Water tower at the former Mechta camp (Krasnaya Dubrava)

The water tower at the former Mechta children's camp is a small Soviet-era utility structure in the village of Krasnaya Dubrava, Orekhovo-Zuyevo district, Moscow Oblast. It stands next to the grounds of the old Mechta ("Dream") summer camp and appears to be still in service.

The tower

The platform carrying the tank is about 10–12 metres above the ground. The steel ladders are sturdy, built to last in the Soviet way, and have kept their strength over the decades. According to the author of the listing, the tower works and serves as a backup water supply for a site nearby.

Towers like this were built at children's camps, holiday homes and small settlements: the tank on top stores water and keeps pressure in the pipes when the pumps are off. Many of them have outlived the camps they served and remain visible landmarks among the trees and village houses.

Mechta camp

The Mechta children's camp in Krasnaya Dubrava was run as a Young Pioneer camp. When it opened and closed could not be found in open sources, and the present state of its grounds is barely described. It should not be confused with the abandoned Voskhod pioneer camp on the Klyazma near the village of Gridino, which is a different place in the same district.

Krasnaya Dubrava village

The village appears in written records from 1784 under the name Dubrova, from an old word for a forest of a single tree species. In 1926 it had 736 residents in 160 households and was the centre of the Barsko-Dubrovsky village council. It was renamed Krasnaya Dubrava in the 1940s. Until the 2006 municipal reform it belonged to the Demikhovo rural district, then to the Demikhovo rural settlement; the 2010 census counted 420 residents. The village centre lies about 125 metres above sea level.

Getting there

Krasnaya Dubrava lies west of Orekhovo-Zuyevo, on road 46K-7060, and a scheduled bus runs there from Orekhovo-Zuyevo. The tower is in use, so do not climb its ladders or enter fenced ground: it is best viewed from outside.