Dear Scouters!

History of Russian Scouting is so deep in years and wide in geography, we just mentioned milestones on it, you can learn more in Russian language page or from printing materials.

B-P' last message to Scouts - found in his papers after death, 1940(?).

B-P' last message to Leaders found in his papers after death, 1940(?).

UNDAUNTED-II. Scouting in Estonia. illegal version, copyright owner unknown. Permitted by Author.

UNDAUNTED-II. Scouting in Vietman. illegal version, copyright owner unknown. Permitted by Author.

UNDAUNTED-II. Scouting in Albania. illegal version, copyright owner unknown. Permitted by Author.

UNDAUNTED-II. Scouting in Lithuania. illegal version, copyright owner unknown. Permitted by Author.

 

 

Milestones of Scouting.

1809  First gymnastic playground in Braunsberg (Germany). The foundation of a gymnastic society Union of dignified laid the foundation of German and Austrian gymnastic societies.

1810   Frederich Ludvig Yan published a book “About German gymnastic art”. He also created a lot of apparatus, which laid the foundation of present-day gymnastic in the World.

1844  The foundation of YMCA (UK) - Young Men Christian Association, whose aim was to propagandise healthy mode of life and religious education.

1855   According to the example of YMCA, there was created woman organisation YWCA - Young Women Christian Association.

1862   On the 12th of February Miroslav Tirsh and Indrich Figner laid out the foundation of Czéch Gymnastic society in Prague. This was the beginning of “Sokol-falcon” movement.

1874   Ernst Seton-Tompson, boy of 14 years old, gathered “Indian tribe” in USA, which was later called “Robin Hood gang”.

1885  YMCA organised the first youth camp.

1902   E. Seton-Thompson, well-known nature scientist, writer and artist founded “Woodcraft Indians” movement. This movement had never become an organisation. Seton-Thopmson supported scout movement in USA in 1910 and later on he became the Chief-scout in the organisation of Boy Scouts of America.

1907   Robert Baden-Powell, major-general from United Kingdom, organised 10-days camp with a group of 22 boys on the Brownsea Island. (Despite the fact, that B-P didn’t consider this camp to be a scout camp, according to the agreement during the World Scout Conference in 1999 this day is considered to be the day of birth of scout movement)

1908 Baden-Powell became lieutenant-general. He published small brochures called “Scouting for boys”, which laid the foundation of Scout Movement.

 

Versta’stones of Scouting in Russia

1883   Foundation of Russian gymnastic society according to the example of “Sokol” (falcon) Czech and German societies.

1907   Gymnastic society “Sever-North” in St. Petersburg has organised the first woman gymnastic holiday, which had a “sokol-falcon” character.

1908   Foundation of “poteshny” movement in Bakhmoot (Ekaterinoslav region) according to the example of the regiment of Peter the Great.

1908   Publication of the book “Young scout”, which was a translation of “B-P” book, issued according to the will of Nicolas II. The emperor wanted to help “poteshny”, whom he considered to be the Russian prototype of boy-scouts.

1909   On the 30th of April Captain Pantukhoff Oleg Ivanovich has gathered for the first time the patrol of Russian scouts “Bobr (beaver)” in Pavlovsk (near St. Petersburg). This day is considered to be the day of foundation of Russian scouting.

1910   Sir Robert Baden-Powell visited St. Petersburg in December. Prince himself had a meeting with him. Besides that, he also met Pantukhoff and his scouts.

1910   The emperor Nikolas II passed a review of Bachmoot’sky “military formation class” in Tsarskoe Selo. By this gesture he wanted to attract public attention to youth development.

1910   The first issue of weekly magazine “Student”. Teacher Yanchevatsky B. was the editor of this magazine (later he became a famous historical writer Yan). “Student” had a column “Young scout”, which became the first Russian scout press.

1912   Review of several thousands of “poteshnye” in St.Petersburg. Pantukhoff’s scouts also took part in this parade.

1912   First Russian scout camp for St. Petersburg’s scouts was held in Luchta (Finland) under the supervision of Yanchevatsky V.G.

