WOSM-Eurasian Region
Encyclopedia
The Eurasian Scout Region is the divisional office of the World Scout Bureau of the World Organization of the Scout Movement
, (in Russian Всемирной Организации Скаутского Движения or ВОСД) headquartered in Kiev , formerly located at Gurzuf
near Yalta
-Krasnokamianka, Ukraine
, with a branch office in Moscow
. All the formerly communist states of Central
and Eastern Europe
, Central Asia
and the Soviet Union
have developed or are developing Scouting
in the wake of the renaissance in the region
. These include most of the successor states to the Soviet Union, in the Commonwealth of Independent States
. The 1996/99 Triennial Report of the World Scout Committee/World Organization of the Scout Movement shows that WOSM is aggressively pursuing the organization of Scouting activities in the countries of the former Soviet Union, according to its own vision.
In 1997, WOSM created the new Eurasian Region, ostensibly to assist in the rebirth of Scouting in the 12 former Soviet Republics
: Armenia
, Azerbaijan
, Belarus
, Georgia
, Kazakhstan
, Kyrgyzstan
, Moldova
, Russia
, Tajikistan
, Turkmenistan
, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan
. Several of the organizations in the Region were borne from existing Scouts-in-Exile
organizations. Russian
was made the working language, and eight Scouting manuals and handbooks have been published, all in Russian. A quarterly periodical, also in Russian, is printed in the branch office in Moscow. The report (available at http://www.worldscoutshop.org) states, "The regional office will regularly translate WOSM documents into Russian." The executive director of this region is Mr. Iurie Emilian of Moldova. http://scout.org/en/content/download/17019/145488/file/C0922Eurasia_e.pdf
The five national Scouting organizations that were first accepted as members in the World Organization of the Scout Movement-Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Tajikistan, were designated by WOSM as the founding members of the Eurasia Region. Azerbaijan, Russia, and Ukraine have since been accepted into WOSM; Belarus lost its membership in 2005 and regained it in 2010. It is this regional office that is now advising the WOSM on possible member organizations. In countries where there is more than one Scouting association, like Kyrgyzstan and Ukraine, these associations can choose to cooperate and form a National Scout Organization.
A WOSM joint Eurasian-and-European Scout meeting was held in Kiev
in April 2009.
leaders. The primary goal of the Pioneers, whose membership was compulsory, was the indoctrination of youth into Communism
. To complicate matters, these organizations adopted many of the trappings of the Scout organizations they supplanted. Because of the negative experience with the Communist youth organizations
, Scouting in the Eurasian Region is having a slow rebirth. Proponents see the inheritance of Pioneer work and properties in a positive light. Opponents have seen the Eurasian Region as a tool that would allow former Pioneers to keep their influence over postSoviet youth movements, and use their newfound connections outside the region for their own gain. Even the placement of the Regional headquarters at the historic Pioneer Camp Artek
at Yalta appears to many to point to this Pioneer dominance. Opponents also question the fact that authoritarian Belarus was an early member of the World Organization of the Scout Movement, against WOSM's stated guidelines, while democratic neighbor Ukraine was not a WOSM member until 2008. In the years following its creation, the Eurasian Region was considered by some to have stagnated in its purpose: among other things, the official website was not updated between 2004 and February 2006.
Alternate solutions proposed at the time of the Soviet breakup
, and still considered viable options by the critics of the Eurasian Region, would be to divide the Region into the previously existing European or Asia-Pacific Scout Regions, along cultural lines and national preference, to provide Scouts fresh perspective. As the Baltic states-Estonia
, Lithuania
and Latvia
-joined the European Region, there is precedence for this solution. In addition, there is no corresponding Eurasian Region for the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts
, the republics are divided geographically between WAGGGS' Europe Region
and Asia Pacific Region
. Besides their shared tsarist and Soviet past, the 12 members of the Eurasian Region have little in common. Some, like Armenia and Azerbaijan, have waged war on each other, some like Georgia and Ukraine, allow open opposition, while others, like Belarus and Turkmenistan, have turned to authoritarianism reminiscent of Soviet times. Further, as none of the republics have had their Scout movements returned for much more than a decade, it is viewed that they would benefit from the expertise of the neighboring Scout associations in those Regions.
