Russian Association of Girl Scouts

Rossiyskaya Assotsiatsiya Devochek-Skautov
Russian Association of Girl Scouts
Country	Russia
Founded	1994
Membership	1,158
Affiliation	World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts
Website www.girlscout.ru
Brownie Scout

Russian Association of Girl Scouts (Russian: Росси́йская Ассоциа́ция де́вочек-ска́утов, Rossiyskaya Assotsiatsiya Devochek-Skautov) is the national Girl Scouting organization of Russia. Guiding in Russia started about 1910 within the Boy Scout groups and was disbanded in the 1920s. It was restarted in 1990 as part of the Federation of Scouts of Russia and formed an independent association in 1994. The organization became an associate member of the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGGS) in 1999 and a full member in 2008. The girls-only association has 1,158 members (as of 1998).

There are records of Russian Girl Scout patrols in a range of towns from 1909 on, but there was no national Girl Scout organization. Scouting returned in the years of perestroika. Many international contacts were made with foreign visits and aid offered. There was much interest in bringing Scouting back to Russia. In 1991 The Federation of Scouts of Russia was created, and almost immediately there was a discussion of a program for girls.

In 1993 a reception was held in Manila, Philippines in conjunction with WAGGGS' Asia Pacific Symposium of NGOs for Women in Development. The aim was to introduce or reintroduce the Girl Guiding/Girl Scouting movement and to explore possibilities of starting/restarting Girl Guiding/Girl Scouting in Russia, as well as Cambodia, Iran, Tibet, Uzbekistan and Vietnam. Fifty women leaders from those nations attended the Asia Pacific Symposium, sharing their Girl Guiding/Girl Scouting experiences.

In 1993 the founding conference of the League of Girl Scouts of the FSR took place in Perm. The girls' program developed, and in October 1994 the next step was the founding conference in Perm.