EDMONTON, Canada — Plast, Ukraine’s oldest scouting organization finally can rely on strong government support. On Dec. 17, 316 lawmakers backed the law on state recognition of the Plast National Scout Organization. From now on, local executive and self-government bodies will provide financial and informational support to the largest scouting organization in Ukraine, while central executive authorities will focus on Plast organizations outside the country.
But it was tough. This summer, 228 lawmakers voted in favor of state support of the Plast. But President Volodymyr Zelensky rejected it on Sept. 4 and sent it back to parliament for revision. The main objection to the law was that “the definition of the Plast National Scouting Organization of Ukraine as the only scouting organization in Ukraine… creates benefits and privileges for its functioning and receiving state support, and also creates risks that already existing scouting organizations could not continue performing any activity and new ones could not be created.”
The issue has strong public attention because of Plast’s history and contribution to Ukraine’s statehood.
Proud past
The Ukrainian scouting movement known as Plast was formed in 1911 in Lviv. Throughout more than 100 years of its activity, Plast has endured various challenges: from world wars, when Plast scouts showed their endurance under extreme circumstances, to a period of underground activity when Plast was outlawed by the Polish state in 1930.
When the Soviet Union took control of Ukraine it banned the organization, but the Ukrainian diaspora revived Plast after World War II in different parts of the world: Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Argentina and others.
Plast was to eventually renew its activity in Ukraine in 1989. This year marks the 30th anniversary of the restored movement in their homeland. Today Plast has 10,000 members in Ukraine and thousands in nearly 20 countries – which makes it the largest Ukrainian youth movement in the world.
Among the famous Plast members were not only such historical figures as Stepan Bandera or Roman Shukhevych, recognized as heroes of the anti-Soviet nationalist uprising in Ukraine, but also economist and benefactor Bohdan Hawrylyshyn, former major archbishop of the Ukrainian Catholic Church Lubomyr Husar, and Canadian Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland.
Active position
Although Plast calls itself “non-political,” it has also never shied away from supporting Ukraine’s fight for independence or helping in its struggle to counter the Kremlin’s attempts to undermine Ukrainian sovereignty. Many Plast members took leading roles in the protests that became the 2014 EuroMaidan Revolution, and when ex-President Viktor Yanukovych’s special police forces shot and killed more than 100 protestors, Plast members were among the dead and wounded.
They also were among those joining the armed volunteer battalions in spring 2014 that fought against Russian-backed separatists. But for the diaspora, Plast often serves as a bridge between modern life and Ukrainian tradition and between their countries and Ukraine.
Martyn Stusiak, a native of Stryy, a city of 60,000 in Lviv Oblast, was 14 when he joined Plast. Even though Stusiak doesn’t live in Ukraine anymore and no longer belongs to the organization, he calls it an important part of his life. “Plast has shaped my life position, and motivated me to take an active role in the community, whether at home, in Ukraine, or living in Canada.” He believes even people who have never been involved in the Plast would welcome the state’s decision to support and promote the physical, moral and patriotic upbringing of young people. Stusiak also said the amendments “were unnecessary” since the original law did not intend to interfere in the work of other organizations but “simply defined Plast as a truly national scout organization.”
Yuriy Yuzych, who heads the National Plast Supervisory Board, wrote in July that it is important to identify Plast as “the only national scout organization” mainly to prevent the creation of dozens of “fake Plast organizations.”
Andrij Hornjatkevyc, a retired associate professor of Ukrainian Studies at the University of Alberta, is certain the recognition of Plast as a national scout organization is “a most welcome development” because it gives the organization official recognition by the government and concomitant material support. He says that the recognition will most likely benefit mainly Plast in Ukraine since “Plast organizations in the various countries are materially self-sufficient,” but they each continue to give material support to Plast in Ukraine.
Hornjatkevyc also adds that there is a body within Plast that coordinates and helps its work in all countries where the movement exists. In each country where Plast was established it is headed by a national executive, a pattern established in Germany after the Second World War. Such executives were established initially in Germany, UK, USA, Canada, Australia and Argentina. To co-ordinate the work of these national executives the Conference of Ukrainian Plast Organizations (CUPO) was established which periodically organizes assemblies of representatives from each country to plan and co-ordinate further work, Hornjatkevyc explains.
“What had hitherto been an émigré organization, Plast has now returned to its homeland and flourished there. In its earliest years Plast in Ukraine received considerable material and moral assistance from its sister organizations in the diaspora until it could stand on its own two feet.” Hornjatkevyc said in a comment to the Kyiv Post. “It is my understanding that CUPO would continue to perform its co-ordinating role vis-à-vis Plast organizations in all countries.”