Consultants to the Regional Scout Committee include Irakli Todua of Georgia, Oleg Reshetnikov of Russia, and Valeri Golovenko of Ukraine.
World Organization of the Scout Movement
The World Organization of the Scout Movement is the Non-governmental international organization which governs most national Scout Organizations, with 31 million members. WOSM was established in 1920, and has its headquarters at Geneva, Switzerland...
, (in Russian Всемирной Организации Скаутского Движения or ВОСД) headquartered in Kiev , formerly located at Gurzuf
Gurzuf
Gurzuf or Hurzuf is a resort in Crimea, Ukraine, on the northern coast of the Black Sea.Gurzuf is a former Crimean Tatar village, now a part of Greater Yalta. It was made famous by Alexander Pushkin who visited the place in 1821. The famous ballet master Marius Petipa died here...
near Yalta
Yalta
Yalta is a city in Crimea, southern Ukraine, on the north coast of the Black Sea.The city is located on the site of an ancient Greek colony, said to have been founded by Greek sailors who were looking for a safe shore on which to land. It is situated on a deep bay facing south towards the Black...
-Krasnokamianka, Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
, with a branch office in Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
. All the formerly communist states of Central
Central Europe
Central Europe or alternatively Middle Europe is a region of the European continent lying between the variously defined areas of Eastern and Western Europe...
and Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe is the eastern part of Europe. The term has widely disparate geopolitical, geographical, cultural and socioeconomic readings, which makes it highly context-dependent and even volatile, and there are "almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region"...
, Central Asia
Central Asia
Central Asia is a core region of the Asian continent from the Caspian Sea in the west, China in the east, Afghanistan in the south, and Russia in the north...
and the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
have developed or are developing Scouting
Scouting
Scouting, also known as the Scout Movement, is a worldwide youth movement with the stated aim of supporting young people in their physical, mental and spiritual development, that they may play constructive roles in society....
in the wake of the renaissance in the region
History of the Soviet Union (1985-1991)
The history of the Soviet Union from 1982 through 1991, spans the period from Leonid Brezhnev's death and funeral until the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Due to the years of Soviet military buildup at the expense of domestic development, economic growth stagnated...
. These include most of the successor states to the Soviet Union, in the Commonwealth of Independent States
Commonwealth of Independent States
The Commonwealth of Independent States is a regional organization whose participating countries are former Soviet Republics, formed during the breakup of the Soviet Union....
. The 1996/99 Triennial Report of the World Scout Committee/World Organization of the Scout Movement shows that WOSM is aggressively pursuing the organization of Scouting activities in the countries of the former Soviet Union, according to its own vision.
In 1997, WOSM created the new Eurasian Region, ostensibly to assist in the rebirth of Scouting in the 12 former Soviet Republics
Post-Soviet states
The post-Soviet states, also commonly known as the Former Soviet Union or former Soviet republics, are the 15 independent states that split off from the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in its dissolution in December 1991...
: Armenia
Armenia
Armenia , officially the Republic of Armenia , is a landlocked mountainous country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia...
, Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan , officially the Republic of Azerbaijan is the largest country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded by the Caspian Sea to the east, Russia to the north, Georgia to the northwest, Armenia to the west, and Iran to...
, Belarus
Belarus
Belarus , officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, bordered clockwise by Russia to the northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Its capital is Minsk; other major cities include Brest, Grodno , Gomel ,...
, Georgia
Georgia (country)
Georgia is a sovereign state in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded to the west by the Black Sea, to the north by Russia, to the southwest by Turkey, to the south by Armenia, and to the southeast by Azerbaijan. The capital of...
, Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan , officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country in Central Asia and Eastern Europe. Ranked as the ninth largest country in the world, it is also the world's largest landlocked country; its territory of is greater than Western Europe...
, Kyrgyzstan
Kyrgyzstan
Kyrgyzstan , officially the Kyrgyz Republic is one of the world's six independent Turkic states . Located in Central Asia, landlocked and mountainous, Kyrgyzstan is bordered by Kazakhstan to the north, Uzbekistan to the west, Tajikistan to the southwest and China to the east...
