Scouting and Guiding in Poland

The Scouting and Guiding movement in Poland (Polish: Harcerstwo) consists of about 12 independent organizations with an overall membership of about 160,000 Scouts and Guides. The largest organization by membership is Polish Scouting and Guiding Association (Związek Harcerstwa Polskiego; ZHP) with about 140,000 members.

History of the Scout movement in Poland

Background

At the beginning of the 20th century, Poland was partitioned between the German, Russian, and Austro-Hungarian Empires. Poles, both adult and young, formed many grass-roots movements and organizations, aimed at preserving the nation and preparing for the eventual struggle for independence. One such group was the youth organization "Zarzewie".

Beginning of the Scout movement

Scouting was introduced to the Austria-Hungary partition of Poland by Polish writer and publicist Edmund Naganowski, who wrote an article about the organization of Boy Scouts and Boys' Brigades in Słowo Polskie (Lwów, 16 September 1909), among his other articles about English system of education. Later he corresponded with the Chief Scout of the World, Baden-Powell, who encouraged Naganowski to the introduction of scouting in Poland and presented him with a copy of his scouting manual, Scouting for Boys. The manual was translated to Polish by an activist of Zarzewie, Andrzej Małkowski. The work had been assigned to him as a punishment for being a notorious latecomer. Małkowski became enthusiastic and worked to implement the new movement with his wife Olga.