The Modernization of Soviet Tourism 263not exist for us, but we exist for the tourist.”^2 This conceptual shift led to the
fi nal transformation of tourism from a social movement to a socialist leisure
industry and to its ultimate convergence with rest as the new model Soviet
vacation.
The Communist Party Central Committee had authorized foreign travel
in 1955 with the partial goal of expanding the domestic stock of knowledge
about production methods and professional practices abroad.^3 In the process,
these exchanges also provided Soviet tourists with new expectations about
the practice of tourism itself. Offi cials acknowledged in 1956 that tourists
coming from abroad would require better conditions than those currently
prevailing at Soviet tourist bases.^4 Soviet travelers found that socialist bloc
tourist hotels with double rooms put domestic dormitory or tent facilities to
shame; they noted that other countries’ tourists were often treated better than
they were and wondered why they were denied similar levels of comfort and
dignity.^5 These comparisons gradually translated into higher expectations for
Soviet tourism at home.
Foreign travel offered a different model of tourism, where one could travel
and see sights but still rest each evening in a comfortable hotel. “We need to
move away from the tourist base as a stationary point to tourist travels around
the country. We need to organize such trips, foreign tourist practice teaches
us this,” said a TEU offi cial as early as 1956.^6 In recounting their own travels
abroad, Soviet tourists emphasized the variety, multiplicity, and novelty of
the sights they viewed as well as the organization of services with meals,
transfers, entertainment, and hotels. They learned to evaluate the qualities
of their guides and to become more discriminating in their spending.^7 They
learned to bring along cameras that they might sell to stretch their spending
money, and they learned to shop for souvenirs and for items unavailable
at home.^8 They praised the organization of Bulgaria’s “twenty-fi rst-century”
resorts, with contemporary architecture, souvenir shops, a variety of amuse-
ments, and themed restaurants along the beach such as Robinzon, where
the wait staff dressed like pirates. They noticed that foreign socialists often
- GARF, f. 9520, op. 1, d. 1272 (central tourism council plenum, July 1969), l. 33.
- GARF, f. 9520, op. 1, d. 374 (foreign tourist group leader reports, 1960). Our task, said
one offi cial, “is that tourism take place not for its own sake, but so that comrades, along with
rest, bring back some value for their enterprises.” GARF, f. 9520, op. 1, d. 375 (foreign tour-
ism offi cials’ conference, September 1960), l. 15. - GARF, f. 9520, op. 1, d. 352 (tourism offi cials’ conferences, 1957).
- GARF, f. 9520, op. 1, d. 491 (group leader reports, 1962), l. 162; d. 597 (group leader
reports, 1963), l. 83. - GARF, f. 9520, op. 1, d. 318 (tourism offi cials’ conference, 1956), l. 11.
- Skorokhodovskii rabochii, 10 August 1962; Martenovka, 11 September, 20 September
1956; Martenovka, 9, 14, 16, 30 August, 2 September 1958. GARF, f. 9520, op. 1, d. 318, l. 17;
d. 632 (central tourism council plenum, December 1964), l. 183; GARF, f. 9520, op. 1, d. 409
(group leader reports, 1961), l. 32. - Many trip reports acknowledged this practice; see Gorsuch, All This Is Your World,
and A. D. Popov, “Tenevye storony zarubezhnogo (vyezdnogo) turizma v Sovetskom Soiuze
(1960–1980 gg.),” Kul'tura narodov Prichernomorya, no. 152 (Simferopol, 2009), 151–155.