, Moldova
Moldova
Moldova , officially the Republic of Moldova is a landlocked state in Eastern Europe, located between Romania to the West and Ukraine to the North, East and South. It declared itself an independent state with the same boundaries as the preceding Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic in 1991, as part...
, Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
, Tajikistan
Tajikistan
Tajikistan , officially the Republic of Tajikistan , is a mountainous landlocked country in Central Asia. Afghanistan borders it to the south, Uzbekistan to the west, Kyrgyzstan to the north, and China to the east....
, Turkmenistan
Turkmenistan
Turkmenistan , formerly also known as Turkmenia is one of the Turkic states in Central Asia. Until 1991, it was a constituent republic of the Soviet Union, the Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic . Turkmenistan is one of the six independent Turkic states...
, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan
Uzbekistan
Uzbekistan , officially the Republic of Uzbekistan is a doubly landlocked country in Central Asia and one of the six independent Turkic states. It shares borders with Kazakhstan to the west and to the north, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan to the east, and Afghanistan and Turkmenistan to the south....
. Several of the organizations in the Region were borne from existing Scouts-in-Exile
Scouts-in-Exile
Scouts-in-Exteris, also referred to as Scouts-in-Exile, are Scouting and Guiding groups formed outside of their native country as a result of war and changes in governments...
organizations. Russian
Russian language
Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...
was made the working language, and eight Scouting manuals and handbooks have been published, all in Russian. A quarterly periodical, also in Russian, is printed in the branch office in Moscow. The report (available at http://www.worldscoutshop.org) states, "The regional office will regularly translate WOSM documents into Russian." The executive director of this region is Mr. Iurie Emilian of Moldova. http://scout.org/en/content/download/17019/145488/file/C0922Eurasia_e.pdf
The five national Scouting organizations that were first accepted as members in the World Organization of the Scout Movement-Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Tajikistan, were designated by WOSM as the founding members of the Eurasia Region. Azerbaijan, Russia, and Ukraine have since been accepted into WOSM; Belarus lost its membership in 2005 and regained it in 2010. It is this regional office that is now advising the WOSM on possible member organizations. In countries where there is more than one Scouting association, like Kyrgyzstan and Ukraine, these associations can choose to cooperate and form a National Scout Organization.
A WOSM joint Eurasian-and-European Scout meeting was held in Kiev
Kiev
Kiev or Kyiv is the capital and the largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River. The population as of the 2001 census was 2,611,300. However, higher numbers have been cited in the press....
in April 2009.
Controversies
However, there is some controversy, in addition to the aforementioned publication of documents only in the Russian language, as several within the Eurasian Region's top hierarchy are former PioneerYoung Pioneer organization of the Soviet Union
The Young Pioneer Organization of the Soviet Union, also Vladimir Lenin All-Union Pioneer Organization The Young Pioneer Organization of the Soviet Union, also Vladimir Lenin All-Union Pioneer Organization The Young Pioneer Organization of the Soviet Union, also Vladimir Lenin All-Union Pioneer...
leaders. The primary goal of the Pioneers, whose membership was compulsory, was the indoctrination of youth into Communism
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
. To complicate matters, these organizations adopted many of the trappings of the Scout organizations they supplanted. Because of the negative experience with the Communist youth organizations
Pioneer movement
A pioneer movement is an organization for children operated by a communist party. Typically children enter into the organization in elementary school and continue until adolescence. The adolescents then typically joined the Young Communist League...
, Scouting in the Eurasian Region is having a slow rebirth. Proponents see the inheritance of Pioneer work and properties in a positive light. Opponents have seen the Eurasian Region as a tool that would allow former Pioneers to keep their influence over postSoviet youth movements, and use their newfound connections outside the region for their own gain. Even the placement of the Regional headquarters at the historic Pioneer Camp Artek
Artek (camp)
Artek is a Young Pioneer camp near Gurzuf, Ukraine. It was established on June 16 1925 on the Black Sea in the town of Gurzuf located on the Crimean peninsula, near Medved Mountain, Ukraine. The camp first hosted only 80 children but then grew rapidly. In 1969 it had an area of 3.2 km²...
at Yalta appears to many to point to this Pioneer dominance. Opponents also question the fact that authoritarian Belarus was an early member of the World Organization of the Scout Movement, against WOSM's stated guidelines, while democratic neighbor Ukraine was not a WOSM member until 2008. In the years following its creation, the Eurasian Region was considered by some to have stagnated in its purpose: among other things, the official website was not updated between 2004 and February 2006.
