Tourists of the world, unite! The interpretation and facilitation of tourism towards the end of the Soviet Union (1962–1990)

Abstract

After decades of relative neglect by the Soviet state, leisure and tourism provision in the USSR underwent a period of rapid growth and institutionalisation between 1962 and 1990. This paper explores the ideological role attributed to leisure activities and tourism, and the wide range of tourism participation options that were offered to citizens via various councils and voucher systems, in what can be argued to be the most developed social tourism system of the twentieth century. On the basis of an extensive review of the literature in the English and Russian languages, it proposes a structure that shows the extent of Soviet state involvement in tourism and the different target groups these tourism initiatives were aimed at. It also explores areas of tension between state-assigned functions of leisure and the actual interpretation of leisure by many Soviet citizens.