1914   The government didn’t allow to create Russian scout union, but it adopted the order of “Russian Scout” society. The members of this society were grown-ups who wanted to help scout brigade (the organisation of Russian scouts was not created)

1914   The beginning of World War I. Russian scout movement was growing. It’s members were helping the army, getting presents for soldiers, extricating casualties from trains to hospitals, helping refugees.

1915   the foundation of first scout museum in the world by Vladimir Popov, who was the editor of the magazine “Around the world-Vokrug sveta” with the help of Pantukhoff.

1915  Dr Anokhin A.K. has set up the first scout-guide brigade with the help of Prokhorova L.D. (teacher) in Kiev.

1916   Society “Russian Scout” has organised the first scout congress from 25th till 30th of December 1915. Scout movement has been spread in 24 towns in Russia. Only 4 organisations have taken part in this congress: Petrograd, Tsarskoe selo, Moscow and Kiev. 10 Laws, Scout Promises and commandments were adopted during this conference. It was decided that one could use both names “Young razvedchik” and “Scout”.

1916   Wide growth of Scout Movement in Russia. At the end of the year there were about 50 000 scouts: boys and girls in 143 towns.

1917   Second scout congress in Russia was organised by “Russian Scout” society from 28th of December 1916 till 3rd of January 1917 in Petrograd. 12 laws have been adopted and it was decided that Scoutmaster was a degree and not a position, like it was in England.

1917   Activity of Russian-Latvian brigade was forbidden In Riga (which was under German occupation). Fogelman, commander of a brigade 92 was arrested and shoot because of his illegal work.

1917   “Bolsheviki” - communists came to power on the 7th of November (October revolution). Civil war split Russian society and Russian scouting. The majority of scouts were for “white” army. A lot of them joined this army as volunteers. White army was always helping scouts.

1918   On the 24th of February Estonia has announced its independence. So, Russian brigades in Estonia were the first foreign Russian scout brigades.

1918   On the 18th of November Latvia has announced its independence. Russian brigades in Latvia were also abroad.

1918   In Autumn during the conference on universal military education, it was decided to create the organisation of young communists on the base of scout brigades. Scout activity continued under a new name. A part of scoutleaders supported to “bolsheviki”.

1919  Those scouts, who didn’t want to collaborate with communists, created their own commonwealth “Brothers of the fire”. This was one of the most famous underground commonwealths. We can say that their total amount in Russia was not more then a hundred.

1919   There was a congress of scout instructors from Siberia, Ural and Ural area in Chelyabinsk in May 1919. They have established All-Russian scout’s organisation under the supervision of Oleg Pantukhoff. This act was symbolic, but it created back-ground for the creation of “NORS” in immigration.

1919   Pantukhoff received a lifelong degree of Chief Russian Scout during the conference in Novocherkassk in autumn

1919.(October) - During the second congress of Comsomol - young communists league- it was decided to disembody scouts brigades - so called Yuck-scouts (Young communars scouts), despite the fact, that they supported communists, but still had some elements of classical scouting. Some of the commanders (like Napalkov and Fomisuk) were arrested and killed in Kiev.

1919  Scout children -immigrant activity started on Proti island (Turkey). A little bit later the same thing started on the other islands and Constantinople (Istanbul).

1920 On the 11th of November following to order of Oleg Pantukhoff there was a unification of all foreign Russian organisations in one Organisation of Russian scouts abroad with the headquarter in Constantinople.

1921 (summer) - Opening of camps on Russian Island (Vladivostok), in France, Finland, Greece, Manchuria, Bulgaria, Constantinople and Berlin areas.

1921   Krupskaya (Lenin’s wife) published a brochure “RKSM (Comsomol) and boy-scoutisme”, in which she advised to create children organisation with communistic spirit and scout form.

1922   Creation of “Pioneer organisation” during the second RKSM conference. After Lenin’s death (1924) it was called All-union pioneer Lenin’s organisation. The word “pioneer” was suggested by I. Zhukov, ex-secretary of “Russian Scout” society, a talented teacher and sculptor, who neglected non-political principal of Russian scout movement. Pretty soon he was rejected by a new government.

