Dr. Oleksander Tysovskiy
Founder of Ukrainian Scouting

Oleksander Tysovskiy (also known under the psedonym: ‘Drot’) was born 9th August 1886 in the village of Bykiw, in western Ukraine. On graduating from Ukrainian grammar school in L’viw with distinction, he entered L’viw University, where he gained a PhD in biology.

He lectured in the university under government ban and became a fellow
of the Shevchenko Scientific Society.

Realising his inclination towards secondary school education,
Dr. Tysovskiy attained a teaching qualification and commenced
teaching in the grammar school in
L’viw (1911-39)

Coming from a patriotic family,
Dr. Tysovskiy recognised the need
in the prevailing political situation
for a patriotic young population.
This gave him the idea of creating a youth organisation – which evolved
into Plast. He set up the first group
of yunaky at the grammar school in 1911 and in 1912 this group was the first to take the Plast pledge.
‘Drot’, went on to publish a book
entitled ‘Plast’ and the manual
‘Life in Plast’.

At the beginning of World War II Drot emigrated to Austria, where he continued to work in the Ukrainian community. He keenly followed the development of Plast in the refugee camps in Germany, and visited Plast centres in Europe and beyond.

Dr. Oleksander Tysovskiy died in Vienna on 29th March, 1968.