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Scouting in Russia comprises several dozenScout associations, based on religion, politics and geography.
In 1908,Baden-Powell's bookScouting for Boys came out in Russia by the order ofTsarNicholas II. It was calledYoung Scout (Юный Разведчик,Yuny Razvedchik). On April 30 [O.S. April 17] 1909, a young officer, ColonelOleg Pantyukhov, organized the first Russian Scout troopBeaver (Бобр,Bobr) inPavlovsk, a town nearTsarskoye Selo, St. Petersburg region. From 30 December 1910, Baden-Powell was in Russia for a week or more,[1] and visited Nicholas II in Tsarskoye Selo; they had a very pleasant conversation, as the Tsar remembered it. In 1914, Pantyukhov established asociety calledRussian Scout (Русский Скаут,Russkiy Skaut). The first Russian Scout campfire was lit in the woods of Pavlovsk Park in Tsarskoye Selo. A Russian Scout song exists to remember this event. Scouting spread rapidly across Russia and intoSiberia, and by 1916, there were about 50,000 Scouts in Russia. Nicholas' sonTsarevichAleksei was a Scout himself.
With the advent of communism after theOctober Revolution of 1917, and during theRussian Civil War from 1917 to 1922, most of the Scoutmasters and many Scouts fought in the ranks of theWhite Army and interventionists against theRed Army.
In Soviet Russia the Scouting system started to be replaced byideologically-altered Scout like organizations, such as"ЮК" ("Юные Коммунисты", oryoung communists; pronounced asyuk), that were created since 1918. There was a purge of the Scout leaders, many of whom perished under theBolsheviks. Those Scouts who did not wish to accept the newSoviet system either left Russia for good, like Pantyukhov and others, or went underground. However,clandestine Scouting did not last long. On May 19, 1922 all of those newly created organizations were united into theYoung Pioneer organization of the Soviet Union, which existed until 1990. From that date, Scouting in theUSSR was banned.
However, some features of Scouting remained in the modified form. TheScout motto "Bud' Gotov" ("Be Prepared") was modified into the Pioneer motto "Vsegda Gotov" ("Always Prepared"). Mention ofGod was removed, replaced byLenin and theCommunist Party of the Soviet Union. There were no separate organizations for girls and boys, and many new features were introduced, likeYoung Pioneer Palaces.
The organization then went into exile, and continued in many countries where fleeing White Russian émigrés settled, establishing groups inFrance,Serbia,Bulgaria,Argentina,Chile, andParaguay. A much larger mass of thousands of Russian Scouts moved throughVladivostok to the east intoManchuria and south intoChina.
Colonel Pantyukhov, Chief Scout of Russia, first resided in France and then moved to the United States, where large troops of Russian Scouts were established in cities such asSan Francisco,Burlingame, California, andLos Angeles. He returned toNice, France where he died.
Russian Scouting was recognized as a member of the World Organization of the Scout Movement, in exile, from 1928 to 1945.
Russian Scouting eventually split into two organizations over ideological differences. These are the modern-dayNational Organization of Russian Scouts (NORS) andOrganization of Russian Young Pathfinders (ORYuR/ОРЮР). As neither organization was createdex nihilo, they may both be considered legitimate successors to theРусский Скаут heritage.
The Scout movement began to reemerge and was reborn within Russia in 1990, when relaxation of government restrictions allowed youth organizations to be formed to fill the void left by the Pioneers, with various factions competing for recognition. Some former Pioneer leaders have also formed Scout groups, and there is some controversy as to their motivations in doing so.
The World Organization of the Scout Movement askedthe Scout Association of the United Kingdom to assist the Scout Organizations in the Moscow and Saint Petersburg regions. Other national Scout organizations are involved in helping other regions; theBoy Scouts of America are involved in the regions to the east of the Urals, for instance.
As with many European nations, several Scout associations were actively supporting the growth of Scouting in Russia, and served Scouts with regards to persuasion of faith, national orientation and geography.
At the end of the 1990s, several of the associations formed the All-Russian National Scouting Organisation (ARNSO) (Всероссийская Национальная Скаутская Организация (ВНСО), Vserossiyskaya Natsionalnaya Skautskaya Organizatsiya (VNSO)), guided by WOSM. In 2000, it became a member of WOSM.
