August 4, 2015
Northville, NY: St. George Pathfinders of America honor St. Olga in Commemoration of Centennial of Russian Girl Scouts

In 1915, as the Great War dragged on and the cities and villages of the Russian Empire were quickly emptied of able-bodied men, Dr. Alexander K. Anokhin, president of the Kiev Sports Society and chief organizer of the region’s scouts, saw an opportunity to help involve the local girls in the nascent Russian Scouting movement – founded in 1909 at the behest of Emperor Nicholas II – as well as to aid in the war effort. He organized the first brigade of Russian girl scouts, and by the end of the year, 150 girl scouts joined the ranks of Kiev’s 700 boy scouts. They worked in social and benevolent organizations, helped nurse wounded soldiers returning from the front, and replaced peasant workers in the fields at harvest-time. While the Holy Great-Martyr and Trophy-Bearer George is the shared patron saint of all Christian boy scouts, the girl scouts chose as their patron the Holy Equal-of-the-Apostles Great Princess Olga. By the time of the Revolution two years later, girls scouts were a fixture of the 20,000-strong Russian Scouting movement, and have remained so ever since, while Dr. Anokhin has gone down in history alongside the founder of Russian scouting, Colonel Oleg I. Pantuhoff.

2015 marks the centennial of the first girl scout brigades, and the largest Russian Scouting organization abroad, organized locally as St. George Pathfinders of America (SGPA/ORUR), celebrated the anniversary by holding a jubilee gathering at its "Tsarskoe Selo" Chapter in Northville, NY, from Sunday the 19th to Saturday the 25th of July. Participating in the gathering were representatives from the four chapters in the United States: "Tsarskoe Selo" in New York, "Putivl’" in Washington, DC, "Nizhny Novgorod" in Los Angeles, and "Kiev" in San Francisco; as well as representatives from chapters in Western Europe, Australia, and Russia herself. The annual camp season, which traditionally spans four weeks, was shortened to two weeks to leave time not only for the jubilee gathering, but also for those who wanted to attend the greater gathering in Kiev at the end of the month.

Over the course of the gathering, scouts held nightly bonfires, which included singing scout, folk, and military songs, sharing talks with counselors and their own experiences with scouting around the world, and reminiscences of the scoutmasters of yore. They held competitions on scout praxis, Russian and Scouting history, the Law of God, culinary expertise, and Olympics. One evening saw a "Forest Ball," wherein everyone came dressed as their "forest names" (every scout receives a nickname based on an animal or plant that best fits his or her appearance and character). Every day began and ended with common prayer.

The highlight of the jubilee gathering was undoubtedly the DPV Ceremony, the "Day of Remembrance of the Fallen Faithful." The ceremony is held annually in honor of members of the Organization that have reposed (many dying for their Faith in the years of persecution); this year, for the first time, the Ceremony was held in the middle of the week, in order to include all of the guest participants. On Thursday evening, July 23, the First Hierarch of the Russian Church Abroad, His Eminence Hilarion, Metropolitan of Eastern America & New York, visited the camp and led he All-Night Vigil in St. George’s Chapel. He was co-served by diocesan secretary Archpriest Serge Lukianov (former spiritual counselor at "Tsarskoe Selo"), Archpriest Yaroslav Belikow (the Chapter’s current spiritual counselor), and Deacon Dionysius Lvov (cleric of the Synodal Cathedral of the Sign in New York City, accompanying His Eminence). The Metropolitan then presided over the DPV Ceremony and attended the memorial bonfire afterward. This year, the Ceremony was especially emotionally difficult for many of those in attendance, as they remembered girl scout Larisa Karassik, 13, who was killed in a car crash on May 23. A butterfly bush was planted at the camp’s main flagpole in her memory, corresponding to her forest name, Butterfly.

The following morning, Friday, July 24, the scouts traveled by bus to nearby Holy Trinity Monastery in Jordanville, NY, where they attended the hierarchal Divine Liturgy for the feast of the patron of the Russian girl scouts, the Holy Equal-of-the-Apostles Great Princess Olga. Celebrating the Liturgy was His Eminence Gabriel, Archbishop of Montreal & Canada, co-served by abbot Archimandrite Luke (Murianka) and monastery clergy. Scouts filled the kliros to help in singing the service under the direction of Priest Ephraim Willmarth. While it was inspiring to see all of the scouts praying together as a unified Orthodox family, it was even more endearing when, after the singing of the Creed, the choir descended into the church and all of the scouts joined together to sing the Anaphora hymns. As their young voices filled the monastery church, one could truly feel the spiritual unity and the oneness of the Body of Christ. Having prepared themselves in Confession the night before, almost everyone in attendance partook of Christ’s Holy Mysteries.