1922   On the 1st of July Russian scout organisation abroad joined Slavonic Union of scouts and girl-scouts.

1922   On the 30th of august Russian scout organisation abroad joined International Boy scout Bureau in London (which was later called World Scouts Bureau) according to the decision of International conference.

1922   Opening of immigration courses “Be like sun” for instructors.

1924 (November) - Adoption of a temporary order of all-Russian national Organisation of Russian scouts (ANORS), which was later called simply NORS.

1926 (December) - Approval of National Russian scout sign with St. George in the centre (according to the draft of Nina Pantukhoffa - wife of Oleg Pantukhoff )

1929 (January) - Adoption of a sign for Russian guides and girl-guides - three white snowdrops with a ribbon and a slogan: “Be ready!” in the centre and with the following words “Remember Russia”. Pantukhoffa became the Senior instructor for Russian branch of NORS.

1932   The slogan “Remember Russia!” was substituted by a slogan “For Russia!”

1933   On the 17th of June all scout organisations, which were connected with Boy scout International Bureau in London (including NORS organisation) were forbidden in Germany. The brigade was called “Knights of Russian Student Christian Movement (RSCM)”. Branch in Dresden became illegal.

1939  On the 17th of June German troops have occupied Poland, on the 17th of September Red Army has occupied Western Belarus and Western Ukraine. On the 28th of September German troops have occupied Warsaw. Polish scout’s organisation (Harzers) including Russian brigades were prohibited.

1940  In spring Zhiritsky P., member of Russian committee in Warsaw, started illegal scout’s activity and created the brigade of scouts in the committee.

1941   On the 8th of January Lord Baden -Powell of Gilwell, founder of scout movement was dead at the age of 83. He was buried in Nyeri, Kenya.

1941 (may) - Change of NORS into OR -organisation of razvedchiks (pathfinders). As the order was not clear enough, the name of the organisation was changed to NORR.

1941   Russian scouts were on illegal position on all the territory of occupation.

1945   Creation of organisation of Russian young razvedchiks (pathfinders) - ORYR with the help of temporary administration on the territories, which were under American control and English control. And under very strong ultra-political influence of NTS (People Labour Union), during Münich conference B. Martino was elected as an alternate of Russian senior scout without an agreement of Oleg Pantukhoff, who basically was Russian Chief Scout.

1945 - On the 15th of November during London’s meeting of International Boy scout committee it was decided to exclude Russian scouts from “scout society” because of the following reason: “… to escape any circumstances, which could compromise any scout organisation in USSR, that could become the member of World scout fraternity”. It’s interesting to mention that NORS was registered as “Russian scouts” in Universal scout’s movement in the end of 40ties.

1946 (December) - Martino B. changed the name of his position to “Senior Scoutmaster”. This event split Russian scout movement in the immigration.

1957 July 31. Oleg I. Pantukhoff declared in open letter to all Russian scout leaders of NORS that “…ONLY organisation which able to call themselves as Russian scouts is NORS created in 1909” and “ ORYR does not sanctioned by me anymore for political influence of NTS that translated to children”

1973   On the 25th of October Oleg Pantukhoff, the founder of Russian movement, senior Russian scout, was dead in Nice, France (He was born on the 25th of March 1882). One part of NORS considered Krasovsky (alternate of Pantukhoff) to become Senior Russian scout, another part has chosen Sel’dyarevich. It was the reason of NORS split. All the other independent Russian scout organisations were not united.

1989 (November) - Creation of Russian revival scout’s group in Russia. It’s members were A. Lasarev, S. Belyaev, S. Chernykh , Tarmo Alt (scoutmaster from Estonia). They started arranging scout meetings in Russia (publications about scouts in Russian press, they wanted to revival illegal movement)

1989    Group of scouters from USA visited USSR and had meetings with youth.

1990 (November)    Russian revival scout group organised “All-Soviet Union meeting for people interested in scouting” with the help of Committee of Youth of Supreme Soviet in USSR. Oleg Pantukhoff - Junior, son of Russian founder of scout’s movement, and USA-ORYR delegation, instructors from Ukraine, Belarus, Latvia and Estonia also took part in it. Message from World Scout Bureau about the development of scout’s movement was announced during this meeting. Meeting as adopted Association of revival of Russian Scouting (AVoRS). It was a creation of single organisation (like Boy Scouts of America), which was unitary (according to it’s structure), and diverse in terms of nationalities, geography and pedagogy - prototype of future National Scout Organisation.

