Scouting and Guiding in Russia: Difference between revisions

In 1908, [[Robert Baden-Powell, 1st Baron Baden-Powell|Baden-Powell]]'s book ''Scouting for Boys'' came out in Russia by the order of [[Tsar]] [[Nicholas II of Russia|Nicholas II]]. It was called ''Young Scout'' (Юный Разведчик, ''Yuny Razvedchik''). On April 30 1909, a young officer, Colonel [[Oleg Pantyukhov]], organized the first Russian Scout troop ''Beaver'' (Бобр, ''Bobr'') in [[Pavlovsk]], a town near [[Tsarskoye Selo]]. In 1910, Baden-Powell visited Nicholas II in Tsarskoye Selo and they had a very pleasant conversation, as the Tsar remembered it. In 1914, Pantyukhov established a [[society]] called ''Russian 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 into [[Siberia]], and by 1916, there were about 50,000 Scouts in Russia. Nicholas' son [[Tsarevich]] [[Tsarevich Alexei of Russia|Aleksei]] was a Scout himself.  

In Soviet Russia the Scouting system started to be replaced by [[Scouting#Breakaway and nonaligned organisations|ideologically-altered Scoutlike organizations]], such as "ЮК" ("Юные Коммунисты", or ''young communists''; pronounced as ''yuk''), that were created since 1918. There was a purge of the Scout leaders, many of whom perished under the [[Bolsheviks]]. Those Scouts who did not wish to accept the new [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] system either left Russia for good, like Pantyukhov and others, or went underground. However, [[Clandestine operation|clandestine]] Scouting did not last long. On May 19, 1922 all of those newly created organizations were united into the [[Young Pioneer organization of the Soviet Union]], which existed until 1990. From that date, Scouting in the [[Soviet Union|USSR]] was banned.

Russian Scouting eventually split into two organizations over ideological differences. These are the modern-day '''[[National Organization of Russian Scouts (Scouts-in-Exile)|National Organization of Russian Scouts]]''' (NORS) and '''[[Organization of Russian Young Pathfinders (Scouts-in-Exile)|Organization of Russian Young Pathfinders]]''' (ORYuR/ОРЮР). As neither organization was created ''ex nihilo'', they may both be considered legitimate successors to the ''Русский Скаут'' heritage.

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.  

The [[Scout Motto]] is ''Будь готов'' (Bud' Gotov, ''Be Prepared'' in [[Russian language|Russian]]. The Russian noun for a single Scout is ''Скаут'', but can alternately be ''Разведчик'' or ''Навигатор'' depending on the organization. As ''Разведчик'' also carries the connotation of ''spy'', now often perceived as negative in the post-Soviet period, many now refer to themselves as ''Скаут'' or ''Навигатор'', the more neutral term for the original meaning, an advance party sent to reconnoiter the terrain, similar to [[pathfinder]] or [[explorer]].