Upon completion of Liturgy, Archbishop Gabriel delivered a sermon to the gathered scouts, in which he said, in part: "Today we celebrate the centennial of the girl scouts, but it is no coincidence that we have gathered together here at the monastery. As many of us know, today is the feast day of our first Russian woman-saint to be glorified by the Church. She was called equal-of-the-apostles, that is to say equal in dignity to the Holy Apostles. She is our Great Princess Olga, whom we know from history as the grandmother of St. Vladimir. We know that both St. Vladimir and St. Olga, before their conversion to Christianity, were pagans. They worshipped idols and did not know Christ, did not know the True God. They bowed down before idols and brought them sacrifices. Toward the end of her life, she chose to convert to Orthodoxy, and came to the Byzantine Emperor and the Patriarch of Constantinople to be baptized. When she returned to Kiev, she began herself to preach the Gospel. She did not force anyone – not even her own sons – to accept Orthodoxy, although she undoubtedly had an effect on them. She traveled much and spread Christianity and built churches, in this way truly behaving as an apostle. The Baptism of Rus’ truly begins with her, and we are grateful to her for her contribution to the enlightenment of our people. Do not forget that you are the successors of Sts. Vladimir and Olga, and that you, too, can become apostles; you can be an example to those around you by living righteously and in an Orthodox manner."

After Liturgy, the scouts were invited to a luncheon in the monastery refectory (with extra settings in the garage for the overflow of guests), after which they were able to walk the monastery grounds and visit the museum and bookstore.

Scoutmaster Matushka Irina Korolenko joined the scouting movement later in life, when compared with those who have been part of the Organization since childhood. She was 20 years old when she evacuated postwar Germany in 1947 and settled with the Russian émigrés in Morocco. Seeing children idling away their spare time, she used what she remembered from her youth to organize a scout movement there, and led the local chapter for the next seven years, before moving to America in 1954. Since that time, she has been a pillar of the scout community at "Tsarskoe Selo," traveling from her home in faraway Indiana to help run the camp and especially teach Russian history. She shared her thoughts about the appropriateness of the Holy Equal-of-the-Apostles Great Princess Olga as the patron saint of the girl scouts: "St. Olga can be given the same evaluation as St. Vladimir: she was cruel and led a terrible life. But later, when she converted to Christianity, she was transformed into a completely different person. She became a holy person – an exceptionally intelligent one, at that – and was beloved by all. It is not a perfect parallel, of course: the girls who join our scouting Organization were never cruel and terrible, because they were already Christians. But they had not yet begun to serve others; and with entry into the Organization, so too was instilled the desire to serve. Girl scouts were first organized during the First World War, because people needed help. The girls were gathered together and immediately began helping families who had been deprived of their men, particularly the peasants. At first, the peasants did not understand who these girls were, and thought that they would just wind up under foot and get in the way. But the girls went about their work quietly, calmly, and without any fuss. They won over respect for themselves, and soon they were being invited to come and help. It is namely this – serving others – that our girl scouts can learn from St. Olga."

Returning to the camp that evening, the scouts hurried to prepare the farewell bonfire, which commenced after dinner and the closing ceremonies, presided over by Chief Scoutmaster Natasha Konon (several people noted how appropriate it was that the centennial of the Russian girl scouts should be met by the Organization’s first female Chief Scoutmaster).

Scoutmaster Anastasia ("Asta") Aristova is a longtime counselor and teacher in the "Nizhny Novgorod" Chapter; the author of The Scout’s Borscht, she is the editor-in-chief of "Opyt," SGPA’s counselors’ quarterly journal. "The greatest accomplishment of Russian Scouting is that this is the only Russian Diasporan organization that has existed for 100 years. No other organization has survived this long. The most important reason for this is that new members are always joining, and we are able to interest others and draw them in. The bonfire that Dr. Anokhin and his predecessors lit, the work that they began, is being continued today by many others. They have grabbed the relay baton, so to speak, and go forward. What happens in many other organizations? The first generation, which created something, dies off, and there is no replacement. But we have always had replacements, have always kept the idea alive. And what differentiates our scouting Organization from others, be it the American Boy Scouts or the Germans or others, is that we have both religion and the study of our national culture and history. Speaking of St. Olga, what is it that unites the Russian people? Religion! What is most touching and endearing to me is that these children, who are now third- or fourth-generation Americans, who do not even know how to read or write in Russian, nevertheless try to speak it! They yell ‘Always prepared for Russia!,’ they sing Russian songs. I consider this a truly incredible phenomenon." In honor of her many years of work with the scouts, Asta was awarded the Golden Palm Frond, 1st Class.

In a nod to the Olympics that had taken place throughout the week, the "eternal flame" from past bonfires was brought and passed along to representatives of each of the visiting countries, before being used to light the bonfire. In accordance with yearly tradition, as the songs were sung, each scout came up to knock a hatchet into a stump with the words, "Next year, to camp!" The bonfire concluded with a fireworks display and evening prayers. The following morning, campers departed for home or to the next scout gathering, all committing to continue their scouting work at home, and to return again next year.

Media Office of the Eastern American Diocese