If you come to the banks of the River Ros on the outskirts of Korsun-Shevchenkove district in early May, you might think that all nature lovers, by a sheer coincidence of circumstances, have set foot precisely here. Endless rows of tents, the scent of a campfire-cooked meal, and the sounds of a guitar all greet you. In reality, this is the traditional Cossack Ways Jamboree trek organized for the thirteenth time by the Union of Children’s and Teenagers’ Organizations (SPOK) with assistance from the Youth Social Services Center and the State Committee for Family and Youth Affairs. This year the function gathered 1600 young people from ten Ukrainian oblasts, Poland, and Holland.
Is spite of its ideological veneer, the Soviet-period Young Pioneers institution still performed a socially useful function of keeping youngsters busy. Its quite natural demise caused unprotected teens to take to what is known as social evils like drugs and alcohol. In any case, it is this factor that psychologists and psychotherapists claim throws more and more young people into the fold of these vices. The Cossack Ways jamboree tries to offer as far as possible an antidote to these evils.
In addition to the fact that nasty habits are placed under an official taboo here and one caught red- handed is in for a severe punishment, young people just do not have time to do wrong (like in a well-known social ad). From the early morning, classroom tents host various workshops on basic psychology, survival techniques, and politics. After lunch one must think how to win a war decoration, for example, the Black Panther (this requires a no-nonsense effort: to keep silent all day long, not eat the next day, then to make a nest on a tree and spend all night there), or the Ladder of Growth (one can win the title of pathfinder, scout, or researcher). In addition, one must not forget about household chores, for, by contrast to health and recreation centers, here the children have to cook hot meals by themselves.
In a word, the most homegrown and overprotected child turns here into a strong and self-confident person and acquires the qualities of a leader. This is also the opinion of psychologist Yury Kalashnykov. He says that the combination of tourism, education and self-organization in a small group can instill in a child a number of qualities and features that will be of use in the future. He/she will govern his/her own life as well as learns to plan the future, set and achieve goals.
The participants themselves say they take part in bare-knuckles competitions not because they want to flash around dazzling badges but because they want to prove to themselves that they are strong and purposeful as well as to spot their own weak points. Nine-year-old Svitlana Krylova told The Day that the first thing she likes is the reaction of her parents to her coming back home. “Every time they are surprised at the way I’ve changed for the better. I feel like doing everything for myself,” she says.
There are no doubts about the positive effect this school has. Unfortunately, only 1600 people from all over Ukraine could become its pupils. It is still a problem for this school to win mass appeal. Although the good this school does for the body and spirit is common knowledge, nobody wants or is in a position to advertise it. Moreover, as practice shows, this kind of recreation provides another plus for young people: an effective combination of theory taught in classroom tents and practice will further motivate young people to do well in traditional schools. Here they see a true example of how acquired knowledge in geography, biology, basic medicine, and manual labor can be applied in everyday life.
