Proletarian Tourism 69tions for package tourists but criticized some units of the society for focus-
ing too much on the commercial side of the “long ruble”: sovturism without
Sovtur. In response to the Party Control Commission’s reprimand for padded
membership rolls and bad management in 1933, the society trimmed its ap-
paratus from 186 paid employees to 104, reorganized its departments, and
promised to be both better managers and better socialists. “Mercenary trans-
actions, chasing after rubles by any method, sharply contradict the interests
of the tourist movement and should be immediately terminated.” But it also
needed to manage its assets—tourist bases, manufacturers of tourist clothing
and equipment, and food supplies—more effi ciently, with less red tape.^41
- Turist-aktivist , nos. 5–6 (1932): 3, 5; NSNM , nos. 8–9 (1933): 3 (quote); no. 8 (1934):
10–11.
Member badge of the Society for Proletarian Tourism and Excursions, 1930s. The round
compass and the red star remained constants in the iconography of the society and its suc-
cessors. Badge in author’s possession.