Oleg Pantyukhov

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Colonel Oleg Ivanovich Pantyukhov (Russian: Олег Иванович Пантюхов; 25 March 1882[1] - 1973[2]) was the founder of Russian Scouting.

Contents

[edit] Early years

Oleg Pantyukhov was born in Kiev to a family of a military physician and an anthropologist. In 1892-1899 he studied at Tifflis cadet school. During his studies he became a member of the group named Pushkin club. The group was somehow similar to the modern Boy Scouts, e.g. every weekend they were having a hiking trip with camping in the mountains.[1]

In 1899-1901 Pantyukhov studied in Pavlovsk Military School. After graduation he became an officer of the Leib Guard 1st infantry battalion stationed in Tsarskoye Selo. In 1908 he married Nina Mikhaylovna Dobrovolskaya, who later became one of pioneers of the Guiding movement in Russia.[1]

[edit] Formation of Russian Scouting

In 1908-1909 Pantyukhov became acquainted with the works of Baden-Powell and decided to try these ideas on Russian soil. He organized the first Russian Scout troop Beaver (Бобр, Bobr) in Pavlovsk, a town near Tsarskoye Selo, on 30 April 1909. In the winter of 1910-1911 Pantyukhov met Baden-Powell in Saint Petersburg and then visited Scout organisations in England and Denmark. On the return he wrote the first Russian Scouting books "Памятка Юного Разведчика" (Handbook of a Young Scout) and "В гостях у Бой-скаутов" (Visiting Boy Scouts) (both 1912). In 1913 he wrote a book named "Спутник Бойскаута" (a companion of boy scout). Pantyukhov met Nicholas II and gifted a Scouting badge for Tsarevich Alexei, who formally became a Scout.[1]

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. 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.

During World War I Pantyukhov received a Cross of St. George, was treated in Crimea and became the commander of the "Third Moscow School of Praporshchiks". During the October Revolution he was the leader of the cadets who unsuccessfully defended the Kremlin from Bolsheviks.[2] In 1919 in Novocherkassk (controlled at the time by the White Army), Pantyukhov was unanimously elected the Chief Scout of Russia.[1]

[edit] Disbandment and banning of Russian Scouting

With the advent of communism after the October Revolution of 1917, and during the Russian Civil War from 1918 to 1920, most of the Scoutmasters and many Scouts fought in the ranks of the White Army and interventionists against the Red Army. In Soviet Russia the Scouting system started to be replaced by 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 system either left Russia for good, like Pantyukhov and others, or went underground. However, 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 (it existed until 1990). Since that year, Scouting in the Soviet Union was banned.

traditional Russian membership badge, still used by several organizations
traditional Russian membership badge, still used by several organizations

[edit] Russian Scouting in exile

The organization Русский Скаут then went into exile, and continued in many countries where fleeing White Russian émigrés settled, establishing groups in France, Serbia, Bulgaria, Argentina, Chile, and Paraguay. A much larger mass of thousands of Russian Scouts moved through Vladivostok to the east into Manchuria and south into China.

In 1920 Pantyukhov emigrated to France and then moved to the United States, where large troops of Russian Scouts were established in such California cities as San Francisco, Burlingame, Los Angeles, etc. Pantyukhov is credited with creation of the first Russian Scout group abroad on March 25, 1920. He worked for the Scouting movement up to his death.[1]

[edit] Later life

Pantyukhov returned to Nice, France where he died in 1973.

[edit] See also

Scouting Portal

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Biography of Pantuhin on side pravoverie.ru (Russian)
  2. ^ a b Oleg Pantyukhov U Lukomorya publication in Uchitel'skaya Gazeta with preface of Vsevolod Kuchin (Russian)