Post-proletarian Tourism 247Polish guides at Oswiecim (Auschwitz) a story of egalitarian suffering, where
“POWs and citizens of many lands were killed.” Despite the narrative that
ignored the magnitude and meaning of Jewish victimhood, Soviet tourists
nonetheless uniformly remarked on the “staggering” impressions created by
being in the physical presence of these memories. “People stood silently in
front of the horrible gate.” On visiting another death camp near Gdansk, a
group leader wrote, “It is impossible to look upon the monstrous gas cham-
bers, crematoria, and barracks without emotion and a feeling of deep indig-
nation.”^107 Some reports included similarly careful refl ection on many of the
attractions visited; others more laconically listed as many of the sights as
could be accommodated in their report, as if to allow supervisors back home
to verify that the tourist plan had been fulfi lled. But even these catalogs rein-
forced the method by which tourist knowledge was produced: every attrac-
tion embodied historical and cultural meaning, or it would not have been on
the tour, and the job of the tourist was to listen to the guides and appropriate
the meanings and accept their interpretations.
This kind of tourism—both traveling and seeing—was hard work, and an-
other kind of knowledge the Soviet tourists gained from their trips abroad
was how to cope with the effort. They noted the fatigue of intensive sightsee-
ing agendas. “This ‘gallop around Europe’ is very tiring physically,” advised
one group leader. Complicated itineraries with long waits for transfers also
added to tourist fatigue. Many complained that late arrivals and early de-
partures compounded the sense of exhaustion. Even travel on cruise ships
could be tiring, involving much walking and carrying luggage.^108 In addition
to physical stress came added nervous exhaustion from confronting the un-
known day after day. A group of automobile tourists (fi fteen tourists in fi ve
cars) worried that changing their route into Czechoslovakia had cost them
precious gasoline reserves: would they have enough to last the trip? Another
traveler worried about the potential shock of his fi rst border crossing. Others
feared to betray their ignorance of basic table manners and even refrained
from eating meals in order not to transgress. On trips that combined health
resort vacation with sightseeing, tourists recommended that the sightseeing
part should come fi rst so that they could then recover from their exertions.^109
As more and more groups made these journeys abroad, tours were adjusted to
make them less tiring, and the travelers themselves learned to become better
tourists by being forewarned about the potential rigors involved.
- “POWs and citizens,” GARF, f. 9520, op. 1, d. 421, l. 3; also d. 691, l. 36; d. 721, l.
21; “staggering,” d. 407, l. 33; “People stood silently,” Skorokhodovskii rabochii , 23 August
1966; “It is impossible to look,” GARF, f. 9520, op. 1, d. 597 (group leader reports, 1963), l. 46. - GARF, f. 9520, op. 1, d. 716, ll. 121 (“gallop”), 28, 12, 18, 37; d. 504 (materials on
foreign tourism, 1962), l. 72; d. 487 (group leader reports, 1962), l. 25; d. 407, ll. 68, 86; d.
421, l. 5; d. 893 (group leader reports, 1965), ll. 65–66. - GARF, f. 9520, op. 1, d. 491, ll. 50–51; Skorokhodovskii rabochii , 20 August 1976;
GARF, f. 9520, op. 1, d. 597, ll. 152–53; d. 422 (group leader reports, 1961), ll. 37, 38.