Learn Hardcore Russian: В нашем лагере у каждой палатки был маленький фонарик и простой компас. - In our camp each tent had a small flashlight and a simple compass.

в нашем лагере
- в
  - prepositional case = in / inside
- лагерь → в лагере (“in our camp”)
  This just says where something is located: in our camp.
у каждой палатки
- у
  - genitive = at / by / near / belonging to
- каждая палатка → у каждой палатки (“at each tent / each tent had”)
  With у, Russian often expresses a kind of possession or association:
- У меня есть книга. – I have a book.
- У каждой палатки был фонарик. – Each tent had a flashlight.

So:

в нашем лагере = the general location (inside the camp)
у каждой палатки = at the specific point (by each tent / belonging to each tent)

Why is it «у каждой палатки» (genitive) and not «каждая палатка» (nominative)?

The structure у + [genitive] is a standard way in Russian to say that someone/something has something.

У кого? У чего? (genitive)
- у каждой палатки – at/with each tent

The noun after у is not the grammatical subject.
The subject here is what existed / what there was:

был маленький фонарик и простой компас – there was a small flashlight and a simple compass.

If you wanted to make каждая палатка the grammatical subject, you would normally change the verb:

Каждая палатка имела маленький фонарик и простой компас.
(“Each tent had a small flashlight and a simple compass.”)

So:

У каждой палатки был фонарик… = By each tent there was a flashlight…
Каждая палатка имела фонарик… = Each tent had a flashlight…

Both are correct, but they use different grammatical constructions.

Why is the verb «был» singular when we have two things: «маленький фонарик и простой компас»? Shouldn’t it be «были»?

Both forms are possible in Russian, and you will see both:

У каждой палатки был маленький фонарик и простой компас.
У каждой палатки были маленький фонарик и простой компас.

What’s going on?

Strict agreement rule (school grammar):
When the predicate is a list (A and B), the verb is often in the plural:
- Были стол и стул.
Agreement by proximity / natural usage:
In real speech and writing, when the verb comes before the list, Russians very often put the verb in the singular and make it agree with the first noun:
- Был стол и стул.
- Был шум и гам.
- Был маленький фонарик и простой компас.

So in your sentence:

были – emphasizes the pair as a whole set.
был – is very common colloquially and agrees with the first noun (фонарик, masculine singular).

Your example with был is natural and frequently heard. Using были would also be correct and a bit more “textbook-style”.

Why is it «в нашем лагере» and not «в наш лагерь»?

The choice depends on the meaning:

в нашем лагере – prepositional case
- Answering где? – where?
- Means in/inside our camp (static location).
- That’s what we need here: In our camp, each tent had…
в наш лагерь – accusative case
- Answering куда? – where to?
- Means into our camp / to our camp (direction, movement).
- Example: Мы приехали в наш лагерь. – We arrived at our camp.

In your sentence there is no movement; it just describes a situation in the camp, so the prepositional form в нашем лагере is correct.

What is the nuance of «маленький фонарик»? How is it different from just «фонарь» or from «небольшой фонарь»?

There are two separate ideas here:

фонарик vs фонарь
- фонарь – a general word for “lamp / flashlight”.
- фонарик – a diminutive form; usually:
  - smaller, handheld thing (like a camping flashlight),
  - often sounds a bit more “informal” or “cute/affectionate”.
So in a camping context, фонарик feels very natural: a small personal flashlight.
маленький vs небольшой / малый
- маленький – plain, everyday “small / little”. Neutral, very common.
- небольшой – “not big”, often a bit more neutral/formal, can sound more descriptive and less “cute”.
- малый – more bookish / limited contexts, not just a normal “small” in modern spoken Russian.

Putting it together:

маленький фонарик – small personal flashlight; sounds very natural and colloquial.
небольшой фонарь – a not-very-large lamp/flashlight; more neutral, slightly more formal in tone.
фонарь alone doesn’t specify size or cuteness; could be large or small depending on context.

What exactly does «простой компас» mean? Is it “simple” or “ordinary”?

Простой can mean both, and context decides:

Simple (not complicated)
- No extra functions, just basic.
- простой компас = a compass that is just a simple needle-and-dial, not electronic, not multifunctional.
Ordinary / plain / not special
- Not fancy, not professional, nothing sophisticated.
- Like saying “just a basic compass”.

