Proletarian Tourism 59tem an illiberal subjectivity, in which the development of selfhood was val-
ued only for its ability to contribute to the collective.^16 Such values emerged
especially clearly in relationship to work culture, but tourism activists cel-
ebrated the autonomy of the individual and saw in socialist tourism an ideal
playground on which to develop this autonomy. In this way, Soviet tourism
resembled organizations in the capitalist West, such as the Girl Scouts, that
used individual self-actualization to promote patriotism and citizenship.
Universal access most markedly distinguished proletarian tourism from
comparable practices in the capitalist world. In the West, reminded activists,
only the wealthy could take any kind of vacation, including a tourist trip.
The socialist state would subsidize its tourists, especially those with the few-
est resources for travel. To allow ordinary workers the opportunity to become
tourists, the Society for Proletarian Tourism negotiated with transportation
agencies for discounted railway tickets. Once at a destination, the proletar-
ian tourist would be able to savor the “chief pleasure of tourism,” propelling
himself or herself through nature on foot, by boat, or by bicycle: self-loco-
motion was not only a superior way to encounter nature but also the most
economical. Socialist industry would produce the necessary equipment for
self-contained travel: rucksacks, tents, and hiking poles. The socialist state
would also construct inexpensive tourist shelters in underpopulated areas;
elsewhere tourists could fi nd affordable and knowledge-producing lodging
with members of the local population.^17
Proletarian tourists, unlike their bourgeois counterparts, traveled not only
for self-gratifi cation but to help others. Traveling among nonurban popula-
tions, they would give back to the nation by performing good deeds along
the way. An early manifesto insisted, “It’s all very well to be someplace else,
to see, to appreciate, and to rest—this is nice and even appealing, but one
mustn’t forget that in our country are many remote places, many backward
nationalities, and we tourists, coming to places far away from the center, cut
off by mountains and space, where the people are still very backward and
uncultured—we ought to help them.” As missionaries from the culturally
advanced cities, tourists did not just journey through nature but also brought
books to peasants, repaired their farming equipment, organized child care
centers, built radio transmitters, and taught them how to cut their hair.^18 As
with health spas and rest homes, this symbiotic conjoining of pleasure and
purpose would mark the distinctive quality of proletarian tourism in the So-
viet Union.
- Anna Krylova, “The Tenacious Liberal Subject in Soviet Studies,” Kritika , n.s. 1, no.
1 (2000): 119–146; Hellbeck, Revolution on My Mind; Beer, Renovating Russia , 13–17. - NSNM, no. 1 (1930): 18–19; V. Antonov-Saratovskii, Besedy o turizme (Moscow,
1933), 3–5; Bergman, Pervaia kniga , 16 (quote), 192. - Proletarskii turizm , 47 (quote), 51, 73–74; NSNM , no. 1 (1929): 12; Biulleten'
Tsentral'nogo Soveta Obshchestva Proletarskogo Turizma, no. 1 (1929): 15; NSNM , no. 1
(1930): 1–2, 15–17.