Representatives of the Jewish Scouting Center, Kremenchuk photo #3277

On April 1, 1918, on the basis of the “Maccabi” center, the Jewish Scouting Legion was established in the city of Kremenchuk, which later became the most powerful “Gashomer Gatsair” center in Soviet Ukraine.

This Kremenchuk legion (the provincial associations were called legions in “Maccabi”) – as of 1922 – had grown to 850 members and included three age groups.

They were organized in the corresponding squads:
a) two detachments of “shomri” (“guards”), aged 15 and over;
b) five detachments of “scouts” (explorers) – youth;
c) five detachments of “zevonim” (“wolf cubs”) – children aged 8-11.
The “Scouts” group also included the 6th detachment in Kryukiv

A year later, on October 9, 1923, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Bolsheviks) was again forced to target the provincial party committees with the liquidation of the Jewish Scout movement. The struggle also included mass arrests – for example, 72 organizers of this cell were arrested in Kremenchuk.

Although this behavior of the Soviet authorities caused public protest, including anti-Soviet appeals, scouting activity gradually faded away. The local headquarters moved from Kremenchuk to Kharkiv, the capital of Soviet Ukraine

Date: early 1920s
Place: Kremenchuk, representatives of the most powerful Jewish scouting cell in post-Soviet Ukraine
Photo from the archive of Boris Babilois
Source and information: Historical Truth (access www.istpravda.com.ua)