238 Chapter 6
tours. The auto enthusiasts’ journal Behind the Wheel ( Za Rulem ) instructed
readers on how to convert their Pobeda and Moskvich automobiles into
campers, thus solving the problem of sleeping facilities and allowing them to
vacation in any picturesque spot, in the bosom of nature. Others more ambi-
tiously sought to raise automobile tourism to the level of sporting tourism;
some tourist councils and clubs sponsored automobile sections, and auto
tourists too could earn the Tourist USSR badge on their travels. Just to sur-
vive the drive from Moscow to Leningrad and back, quipped one fan, quali-
fi ed one to be a tourist in the sporting sense. But wouldn’t it be nice also to
stop and see the sights there?^77 Tourism differed from sport precisely in the
combination of experiences and sights the tourist encountered: physical, cul-
tural, social, and emotional.Autostop
The expansion of automobile (and truck) production made possible an-
other form of tourism, one especially geared toward young people with lim-
ited means: hitchhiking. Soviet law prohibited truck drivers from carrying
passengers, but travel to Poland had exposed Soviet tourists to the system
there known as “autostop,” which could provide order and control to catch-
ing rides.^78 Under this system, prospective hitchhikers purchased booklets of
coupons, good for specifi ed distances, with which to pay drivers who picked
them up. Truck drivers could cash in their coupons for prizes. In this way,
money did not change hands, there was no black market in transportation,
and young people could become more mobile. Beginning in the Leningrad
region, the practice became popular throughout the Baltic republics in the
early1960s. In 1965, ninety thousand tourists had purchased and cashed in
the coupons, but autostop still drew opposition from traffi c police and oth-
ers worried about creating a black market in transport. Transport agencies
feared the loss of revenue from paying bus and train passengers. Proponents
of the system pronounced it a success, especially among the student youth.
“The working class earns money and it can travel on buses or trains or air-
planes, but students are the most happy, energetic people, and autostop is
convenient for them,” insisted one supporter in 1966.^79 Autostop provided
one more opportunity to segment the tourism market by ability to pay and
expectations of convenience.Tourist Health Camps
Dotted all over the Soviet Union were several more layers of tourist
camps, operating on small scales and largely autonomous from the central- Za rulem , no. 1 (April 1956): 22–23; no. 3 (June 1956): 1; GARF, f. 7576, op. 14, d.
63 (tourism section plenum, May 1953), ll. 51–53, 96; TsAGM, f. 28, op. 3, d. 6, ll. 11–12. - Trud , 16 December 1959; 18 June 1964.
- GARF, f. 9520, op. 1, d. 447, l. 116; d. 631, l. 90; d. 1051 (autostop conference, May–
June 1966), l. 13 (quote).