Proletarian Tourism 87velop his skills. The trade unions’ TEU did little to promote this most ac-
cessible form of tourism, complained activists, despite the mandate given
it at the time of its founding. Local tourism instead became the task of the
tourists themselves, such as a group from the Moscow TEU that had become
renowned as the “longlegs” for their weekly practice of forty-kilometer hikes.
By 1940, they had become leaders of numerous local tourist groups. “For
us Moscow tourists, travel in the Moscow region is an excellent school of
endurance and orienteering, expanding our horizons and helping us become
educated cultured people.” Tourists could fi nd a world to discover in their
own backyards.^74
The enthusiasts of proletarian tourism—those who advocated for tourism
to become a mass movement—remained in a minority in the 1930s. The pub-
- Vecherniaia Moskva ’s “Tourist Corner” featured regular announcements for Saturday
and Sunday hiking trips in the Moscow region sponsored by the Society for Proletarian Tour-
ism, Sovetskii Turist, and the Society for the Study of the Moscow Region starting in 1929.
NSNM , no. 1 (1930): 15; no. 13 (1934): 4; no. 11 (1934): 3–4; no. 17 (1934): 4; no. 7 (1936): 23;
no. 4 (1940): 15; no. 1 (1937): 2; no. 4 (1938): 2; no. 8 (1940): 4–5 (quote).
Where is tourism here? “We have not yet eliminated those entirely unnecessary reports on
general themes like ‘On the signifi cance of tourism’ and ‘What is the OPTE,’ etc.” Na sushe
i na more, no. 9 (1935): 14.
Where is tourism here? “The trip booklets of many organizations of the OPTE fall into the
hands of ‘beachgoers,’ occupying not only the beach but also the OPTE tourist bases. For
genuine tourists there is often ‘no space.’” Na sushe i na more, no. 9 (1935): 14.