The Proletarian Tourist in the 1930s 97with their local OPTE council before 1936 or with their trade unions there-
after; it was possible but very dangerous in the Soviet Union of the 1930s to
travel without authorization. In the years of the fi rst fi ve-year plan, the most
important document for independent tourists was the ration book, obtain-
able through the local OPTE committees. Tourists in the early 1930s carried
most of their food with them. They also included rifl es and fi shing gear in
their packs in order to stretch out the food supplies brought from home. By
the second half of the 1930s, however, the food crisis had lessened, and tour-
ists reported that it was possible to purchase provisions from local residents.
Only if they planned to travel far from populated areas should tourist groups
plan to carry their food supply with them.^19
The trip regime provided the mechanism for the independent tourist’s
self-reliance and self-discipline. Rationality in touring followed logically
from the rationality of the fi ve-year plans and of socialist industry; even lei-
sure required its rules, as we have already seen in the case of Soviet health
resorts. Independent groups should select their itinerary on the basis of their
experience and skill levels. By 1938, drawing on the accumulated experience
of proletarian tourists themselves, the trade union tourist authority had di-
vided independent routes into three categories of diffi culty. Category 3 could
accommodate beginning tourists, who should plan to travel about fi fteen ki-
lometers a day and to carry light packs weighing three kilograms for men and
one kilogram for women. Category 1 tourists should have at least three or
four years of touring experience; they were able to travel twenty-fi ve to thirty
kilometers a day in moderately hilly terrain, carrying loads of twelve–sixteen
kilograms for men and six–eight for women. On the march, proper tourists
observed a regular routine, starting the trip slowly and gradually building up
stamina. Too many tourist groups, warned On Land and On Sea , started too
energetically and found themselves seriously fatigued within just a few days.
Pacing was all-important, including regular stops for meals, a rest hour after
the noon meal, and a rest day after every three or four days on the road. Every
evening the group would build its campfi re; in the many trip reports, this was
a treasured aspect of the experience that would continue to transfi x tourists
until the end of the Soviet regime.^20
Remembering and recording the journey came to be an important element
of the self-discipline of the trip regime and the tourist experience. In the
workplace, the diary served as a disciplining part of the work process; writ-
ing encouraged self-refl ection about the relationship between the worker and
the job.^21 For proletarian tourists, the trip diary would structure the group’s
memories, but it would also congeal and transmit the social knowledge
- NSNM , no. 12 (1929): 12; Turist-aktivist , no. 10 (1932): 14; NSNM , no. 5 (1937): 2;
no. 3 (1939): 14; Puteshestviia po SSSR , 7, 21, 32, 35–36, 75, 118. - Puteshestviia po SSSR , 204–205; NSNM , no. 3 (1939): 13; no. 12 (1929): 14; no. 1
(1929): 14; no. 12 (1929): 12; nos. 17–18 (1930): 24; no. 9 (1934): 3; no. 8 (1935): 11; Prolet-
arskii turizm , 18, 48. - Hellbeck, Revolution on My Mind , 45.