Figure 1.--This group of Russian emigre Scouts were photographed in Harbin, Manchuria in 1930. They went to a YMCA school in Harbin. Harbin was an important commercial center in Manchuria. There was a large Russian emigre population in Harbin which had crossed the border from Siberia. Harbin was conected by railroad to the Soviet Trans-Siberian Railway. This photograph was taken about 1-2 years before the Japanese seized Harbin (1931).

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. Eventually Russian Scouting survived only in exile

History

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, the scouting movement 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.

Dispersal areas

Large groups of Russians could be found in almost every country, the movement spreading in a two pronged direction along with the White Russian emigres. After the Civil War, groups of emigres moved east and west. After fighting the Bolshevicks, the Whites understood the fate they faced if they stayed in Russia. Many of the Russians moving east stayed in northern China. Those moving west clustered n various European countries. Some moved on to America and other countries. Countries differed in how they treated emgrees and there were thus a tendency for tthe Russians to cluster in certain countries. Some countries like Bulgaria and Yugoslavia (serbia) had historic ties with Russia. Other countries like France were welcoming to political rfugees.

Stalinist Terror

As Stalin estabkished control, the NKVD was increasingly used to ferret out potential ennies. Mostly this was not individuals who were actully involved in subversive activities, but rather classes of people that were thought to be disloyal. Involvent with the Boy Scout movement befre it was banned was something seen as suspious, in part because of British associatios. This did not envolve large numbers of individuals as Scouting was not very sell established in Russia befre the Revolution. This was ot the case when the Soviets acuiredthe Baltics and Eastern European satteites after World War II.

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. Oleg Pantuhoff, the Senior Russian Scout, had settled in the (then) far-away United States of America, making it difficult for him to lead the organization. Many Russian scout leaders therefore were forced to operate autonomously and independently, with only sporadic communication among themselves and with the Senior Russian Scout. Nevertheless, Russian scouting continued wherever there were groups of Russians who wanted to maintain their culture, traditions, faith, and language, and who wanted to bring up their children to be moral, self-reliant adults.

Post-war Europe

After the collapse of Nazi Germany, open scouting again became possible abroad, particularly in the huge refugee camps where during the war the Nazis deposited the millions of Russians whom they either captured in the war or deported to Germany and Austria as forced labor for their war industries. In November of 1945, representatives of those Russian scouting leaders who remained active during the war met in Allied-occupied Germany to announce the resumption of Russian scouting under conditions of freedom from persecution. Since the war-time underground names for the Russian scouting organization were no longer suitable, the scouting leaders decided during that 1945 conference on a new name for the organization - ORUR, the name that our organization still holds. The name was selected because the leaders thought that that was the direct translation of the name under which Russian scouting has been registered with the World Organization of the Scout Movement.

Scouting Groups

We have only limited information about Russian Scout associations at this time. We are unsure about the original Scout organization in the years before the Russian Revolution. Scouting was banned after the creation of the Young Pioneers. Membership in the Scouts during the Great Terror was dangersos, even earlier participation. Scouting disappeared in the Soviet Union for several decadeds. Thre are also Russian emigre Scout groups in several other countries. After the disolution of the Soviet Union, scouting was revived. As far as we know there is only one Russian Scout association.-- the Federation of Scouts of Russia (FSR).

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