На нашем сайте впервые опубликован материал на иностранном языке. Если вы не знаете английский язык, то переводчик Google вам в помощь. В этом тексте рассказывается про путешествие норвежских скаутов в честь 100-летия экспедиции Фритьона Нансена по Сибири. Скауты посетили и РО ДОСААФ России Красноярского края, и лагерь "Легион", где провели курсы по лидерству. Подробности далее:

In 1913, The Norwegian Fridtjof Nansen travelled through Siberia. Nansen had a special relationship to the Russian people, he made great efforts to help the Russian people, and in 1922 he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Celebrating this journey (his journey in 1913/hundred years ago), two Norwegian and two Russian scout organizations arranged a journey in the same route. Four scouts have visited five youth / scout camps and arranged scout training. The purpose has been to strengthen Russian scouting and build new bonds between Norwegian and Russian scouts. Further, the group has informed about Nansen’s efforts to help the Russian people.

Nansen and Russia

Nansen was a zoologist and an oceanographer. He became world famous for his voyage on the ship ”Fram” (Forward) heading to the North Pole. (The ship drifted across the Arctic ocean 1893 – 96, frozen in the ice. Nansen hereby proved that there was an ocean current from the Bering Strait to Greenland.)

In 1913 the Norwegian Jonas Lied was running a trade company in Krasnoyarsk. His idea was to transport goods via the northern sea route; down the Jenisej river and over the Kara Sea and Barents Sea to Western Europe, as this would be cheaper than on the Trans Sib railroad. To promote this idea, Lied invited Nansen to take part in a trial journey. After this journey Nansen spoke positively of the prospects of Siberia and the future of the peoples in Siberia.

(The ship ”Correct” brought many goods from Europe, i.e. cement for the Trans Sib. After some problems with dense ice in the Kara Sea, they reached the outlet of Jenisej. The goods were moved over on river boats, and transported to Jeniseisk and Krasnoyarsk. The sea rout proved successful in the years to come.) 

After World War I more than 400.000 soldiers were taken prisoners of war. There was no diplomatic contact between USSR and West Europe, and these prisoners could not travel home. However, Nansen had confidence from the Bolshevik government, as well as in the west, and he was asked to administrate the work of repatriation of these prisoners. He managed to organize a great international cooperation between The League of Nations, Soviet, Germany and International Red Cross. The task was fulfilled successfully in two years.

The Volga area experienced severe drought in 1921-22. (check year) Further\in addition, the Bolshevik government took grain from the farmers, to support the red army. The result was the worst famine\the most terrible famine. Probably as many as 30 millions were starving.

First, the government did not acknowledge officially that there was a famine. But after a while they could not hide it. Nansen heard about it and felt a conviction to help. He tried to get the governments in Western Europe to give or lend money. They did not do this\the governments in Europe were not willing to lend money, arguing that this would support the Bolshevik government.

Nansen rose private funding, and at the most he administrated the distribution of food to half a million people every day.

However, the Bolshevik government demanded to have control over the distribution, and it is now known that some of the food “disappeared” on the way. At the same time, an American help organization, ARA, sent food to 11 million people each day at the most, and they had\having full control over the distribution.

Scouting

Scouting is all about personality development. It involves the whole person: Physical, intellectual, practical, social and spiritual. Scouts should be able to take care of themselves, help other people, help his local community and help his country. Scouts also learn to take care of nature. As a world-wide movement, scouting is peace work. The slogan is: “Always prepared”.

In scouting we divide the youths in patrols of 6-8 scouts in each patrol. This makes the scout training better, because everyone in the patrol can be more active. Every patrol has a leader and an assistant, aged 13 – 16, who train the younger scouts in their own patrol. The patrol leader and –assistant are trained by older scouts or grown up leaders. So; scouts receive leadership training from the age of 13. The patrol should be a strong unit, where everyone is being accepted and valued.

In the world today is about 30 million scouts. Norway, with only 5 million people, has about 20.000 scouts. Scouting started in England 1907, and came to Russia soon after. However, the scout organization was forbidden some years after the revolution. Many scout leaders were killed; others fled out of USSR and continued scouting in exile. After perestroika scouting was once more permitted, and now there are 5 nation-wide scout organizations in Russia with maybe 20.000 scouts, as well as some local groups.

Siberian journey

During the Nansen anniversary this summer, the scouts have visited Ekaterinburg (Carabela), Tjumen (Youth media center), Krasnojarsk (DOSAAF, two Legion camps), and Irkutsk (Baikal scouts).

The scouts have arranged scouting activities and leadership courses. Program included team building games, first aid activities, physical challenges, spiritual training, construction of a bridge with poles – without ropes (da Vinci-model).

Patrol leaders and assistants were trained to administrate their patrols and make sure that everybody was active, so that no one fell outside, socially.

All together some 275 teenagers and grown-ups participated in the training.

The scouts also visited Jeniseisk, and saw the places Nansen visited in 1913.

Участники экспедиции: Dag T. Elgvin, Asbjorn Stokka and Laila J. Elgvin,