Alternate solutions proposed at the time of the Soviet breakup
History of the Soviet Union (1985-1991)
The history of the Soviet Union from 1982 through 1991, spans the period from Leonid Brezhnev's death and funeral until the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Due to the years of Soviet military buildup at the expense of domestic development, economic growth stagnated...
, and still considered viable options by the critics of the Eurasian Region, would be to divide the Region into the previously existing European or Asia-Pacific Scout Regions, along cultural lines and national preference, to provide Scouts fresh perspective. As the Baltic states-Estonia
Estonia
Estonia , officially the Republic of Estonia , is a state in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea, to the south by Latvia , and to the east by Lake Peipsi and the Russian Federation . Across the Baltic Sea lies...
, Lithuania
Lithuania
Lithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the biggest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark...
and Latvia
Latvia
Latvia , officially the Republic of Latvia , is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by Estonia , to the south by Lithuania , to the east by the Russian Federation , to the southeast by Belarus and shares maritime borders to the west with Sweden...
-joined the European Region, there is precedence for this solution. In addition, there is no corresponding Eurasian Region for the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts
World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts
The World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts is a global association supporting the female-oriented and female-only Scouting organizations in 145 countries. It was established in 1928 and has its headquarters in London, England. It is the counterpart of the World Organization of the Scout...
, the republics are divided geographically between WAGGGS' Europe Region
WAGGGS-Europe Region
The WAGGGS Europe Region is the regional office of the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts, which supports Girl Guiding and Girl Scouting in Europe, including the former Soviet Republics of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, Russia, and Ukraine, but inclusive of Cyprus,...
and Asia Pacific Region
WAGGGS-Asia Pacific Region
The WAGGGS-Asia Pacific Region is the divisional office of the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts, headquartered in Makati City, Philippines; Australia; and Japan...
. Besides their shared tsarist and Soviet past, the 12 members of the Eurasian Region have little in common. Some, like Armenia and Azerbaijan, have waged war on each other, some like Georgia and Ukraine, allow open opposition, while others, like Belarus and Turkmenistan, have turned to authoritarianism reminiscent of Soviet times. Further, as none of the republics have had their Scout movements returned for much more than a decade, it is viewed that they would benefit from the expertise of the neighboring Scout associations in those Regions.
Eurasian Region Scout Jamborees
The region runs or sponsors periodic region-wide jamborees:- 1st Eurasian Scout Jamboree-Byurakan, ArmeniaLake KariLake Kari is a lake in Armenia located in the slopes of Mount Aragats mostly formed by ice and snow. It is located 3,190 m above the sea level and has a perimeter of 1,150 m. From Byurakan village an asphalted automobile road stretches towards the source of Arkashen River, the lake Kari, located...
– August 2006 - 2nd Eurasian Scout Jamboree-Orhei, MoldovaOrheiOrhei is a city and the administrative centre of Orhei District in Moldova with a population of 25,680. Orhei is approximately 50 kilometers north of the capital, Chişinău.-Demographics:...
– July 21-30, 2010
Eurasia Regional Scout Committee
The members of the Eurasia Regional Scout Committee are at present:- Chairman Bagrat Yesayan of Armenia
- Vice-Chairman Namik Jafarov of Azerbaijan
- Tamara Shukakidze of Georgia
- Vladimir Vlas of Moldova
- Igor Ivanov of Russia
- Rustam Karimov of Tajikistan
Consultants to the Regional Scout Committee include Irakli Todua of Georgia, Oleg Reshetnikov of Russia, and Valeri Golovenko of Ukraine.
External links
- http://www.scout.org/en/around_the_world/eurasia/our_organisation/governance/regional_committee/eurasia_regional_scout_committee