Plast founder Dr. Oleksander Tysovsky reburied at Lviv's Lychakiv Cemetery (10/13/02)

Plast founder Dr. Oleksander Tysovsky reburied at Lviv's Lychakiv Cemetery

by Deanna Yurchuk
Special to The Ukrainian Weekly

LVIV - On August 24 members of Plast Ukrainian Scouting Organization weren't only commemorating the 11th anniversary of Ukraine's independence, but also the reburial of their organization's founder, Dr. Oleksander Tysovsky from Vienna to Lviv's Lychakiv Cemetery.

This momentous event was the culmination of the two-week scouting jamboree celebrating Plast's 90th year. Approximately 1,500 Plast members from 10 different countries marched along the streets of Lviv to the cemetery to honor their founder's return to his homeland.

Dr. Tysovsky, also known by his Plast pseudonym "Drot," founded Plast in 1911. In 1944 he immigrated to Austria, where he died in 1968. Reburied alongside him were his wife, Iryna, and his son, Yurii. Also reburied on that day was Mykhailo Haluschynsky, a member of Plast and the Ukrainian Sich Riflemen.

As Plast members, clad in their scouting uniforms, solemnly filed onto the site of the burial, the words to the Plast vow resounded throughout the cemetery. It was history in the making, and even the youngest members stood in awe and complete silence as the moleben and panakhyda were celebrated.

"Silence is one thing you would probably not expect of 1,500 plastuny who - having come to the end of two weeks of camping together in the rain of the Carpathian Mountains, under the unbearably clear blue skies of Svirzh - are piled onto buses, deposited in Lviv and marched in full regalia through its beautiful cobbled streets," said Symon Kohut, from the Plast group of Melbourne, Australia. "But it's the silence that struck me as we slowed to a measured, funereal walk up the winding path through the heart of the Lychakiv Cemetery."

"For me the event was extremely moving," said Marta Kuzmowycz of Rhode Island. "In 1970 my husband and I were present in Vienna at the blessing of Drot's gravestone. We were in yunatsvo [scouts age 11-17] then, the same age that our son is now, and we were thrilled that he had a chance to be at his reburial with us and thousands of other plastuny."

In his homily the Rev. Hlib Lonchyna honored Drot by stating: "He dedicated his life to educating youth and helping others. He founded this scouting organization, Plast, so that Ukrainian youth could grow up in a healthy environment and become good citizens ... he left for us a simple motto, 'Not me, not you, but us,' reflecting the essence of benevolence and brotherhood. The best way that we can honor Dr. Tysovsky and Mr. Haluschynsky is to continue the ideas for which they lived with our own lives."

Also addressing the throng of Plast members that day was the head of the World Plast Command, Slava Rubel of New York City, who said, "[Drot] leaves for us his set of requirements: to understand the 14 tenets of Plast and to live according to them." She added, "This resting place for Drot will be for us a kind of mecca, where we will get together, contemplate and gather strength."

Mr. Kohut observed, "At Lychakiv Cemetery on that last day of the jamboree, with the sadness of parting upon us, we heard the rustling leaves and felt that Drot's spirit had been roused."

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