Why did scouts appear in Western Ukraine first? There were many reasons such as political etc., but the main was that western people are more patriotic then eastern. Alexander Tisovsky, Petro Franko and Ivan Chmola founded "Plast". "Plast" was in Lviv only for the first time, soon they started to spread the idea of scouting in other cities of Ukraine, but mostly there were western regions. In 1916 the first scouts' troop appeared in Eastern Ukraine - in Ecaterinoslav (Dniepropetrovsk now). This troop was led by one of students of Ecaterinoslav Mining Institute Terentyev. These were the first steps of the development of scouting in Ukraine, but then Bolsheviks came to power in October 1917. The politics of Bolsheviks made a lot of problems for scouts not only in Dniepropetrovsk, but also in a whole Ukraine. In 1916 - 19 there was only one scout's organization in Ecaterinoslav. In 1924 all scouts groups were dispersed.
"Plast" leaders didn't stop their activity. They knew that this kind of activity was almost illegal, but they didn't give up. In 1911 "Plast" was still an increasing organization in Western Ukraine, they even published a book "The life in Plast". In those years the organization started its activity beyond the borders of Ukraine - in Poland, Czechoslovakia and some Carpathian regions. In that time USSR changed strongly its youth politics. It was ordered that there could be the only one youth organization - Pioneers and Comsomols. In September 26, 1930 "Plast" was forbidden too. It seemed to be an end of scouting movement for a long time, but "Plast" didn't stop their activity - it acted illegally and didn't give up.
In 1985 (55 years later) the new era of scouting in Ukraine began.
Some scouting groups started act openly. In 1990 in Lviv the first Conference of "Plast" took place. The separation of Ukraine from USSR was a signal to rebirth of scouting movement. On the 20th of December in 1992 Ministry of Justice registered the status of Ukrainian scouts. In 1992 ADS "Skiff" appeared in Dniepropetrovsk, in 1994 the Guide's Association of Ukraine was registered too, which was founded by Gulevskaya Anna. Also in 1996 the Scout's association of Ukraine in Yalta and the Scout's organization "Sich" in Kiev were founded.
In November 1998 the meeting of the scout's leaders took place. In this meeting the project of the United scout's organization of Ukraine was made. Now the main
aims of these organizations are working with children and uniting to WOSM.
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