14 Russian Scouts were invited to take part in the19th World Scout Jamboree in 1999.[2] Russia was represented 2003 at the20th World Scout Jamboree in Thailand.[3] 504 Scouts from the associationRussian Association of Scouts/Navigators took part in the21st World Scout Jamboree in 2007.[4]
The membership was transferred in 2004 to the RAS/N, following the disintegration of ARNSO. RAS/N is also an umbrella federation of different associations, some of them former members of ARNSO.
Russia is served by at least ten different nationwide Scouting organizations and about 30 regional and local associations.[5] Most of the nationwide organizations consist of both regional associations and directly served units - in some cases even in the same cities.
The given membership numbers of the organizations[5] are quite rough and in some cases inconsistent since no annual census is conducted.
The ten organizations with a national scale are:
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NORS-R is active in Karelia, St. Petersburg,Murmansk Oblast, Volgograd Oblast, Archangelsk Oblast,Togliatti, Novgorod Oblast, Kaliningrad Oblast, Moscow, Perm,Sverdlovsk Oblast,Ivanovo Oblast,Voronesh,Bashkortostan and Saratov.
RAS/N is active inAmur,Astrakhan,Bryansk,Chelyabinsk,Irkutsk,Kaliningrad,Kaluga,Kirov,Kostroma,Lipetsk,Magadan (which has a relationship with theWestern Alaska Council of the Boy Scouts of America),Moscow,Murmansk,Nizhny Novgorod,Rostov,Tambov,Vladimir,Voronezh, andYaroslavl Oblasts, and inAltai andPrimorsky Krais. A Eurasia Foundation grant was awarded in July 1998 to the North Eastern Scout Council of Magadan Oblast "Podvig" to develop youth organizations in Magadan Oblast.
Scouting is becoming familiar in non-Russian parts of the federation, and is being developed in several ethnic republics and subdivisions. Those where growth is documented are marked after the republic name.[15]
Republic of Adygea
Altai Republic
Republic of Bashkortostan (intermediate growth-Association of the United Scouts of the Republic ofBashkortostan (AOSRB; Ассоциация Объединённых Скаутов Республики Башкирии); 300 members)
Buryat Republic (intermediate growth)
Chechen Republic
Republic of Dagestan
Republic of Ingushetia
Kabardino-Balkar Republic
Republic of Karelia -Скауты Карелии/Scouts of Karelia.[7]
Republic of Khakassia (intermediate growth)
Komi Republic (Association of Scouts of Komi, known to have its own local Scouts by 1992)
Republic of Kalmykia
Republic of Karachay–Cherkessia
Mari El Republic (intermediate growth)
Republic of Mordovia
Republic of North Ossetia–Alania
Sakha Republic
Republic of Tatarstan
Tuva Republic
Udmurt Republic (Scout Association of the Udmurt Republic (SAUR; Скаутская Ассоциация Удмуртской республики); 1,000 members;[8])
Khanty–Mansi Autonomous OkrugThe affiliation of the following associations is unknown, or they are independent regional bodies:
Yegoryevsk Scout Organization (Егорьевская скаутская организация)TheScout Motto isБудь готов (Bud' Gotov,Be Prepared inRussian. The Russian noun for a single Scout isСкаут, but can alternately beРазведчик orНавигатор depending on the organization. AsРазведчик also carries the connotation ofspy, now often perceived as negative in the post-Soviet period, many now refer to themselves asСкаут orНавигатор, the more neutral term for the original meaning, an advance party sent to reconnoiter the terrain, similar topathfinder orexplorer.
The highest Russian Scout distinction is known as theOrder of the Bronze Beaver.
In addition, there are USA Girl Scouts Overseas inMoscow, serviced by way of USAGSO headquarters inNew York City; as well as Cub Scout Pack 3950 and Boy Scout Troop 500, both of Moscow, linked to theDirect Service branch of the Boy Scouts of America, which supports units around the world.[9]There are also British Girl Guides served byBritish Guides in Foreign Countries inSakhalin.[10]
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Early in 1991,the Scout Association and the Boy Scouts of America were asked to assist the World Bureau to encourage the development of Russian Scouting, with the UK assisting in European Russia, and the BSA assisting in Siberia. In 1991 an experimental camp was held inOdesa, Ukraine by UK Scouts. In 1992, an international training course for 17 Russian leaders was held at the International Office atGilwell Park and a study visit to Moscow and Saint Petersburg to establish direct links between British and Russian groups later in the year.
The UK support network became the Network Russia Scout Fellowship in March 2000, and continues to support Scout relationships with Russia, establishing a web-based point of contact and holding meetings twice a year to encourage developments in Russia.
