildings designed for family recreation and an indoor swimming pool. The tradition of maintaining the health of metro construction workers, established 80 years ago, is alive!

Natalya Dolgushina