1990   Opening of an Information centre, which was a part of World Bureau. It’s aim was to help the development of national scout’s associations in USSR. General director of this centre was Bondar’ A.S.

1991 (summer) -Opening of camps in Russia (about 15). Some of them could be called scout’s camps. Several camps become universal and traditional (for example “Long spear” In Crimea). Group of children from USSR visit 17th World Jamboree in South Korea.

1991 (November) - creation of “Federation of Scouts of Russia” during the meeting of AvoRS instructors in St. Petersburg. This declaration stopped the AVoRS activity. Practically it was start of split of the Russian scouting.

Activity of ORYR (about 30) and NORS groups in Russia

Some of scoutmasters tried to avoid the split of AVoRS, but they didn’t succeed. Creation of Federation of Orthodox Scouts-Pathfinders (FOS), it’s order was signed by Patriarch Alexei II.

 

1992   ORYR group organises camp called “Jamboree” near St. Petersburg

1993   Creation and registration of Russian Union of Scouts - R.U.S. by Slava E. Chernykh and Igor Bogdanov.

1994 (March) - Instructors from R.U.S. held an Scoutmasters training course according to Gilwell’s system Wood Badge.

1995 -45 Russian scouts officially took part in 18th the World scout Jamboree in Holland (as guests).

February 12. Letter of General Secretary of WOSM to Russian Scout leaders where he mentioned about two choices in Russian scouting. First (choice #1)- to create a single - unitary organisation (as BSA).

Second (choice # 2)- Federation with republics, “open scouting” union, confessionals structures.

All Russian scouts where need to choose one of mentioned two models.

1996   Creation of the committee of All-Russian national Scout Organisation - BHCO-ARNSO followed federation model according “choice#2” .

1998   Meeting of representatives of scout organisations, creation of All-Russian National Scout Organisation. It’s members were the following:

Association of Scouts in Komi

National organisation of Scout Movement in Russia

Movement “Scouts of Russia”

Russian Union of Scouts

Union of Scouts in Chuvashia

Union “Moscow scout”

Federation of Orthodox Scouts-Sledoputov

- The same time FSR have “Congress of the troop leaders” and declared co-joining to ORyR (regional branch of US located ORYR) under common name NORS-R for claim to be historically approved to use this name.

1998  Group of scouts and instructors of ARNSO took part in the 19th World Jamboree in Chile. United Russian Jamboree Committee arranged contingent.

1998 30 April . Anniversary of First Russian Scout Patrol “Bobr”-(Beaver).
Slava E. Chernykh created a Bronze Beaver Order - highest award of the Russian Scouting.

1999   Courses of senior scouts “Excelscout’99” in Crimea, scout organisations of Eurasia region were represented in teams of 4-8 people. Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Moldavia, Tajikistan are the members of WOSM. Russia is not the member of WOSM, but it was represented on these courses in a team of 5 scouts.

2000, - 21-31 July. All-Russian National Scout Organisation held National Jamboree near Moscow, Pushkino. More than 4000 scouts anticipated on the camp site. Programme of the camp include as traditional scout activities and world life involving’ Developing village, Safe the future - ecological project, Fairy-Tales of Russia - cultural programme.

- World Scout Committee recommended on to postal voting ARNSO as ONLY National Russian scout organisation - member of WOSM.

- Traditional scout camps as Vetluga’2000 and many others belonged to ARNSO will accommodate more than 15 000 Russian and foreign scouts during the summer’ 2000.

- Russian Jamboree Committee start to preparation to World Scout Jamboree in Thailand 2002-2003. All scouts invited to join this great event.

- NORS-R - groupings of ex-FSR and part of ORyR leaders have a camp near Saratov - Volga’2000.