The history of Scouting in Russia is marked by a modest foundation among the narrow strata of middle-classs Russia and then the horrors of World War I and Civil War. After a brief period of toleratiion by the Bolsheviks, Scouting was brutally supressed in the Stalinist purges. The only youth group permitted in Russia was the Communist controlled Young Pioneer movement. Scouting was not revived again until the fall of Communism in the early 1990s. We do not know much about Scouting in post-Communist Russia. As far as we can tell, it is a realitively small movement.

Figure 2.--The Saint Petersburg Scout Group headed by the Tsarskoe Selo Troop upon arrival at Tovrichski Castle, May 29, 1915. At the front, the Standard of the Tsarskoe Selo Troop, the first Standard of the Russian Scouts.

Imperial Russia

The Scout movement was never as firmly established in Russia as it was in most other European countries. The first Russian Scout troop was founded in 1909, only a few years after the Scout movement was founded in Britain. A relatively small number of urban boys participated, but the movement was well within the traditiion ofvthe wider European Scouting tradition. The Park at Pavlovsk was the location of the first Russian Scout campfire on April 30, 1909. It is a special place to Russian Scouts, and today is the site of commemorative gatherings as Russian Scouting seeks its roots. Visit the Palace and the Park and learn something of their history and a Russian Scouting tradition. Russian Scouts claims to have been the second country after England to embrace scouting. The founder of Russian scouting was Oleg Pantuhoff, at that time a young captain in the Imperial Russian Guards, and a man of considerable moral strength and organizational talent. The Russian Scouts still honors his memory.

Soviet Russia

Scouting flourished under the Czar. The lean years of World War I (1914-17) and Revolution (1917-21) left little room for Scouting. I am not yet positive what happened after the Revolution. After the establishment of the Soviet Union, one source indicates that Scouting again flourished--briefly. I have no details, however, on Russian Scouting during this period. Another source indicates that Scouts were targeted as part of a general campaign against the propertied classes. [Rayfield] I'm not sure this was conducted by the Cheka during the Red Terror or later by the GPU during the Great Terror. The Young Pioneers were founded in 1922. Membership at first was not compulsory. The Boleshvicks especially as Stalin gained increasing influence felt threatened by a youth organization which was outside its control. As a result, Scouting was banned in 1926. Even though Russian scouts were able to maintain scouting underground for a short while, the scouting organization in Russia was completely swept away during the purges in the 1930s. Scoutmasters were arrested and sent to labor camps during the Stalinist purges. Many died there. This virtually destroyed the movement within the Soviet Union. The Bolshecicks started their own youth movement, the Young Pioneers.

Exile Scout Movement

The National Organisation of Russian Scouts, however, then went into exile to almost every continent of the world. Not withstanding the destruction of scouting in Russia, Russian scouting continued within the large Russian emigre communities in Europe and in China, as thousands of Russians found themselves abroad after the revolution and civil war. Communication within and control over the widely spread Russian scouting organization proved exceedingly difficult, particularly when many European countries began placing obstacles to communication on the eve of the Second World War, and the postal services in China were disrupted by the Japanese attack. Large groups could be found in almost every country, the movement spreading in a two pronged direction along with the White Russian emigres. One wave moved through Europe, establishing groups in France, Serbia, Bulgaria, and other European countries. A much larger mass moved through Vladivostok to the east into Manchuria and south into China where very large groups of thousands of Russian Scouts came into being in cities such as Harbin, Tientsin and Shanghai. The Chief Scout of Russia, Colonel Oleg Pantuhoff first resided in France and then moved to the United States where large troops of the National Organisation of Russian Scouts were established in cities such as San Francisco (Gerie Street), Burlingame, Los Angeles etc. He returned to Nice, France where he passed away at a very mature age. Other troops worked in Argentina, Chile and Paraguay.

World War II

Conditions became even more difficult, when Hitler, like Stalin, felt threatened by the Scouting movement and also suppressed it. However, the most dedicated and courageous of the Russian scout leaders, caught within fascist control as it extended itself throughout most of Europe, found a way to continue scouting by changing the organization's name, and hiding scouting within youth organizations aurthorized by the NAZI authorities. They also infiltrated into Russia and started underground scouting troops there as well.

Post-War Soviet Era

Soviet policy toward Scouting did not change after World War II. The movement continued to be banned. The Pioneers were given more emphasis in the post-War Soviet Union. As farcas we know, there was no exchanges between Soviet Pioneers and Scouts in other countries.

Figure 2.--Here we see modern Russian Scouts, I believe in 2004. The boys wear black berets, orange neckerchiefs, tan/khaki shirts and blue short pants./i>

Modern Russia

We do not know much about Scouting in post-Communist Russia. As far as we can tell, it is a realitively small movement. A Russian reader writes, "On your site completely there is no information about contemporary orzganizatsiyakh of scouts in modern Russia. Skautskoye movement existed in Russiuntil the October revolution of 1917 and at present it revives. In the application as an example is photograph of one skautskogo force in Ekaterinburg - as you see in them there is your form typical for all skautskikh organizations" Indeed we have virtually no information on Scouting in Russia and would welcome any information that Russian Scouters can provide us about the movement.

Sources

Rayfield, Donald. Stalin and His Hangmen: The Tyranbt and Those Who Killed for Him (Random House, 2005), 541p.