64 Chapter 2
The Society for Proletarian Tourism and Excursions: Mass Movement without Masses
The creation of the new OPTE represented a triumph for the principles of
voluntarism, federalism, mass participation, and self-actualization. Member
cells located in factories and educational institutions constituted the funda-
mental core of the society: here tourism activists could work closely with
trade union, Komsomol, and physical culture organizers, drawing on their
authority and resources. Factory cells in particular would use the romance
of long-distance travel to attract new working-class members, who would
seek out the OPTE in order to travel cheaply during their summer vacations,
since only registered groups could receive half-price train tickets. (In some
cases, the local factory organization would pay the other half.) After the fi rst
trip, many of these tourists became hooked, and they used reports about their
adventures at evening slide shows, in factory newspapers, and by word of
mouth to inspire others to join the movement. The cell at the Moselektrik
plant in Moscow declared itself to be the oldest in the society, having origi-
nated in 1926 with 12 people. By 1930, the cell counted 260 members, 106
of whom were traveling that summer to Karelia, along the Dnepr River, or to
the Black Sea and Crimea. The cell at the Mytishchi wagon-building plant
launched its tourism work with a journey along the Georgian Military High-
way in 1930; by the end of that summer, it had recruited 300 members.^28 In
theory, such cells would federate into regional councils, and the entire struc-
ture would be supervised by a central council elected at periodic national
congresses. But local initiative and proletarianness remained key principles.
The essence of the new voluntary society for tourism and the justifi ca-
tion for its victory over Sovtur lay in its goal to make tourism accessible to
the masses. Only if the movement were genuinely proletarian in composi-
tion as well as in spirit would the promises of socialist tourism be fulfi lled.
“The class composition of the society determines the quality of our work, the
level of its ideological saturation—this determines the very face of proletar-
ian tourism, and our most immediate task is to obtain the predominance of
proletarians as the basic mass of members of the society,” wrote an activist
in 1930.^29 Mass membership also would ensure the fi nancial viability of the
society, which depended on member dues to pay for staff, instructors, and
consultants. If Sovtur had deviated too far in the direction of commerce, rely-
ing on the state for investment funds and earning its revenues through high
prices for its tourist trips, the OPTE would be proletarian in its business plan,
relying on the volunteer activism of local cells and on the accumulated dues
from millions of members to fi nance the expansion of tourism.- Turist-aktivist , no. 6 (1930): 20; NSNM , no. 7 (1930), inside front cover. Reports from
local cells appeared regularly in NSNM and Turist-aktivist : for example, NSNM , no. 5 (1930):
18–19; NSNM , no. 7 (1930), inside front cover; Biulleten' turista , no. 6 (1930): 18–20; Biul-
leten' turista , nos. 7–8 (1930): 22–23; Turist-aktivist , no. 1 (1931): 22–23; NSNM , no. 12
(1931): 8–9; NSNM , no. 12 (1932): 6; Turist-aktivist , no. 4 (1932): 18; NSNM , no. 13 (1932):
12; NSNM , no. 15 (1933): 6–7, 9; NSNM , no. 11 (1934): 3–4; NSNM , no. 12 (1934): 13; NSNM ,
no. 8 (1935): 6; Proletarskii turizm , 34–49; Biulleten' turista , no. 7–8 (1930): 23. - NSNM , no. 9 (1930): 14.