«Show All the Advantages of Socialism»: Foreign Tourism in the USSR and Soviet Management of Visitors’ Impressions

Russian Studies in History. 2021. Vol. 59. No. 3. P. 184–225.

Orlov I. B., Popov A. D.

Throughout the entire Soviet period, Intourist was supposed to not only bring foreign currency into the federal budget but also help foster a positive image of the Land of the Soviets among foreigners and popularize abroad a new social order and culture and progressive domestic and foreign policies.

The practice of a “selective presentation of reality” as part of the Soviet hospitality techniques called for a very careful approach to working out routes, determining the topics of excursions, and picking out what to show.

The Soviet “management of impressions” called for the ideological component to be dominant, both in the selection of sites for presentation and in organizing communications between foreigners and Soviet citizens. This kind of organization of “hospitality techniques,” however, had a whole variety of hidden contradictions, which resulted from the need to increase hard-currency revenue from foreign tourism, foreigners’ interest in pre-Soviet monuments and apolitical recreation, as well as the impossibility of successfully concealing the Soviet system’s obvious shortcomings.

Keywords: коммуникация, communication, иностранный туризм в СССР, техники гостеприимства, impression management, foreign tourism in the USSR, hospitality techniques, itinerary policy, менеджмент впечатлений, маршрутная политика

Publication based on the results of: Советский выездной туризм в 1955-1985 гг. (2013)