222 Chapter 6
Tourists setting out on an overnight trip from the Enisei tourist base, Krasnoiarsk
region in Siberia. Turist, no. 8 (1968): 11.and so forth. We have as many chiefs as we have tourists.”^36 The Soviet tour-
ist base routine is very reminiscent of the kind of Girl Scout resident camp I
experienced as a camper and counselor in the 1960s, where socialization was
the main goal and skill was secondary.^37
Some trips emphasized the rigor of physical effort, but many more catered
to the less adventurous tourist, such as itinerary 79 over the Kakhetin range
of the Caucasus Mountains, which offered exposure to “the most varied re-
gions of the Caucasus.” Starting in the city of Ordzhonikidze, tourists rode by
truck to the southern stretch of the Georgian Military Highway, then climbed
on foot to a Georgian village, where they camped at a local school. After tak-
ing breakfast in a shepherd’s hut, they continued their journey with a combi-
nation of truck travel and trekking: long hikes to obtain the most spectacular
views of the mountains and motorized transport to visit museums, ancient- GARF, f. 9559, op. 1, d. 860 (health camp offi cials’ seminar, April 1966), ll. 47–50,
95 (quote); TsAGM, f. 28, op. 1, d. 6, ll. 44–45, 47; GARF, f. 9520, op. 1, d. 361 (reports on
tourist base services, 1958), ll. 11–12. - Other types of American youth camps emphasized competitions. Hear “Notes on
Camp,” This American Life , especially note 6, “Color Days,” 28 August 1998, http://www.
thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/109/notes-on-camp. See also Abigail A. Van
Slyck, Manufactured Wilderness: Summer Camps and the Shaping of American Youth,
1890–1960 (Minneapolis, 2006).