Young Pioneer camp was the name for the vacation or summer camp of Young Pioneers. In the 20th century these camps existed in many socialist countries, particularly in the Soviet Union.

The Young Pioneer camps of the Soviet Union were the place of vacation for children from the Young Pioneer organization of the Soviet Union during summer and winter holidays. The first All-Union Young Pioneer camp, Artek was formed on June 16 1925. The Young Pioneer camp phenomenon grew in popularity and in the USSR there existed approximately fourty thousand Young Pioneer camps in 1973. Approximately 9,300,000 children had a vacations in these camps that year. There were different types of camps: sanitation camps, sports camps, tourist camps, thematic camps (for young technicians, young naturalists, young geologists and children of other potential careers). Generally speaking if parents wanted their child or children to go to one of these Young Pioneer camps, they had to pay a fee to apply for accomodation in the camp. However, typically the state organization were the parent worked "sponsored" the child by alloting the worker's child a place in the camp free of charge to the parent or parents as an incident to the parent's employment.

The main Young Pioneer camps of the Soviet Union were All-Union Young Pioneer camp Artek and republican camps: Orlyonok (in the Russian SFSR), Molodaya Gvardiya (in the Ukrainian SSR), Zubryonok (in the Belorussian SSR). It was very difficult to apply for accomodation to the main camps, especially to Artek, as they were very popular.

See also

• Young Pioneer organization of the Soviet Union
• Artek