Volume 3, Number 3
May-June, 1997

A NEW LOOK AND A NEW NAME!

As part of our new look for 1997 we have slightly changed our name. Henceforth, this Newsletter will be known in English as Plast Ukrainian Scouting, and in Ukrainian: Plast Ukrainskyi Skauting.

The main reason for this change is to emphasize for Scouts throughout the world the traditional name PLAST. Plastuny in Ukrainian means exactly the same thing as Scouts in English., i.e. special explorers who observed the enemy, while staying invisible themselves. The job was always dangerous and only the best and the smartest could become such scouts. When Lord Baden-Powell chose that name for the new organization for exceptional boys, the future leaders of his country, he knew what he was doing.

PLAST ELECTS CHIEF SCOUT!

Dr. Lubomyr Romankiw, Chief Scout

Adult members of Ukrainian Scouting-Plast have elected as their new Chief Scout Scoutmaster Lubomyr Romankiw, who has worked in Plast all his life. Dr. L. Romankiw is a world-renowned scientist, with doctorates in Metallurgy and Chemistry. If you use desk top computer, a VCR, or many other electronic devices, chances are that you are using one of his many inventions. His main area of expertise is magnetics and he is the inventor of thin-film magnetic heads which are used to read magnetic disks in all kinds of computers. He is also the author of numerous scientific papers and technical books. He is a Fellow of IBM and of many scientific societies in various countries around the world. Ukrainian Scouting is very proud to have such an outstanding scientist and plastun for its Chief Scout. In spite of his tremendous contributions as a scientist, Dr. Romankiw had always found time to devote to Scouting. He has served as a camp counselor, tutor, scoutmaster, as well as President of the Plast Executive and, Chairman of the Supreme Plast Council. He is widely known among Scouts of various nations.

Dr. Romankiw is the third Ukrainian Chief Scout, after Scoutmasters Severyn Levytskyi and Yuriy Starosolskyi. We wish him great success in his new position!

ASIA-PACIFIC SCOUTING ABOUT SCOUTING IN UKRAINE

The influential magazine Asia-Pacific Scouting, which is devoted to Scouting activities in that region of the world, carried in one of its recent issues a reprint from our Newsletter, about inter-ethnic relations among Ukrainian Scouts. We are very proud that Scouts on the other side of the globe are learning about Scouting in Ukraine! Yours in Scouting! Be Prepared!

1997 SPRING FESTIVAL

Ever since its inception in 1911, every spring Ukrainian Scouts are celebrating the new season with a traditional Spring Festival. Such a fair was popular in Ukraine in the pre-Christian times, as a festival of light, life, and re-birth of Nature. In the Christian times, the festival has merged with the celebration of the very popular saint in Ukraine St. George, the Dragon-Slayer, who also happens to be the patron-saint of Plast. As in previous years, in 1997 the Boy- and Girl-Scouts all over Ukraine also held a traditional Spring Festival. The biggest and most memorable Spring Fair was held in the vicinity of the city of Lviv, with the participation of many local councils. Several hundreds boys and girls took part. Officially, the festival took place during May 2-4. Some scouts and camp councilors started arriving at the site as early as April 30th to prepare the campground, to erect the necessary facilities and to provide the campers with all the necessary provisions for the next three days. The Festival itself consisted of the usual competitions, campfires, exercises, sports, sing-alongs, etc. An unusual feature of this particular festival was a freak windstorm, which lasted most of the three days and brought havoc to the camp, overturning tents, blowing out fires and causing other damage. This competition with the wind became one of the most enjoyable sports of the fair, one that the participants will never forget. In the end everybody had a good time. We went home looking forward to summer camps, trips, and other Plast activities.

From a report by Plastun Oleksandr Poliakov

PLASTUNY VISIT POLAND

This year in the High Tatra Mountains, in the neighboring country of Poland, an International Mountain Trek 97 took place. Ukraine was represented at this event by a trio of enthusiastic plastuny-mountaineers from Lviv: A. Horak, I. Karabin and R. Malko. First we traveled to the city of Krakow, then to the famous Polish spa Zhywiec, in the High Tatras. where we started our trek.

Plastuny in Poland

Our group was very fast. We covered the first days march in 5 hours, whereas the organizers planned that it will take 6 hours. So it was also on the following days. Our speed earned us the nickname The Group on Wheels. Everything was going very well and we were sure that we would get the first place in the competition. However, at the Slovak border we faced an unexpected difficulty: the Slovak border guards would not let us into the country, claiming that we did not have all the proper documents in order... No pleading by the Polish organizers could help us, so we had to turn back just when we were so close to victory. Well, we hope to return next year and win, anyway! Maybe by that time Europe will not be divided by nasty impenetrable borders...

by Plastun Andriy Horak

A SEA FAIR FAR FROM THE SEA!