In a camping context, простой компас most naturally means a basic, ordinary compass, i.e. a normal, non-specialized, non-electronic compass.

Why is it «в нашем лагере» and not «в нашём лагере» with ё?

The correct spelling is нашем, with е, not нашём.

The adjective наш in the prepositional masculine/neuter singular becomes:
- о нашем лагере, в нашем доме, о нашем городе.

The letter ё appears in forms like:

нёс, шёл, жёлтый, лёд, etc.

But here, in нашем, there is no ё in standard spelling or pronunciation. It’s always нашем.

Can I change the word order? For example, say «У каждой палатки в нашем лагере был маленький фонарик и простой компас» or «Маленький фонарик и простой компас были у каждой палатки в нашем лагере»?

Yes. Russian word order is flexible, and all of these variants are possible; they just change focus a bit.

В нашем лагере у каждой палатки был маленький фонарик и простой компас.
- Starts with the general setting: In our camp…
- Then narrows down: by each tent…
- New information: there was a flashlight and a compass.
- Neutral storytelling order; very natural.
У каждой палатки в нашем лагере был маленький фонарик и простой компас.
- Starts with у каждой палатки – emphasizes that each tent had them.
- в нашем лагере becomes more like a clarifying detail.
Маленький фонарик и простой компас были у каждой палатки в нашем лагере.
- Focuses first on what there was – the items themselves.
- Then explains where/with whom they were.
- Could fit a context like:
  - “What equipment did you have in the camp?”
  - “A small flashlight and a simple compass were at each tent in our camp.”

All are grammatically fine; Russian uses word order mainly to control what’s emphasized rather than to show who is the subject and object.

Why is it «в нашем лагере» (prepositional) but «каждой палатки» (genitive)? How do the adjective endings work here?

Two different cases, two different patterns:

в нашем лагере
- Preposition в (where?) → prepositional case.
- Noun: лагерь → в лагере.
- Adjective: наш → в нашем (masculine/neuter, prepositional singular).
  Pattern: -ем for masculine/neuter adjectives in prepositional:
- в новом доме, о русском языке, в нашем лагере.
у каждой палатки
- Preposition у → genitive case.
- Noun: палатка → палатки (feminine, genitive singular).
- Adjective/pronoun: каждая → каждой (feminine, genitive singular).
  Pattern: -ой / -ей for feminine adjectives/pronouns in genitive:
- у красивой девушки, у этой палатки, у каждой палатки.

So:

нашем лагере – masculine noun in prepositional; adjective agrees: нашем.
каждой палатки – feminine noun in genitive; pronoun agrees: каждой.

What is the gender and declension of «лагерь» and «палатка», and how do we get «лагере» and «палатки»?

Лагерь

Gender: masculine (ends in a soft sign -ь, but still masculine).
Nominative singular: лагерь (a camp).
Prepositional singular: (о) лагере → в лагере, о лагере.
Pattern: many masculine nouns in -ь take -е in the prepositional:
- гость → о госте
- учитель → в учителе
- лагерь → в лагере

Палатка

Gender: feminine.
Nominative singular: палатка.
Genitive singular: палатки → у палатки.
Regular feminine -а → -ы / -и in genitive:
- книга → книги, машина → машины, палатка → палатки.

In the sentence:

в нашем лагере – prepositional of лагерь.
у каждой палатки – genitive of палатка.

Could we use «имели» instead of «был», like «каждая палатка имела маленький фонарик и простой компас»? Is that natural?

Yes, grammatically you can say:

Каждая палатка имела маленький фонарик и простой компас.

This is correct, but there is a stylistic difference:

У каждой палатки был маленький фонарик и простой компас.
- Very natural, colloquial, typical for describing what there was / what people had.
- The у + genitive + был pattern is extremely common.
Каждая палатка имела маленький фонарик и простой компас.
- Feels a bit more formal, “bookish” or technical.
- Verbs like иметь are used less often in everyday speech for possession, especially with concrete, simple things.

So yes, it’s correct, but the original sentence sounds more native and more typical in narrative style.