212 Chapter 6
As separate departments of the council, the Tourism-Excursion Authority and
the Kurort Administration targeted the same consumers but managed parallel
structures, and the trade union administrative structure provided little com-
mon ground on which to cooperate in providing vacations for the Soviet people.
Two key events in the mid-1950s symbolized dramatic changes in the sta-
tus of tourism. In 1955 the Soviet regime authorized foreign travel by Soviet
citizens, beginning with visits to fraternal socialist countries but extending
gradually to capitalist countries and those of the nonaligned world.^5 Second,
the landmark Twentieth Party Congress in February 1956 aroused hopes for
change across the spectrum of Soviet life. In April a TEU offi cial insisted
that the congress had instructed us to “keep in step with the times,” but
the assembled tourism activists seemed more demoralized and divided than
excited. Offi cials continued to disagree on whether the weight of their ef-
forts should be directed toward promoting mass independent tourism or the
expansion of planned tours by putevka. Chronic lack of funds meant that
neither constituency was being served adequately, and the TEU did not even
have the resources to bring its local representatives to a national conference;
this led to accusations that they were operating too secretively, opening new
tourist bases and itineraries with no consideration of local conditions or de-
mand. Meanwhile, the offi cials expressed dismay at the more favorable treat-
ment given to the Health Resort Administration: rest homes received direct
subsidies for new construction, while the tourist authority had to fi nance its
bases with the profi ts from the sale of putevki. As a result, tourist bases con-
tinued to lag badly in amenities and comfort.^6
As we have seen, the Central Trade Union Council received full respon-
sibility for administering health resorts beginning in the summer of 1960,
producing an additional injection of funds and organizational energy to mod-
ernize stationary vacations. Tourism also faced scrutiny. The Trade Union
Council handed its tourism offi cials another scathing broadside in November
1959, directing them to raise the level of leadership and improve the organiza-
tion of domestic tourist facilities.^7 But oblast trade unions only gradually and
grudgingly increased their efforts on behalf of tourists. When the central TEU
fi nally called an all-union conference in September 1961, the representative
from the newly formed Vladimir TEU told a familiar tale. They had no tourist
bases or steamships of their own, none of the local trade unions or enterprises
provided any subsidies, and they relied on selling putevki given to them by
Moscow as their only tourist activity. Other representatives again pointed to
their second-class status within the vacation sector. With all the attention
being given to the trade union takeover of kurorts and rest homes, there was- Gorsuch, All This Is Your World , 10–11.
- GARF, f. 9520, op. 1, d. 318 (tourist offi cials’ conferences, 1956), ll. 11–14 (quote l. 11),
46, 35. The Central Trade Union Council issued two directives in 1957 and 1958 instruct-
ing the TEU to do more for the mass, independent tourist, such as producing more camping
equipment and improving conditions in tourist bases. Trud , 10 March 1957; 19 August 1958. - The decree is mentioned in Trud , 16 December 1959, but the text was not published.