Although our city of Lviv is situated hundreds of miles from the shores of the two nearest seas (the Black and the Baltic Seas), this did not prevent us from holding on April 29th of this year a Sea Fair in out city after all, here we have quite a few Sea-Scouts! The Fair commemorated the historic event in 1918, when Ukraine raised its blue-and-yellow flags on the Black Sea fleet. The fair proved to be a lot of fun for all the participants. There were contests, sea dances and songs, videos about Sea Scouting, etc. The whole place was decorated like an old sailing ship, and the participants tried to dress like ancient sailors. Taking part in the fun were not only our Sea Scouts, but also members of the scout council named after the famous Cossack Hetman Baida Vyshnevetskyi, who became famous for his daring sea raids, against slave-trader strongholds on the Black-Sea shores.

by Plastuny Volodia Dushenko and Bohdan Hrynko

A WHITE-WATER RAFTING IN THE CARPATHIAN MOUNTAINS

During the stormy months of April-May of this year, in the highest and wildest part of the nearby Ukrainian Carpathian Mountains (Verkhovyna)l on the rivers Prut and Black Cheremoshl 25 Ukrainian Sea Scouts (plus some guest-scouts from Belarus), held the 5th white-water training camp. The goal was to give the boys and girls a taste of real white-water rafting using catamaran-type boats down the wild mountain streams at the height of the spring high-water season. Such rafting presents the maximum amount of excitement and also of danger. At that time, the steep mountain streams are swollen with melting snow waters coming down from the mountain peaks. The water almost boils over the numerous rapids, waterfalls, and narrows: it is cold, not much above 0º C; in such water a person can last no longer than 5-7 minutes. That's why proper waterproof clothing and helmets are an absolute necessity in such exercises.

Plast Sea Scouts on the Black Cheremosh River

The program consisted of two stages: an intensive training camp for future camp leaders, which took place near the town of Yaremche on the river Prut, and a camp for Sea Scouts, which was held on the Cheremosh River. Both were very satisfying: most of the participants had been to similar camps before, allowing us to concentrate on overcoming special difficulties, rather than on the basics. The weather was gorgeous, the water was very high, as was the mood of the participants. It was the most successful camp of this type which we have had so far. But the catamarans are just one type of water sports which our Sea Scouts are learning about. Later this year, we plan to hold training programs where we will practice sailing on yachts, canoes, and other water craft, as well as wind-surfing and diving.

by Rover Scout Marko Chukvinskyi. Photo Rover Scout Bohdan Yatsyshyn

ST. SOFIA OF KYIV — THE MOTHER OF CHURCHES

Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine, has been known for a thousand years as the Golden-Domed capital in Europe, because of the great number of the beautiful churches, which were covered by gold-leaf. Kyiv is also one of the greenest and most spectacular cities in the world.

The first Christian ruler of the Kyivan Empire the ancient Ukraine was queen Olha, who was baptized during the middle of the 10th century and was later made a saint. However it was in 988, during the rule of her grandson, the Emperor Volodymyr the Great (also a saint in the Christian church), that the country officially adopted Christianity as its state religion.

Christianity came to Ukraine from the Eastern Roman Empire, from Constantinople (Byzantium). With Christianity our country also opened its doors to Byzantine art, architecture, and science. But the liturgical language was Slavic the Old Church Slavonic (an ecclesiastical language created for religious usage) which was readily understood by all the people of the enormous Kyivan Empire, which at that time embraced about half of Europe.

A large library was established at the royal palace in Kyiv and the first schools were opened. St. Volodymyr built many churches, among them the magnificent Desiatynna (Tithe) church to which the Emperor donated 10% of his personal wealth. The Desiatynna Church was destroyed in subsequent wars, but its foundations can still be seen in front of the Ukrainian Historical Museum in Kyiv. Today, there are plans to reconstruct this most ancient of Kyivan churches.

Volodymyr's son, Yaroslav the Wise, extended the Kyivan Empire even further. He also built a magnificent in Kyiv the famous St. Sofia, which still dominates the Kyivan skyline. It is the most famous, and probably the most beautiful church in all of Ukraine. The church also was destroyed a number of times in various wars, but was always rebuilt. Many of the original mosaics, frescoes, and icons still grace its ancient walls. A later baroque bell-tower, a monastery, a school, a library and other structures have been added to this national monument. It is the spiritual and historical center of the ancient city nicknamed the Mother of all Churches. Recently, some mosaics and other art treasures from the Kyivan St. Sofia traveled to New York, where they were displayed in a separate room and became the centerpiece at a magnificent art exhibit (The Glory of Byzantium) at the famous Metropolitan Museum of Art.

"Bell Tower of St. Sofia Cathedral at Sunrise" From:Oleg V. Baranovsky's Kyiv Photo Gallery

The Ukrainian Scouting Pages are adapted from material published by the Plast National Executive in Ukraine in Ukrainian Scouting
Editor: Lubomyr Onyshkevych

Your feedback, comments and suggestions are appreciated.
Please write to us via e-mail at: Ukrainian Scouting
Letters to the editors should be sent to:
Ukrainian Scouting, P. O. Box 22, Ternopil, 252001, UKRAINE

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