Slovakia
Scouting was established in the area that comprises Slovakia, while under the Austro-Hungarian Empire, in 1912. Scouting in Slovakia started in connection with Hungarian Scouting as Slovakia was, at the time, economically and socially linked more closely with the Hungarian parts of the Empire. As part of the fledgling Czechoslovakia, Slovakia was a Founding Member of WOSM from 1922 to 1948, with an interstice in which Scouting ceased to exist as a result of Nazi German occupation in 1940. During the later period of Soviet dominance, like the neighboring Czech Republic and Hungary, Scouting went underground to reemerge under more suitable conditions.
After the November 1989 Velvet Revolution, Scouting was one of the first organisations to re-emerge from working underground. By the close of 1989, the number of Scouts in Czechoslovakia was 80,000. On February 1, 1990, the Federation of Czech and Slovak Scouting was officially registered, paving the way for its re-admittance to the World Organization during the World Scout Conference in Paris in July 1990, re-recognised by the major world Scouting organisations. Slovak Scouting returned as part of federated Scouting in Czechoslovakia from 1990 to 1992. Upon Czechoslovakia's dissolution on December 31, 1992, Slovenský Skauting and Cesky Junák were required to apply for membership of the World Organization as the national member organizations of the Republic of Slovakia and the Czech Republic, respectively. Slovakia was welcomed as a member of the World Organization of the Scout Movement in its own right since 1997.
Since Czechoslovakia split in two, Slovenský Skauting has started independent development, working hard to train its leaders and to update its youth programme. Several training courses have taken place over the last decade, and a Strategic Planning Seminar is being organized with the support of the European Scout Office. Interestingly for a landlocked nation, Slovenský Skauting maintains a section of Sea Scouts.
The Slovakian noun for a single Scout is Skaut.