The Soviets always had a down on scouting, insisting that it was just paramilitary training, and there was even a hilarious editorial comic in Pravda, showing a boy scout using a stick to detect a buried antitank mine.
Remember the original “Red Dawn?”
The Cuban officer who was part of the Russian occupation of the fictional town of Calumet, Colorado was asking the town’s mayor about one of the local “Wolverine” teenagers.
When he found out the teenager was an Eagle Scout, the Cuban looked at the mayor and said, “A paramilitary organization?”
>>>The Soviets always had a down on scouting, insisting that it was just paramilitary training, and there was even a hilarious editorial comic in Pravda, showing a boy scout using a stick to detect a buried antitank mine.<<<
They had scouts too, and it was actually a military training. They had nationwide championships between local branches in games like “fox hunt” - a kids as young as 8-10 used their radio skills to locate transmitters hidden in a remote places, “zarnitsa” - a team flag hunt game using military tactics and equipment (apcs, helicopters, hazmat gear).
Up to late 1980s every Soviet secondary school graduate could strip and assemble AK blindfolded and hit a mock IFV air intakes with training Molotov from a distance of 30 yards. It was a part of GTO (ready-to-labor-and-defence) test. AKs were actually their standard school gym gear.