INTOURIST: A Collection of Material Relating to Moscow Theatrical Performances 1930's -1960's; with the majority of the material aimed at Western Visitors to the USSR, produced & supplied by Intourist
- Moscow; New York; Leningrad: Various; Intourist, 1933-1966
Moscow; New York; Leningrad: Various; Intourist, 1933-1966. 90+ (with a few additional duplicates) pieces of ephemeral material ranging from page copiously illustrated tour guides produced in the US on behalf of the USSR tourist initiatives, to single sheet recital tickets and programs clearly produced to the lowest costs and standards, many of which were not intended to last more than a single occasion.
Condition is largely Very Good, with a few of the pieces having some wear or damp staining, a number of pieces have small "Book Sale" ink stamps, presumably pieces that originated in the same collection and were then donated somewhere for sale. A fascinating and varied collection of theatrical and tourist ephemera, with much of it originating in one of the most dynamic and experimental periods in Soviet performing arts.
"Good intentions do not play a role in art. In art, only achievements play a role." A.V. Lunacharski.
Intourist was originally formed in 1929 as "Всероссийское акционерное общество по приему иностранных туристов ВАО «Интурист»" which more or less translates as the "All-Russian Joint-Stock Company for the Acceptance of Foreign Tourists". It was far more than a travel agency, however, controlling as it did almost all tourist access from the West into the USSR, and operating on a number of levels to carefully control and curate the view of Soviet Russia that was presented to the rest of the world. The president of Intourist in 1933, Wilhelm Kurz of the Central Committee, was the first USSR visitor to be formally accepted by the US when he visited immediately after the nation had been granted recognition. Higher officials in Intourist (actually "иностранный турист", with the popular name simply being a contraction of the Russian language phrasing of "Foreign Tourist", or "Innostrannyy Turist") tended to be secure and solid party officials whose loyalty to the state was rarely questioned, the main reason for this being that their interactions with foreign nations (and nationals) increased the possibility of defection; something Intourist learned early on when their UK representative in London, Aron Sheinman, declined to return to the Motherland when summoned, and became a British citizen in 1939, which was probably rather good timing.
Intourist in the 1930's, midway through another Soviet Five Year Plan, was given the brief to attract wealthy Western culture vultures and businesspeople to the USSR, and display to them (with astonishing attention to detail), how much better the Soviet people were doing than their Western counterparts, whilst also planting the seeds for future collaboration. The US was in the midst of the Depression, not that the people paying $465 for their trip tickets in 1934 needed to worry much about that, but being met from your luxurious "Soviet Ship" and ferried to your Moscow hotel by a fleet of brand new Lincoln town cars for two solid weeks of high culture and fine dining, being escorted every step of the way by guides and assistants, must have made quite an impression. The number of Americans who could afford a new Lincoln was pretty small at that point, and the number who could travel even smaller, so the Intourist agenda was aimed to within a minute of accuracy at the Westerners who could do them the most good; the rich, the famous, and the culturally influential. There's nothing accidental about the Intourist literature being filled with Margaret Bourke White's photographs, and commentaries from notable Western culture critics and authorities.
Tales abound, from the Western tourists able to take advantage of Intourist's services, of constant surveillance, an absence of any freedom of movement (usually disguised by the concept that there was so much to see in the Wonderland of the USSR that wandering off would just mean you missed the best parts), and some very strict non-fraternisation policies that only eased off after 1953 when Stalin's strictures against marrying non-Soviet citizens were rolled back.
At the height of the Cold War, a period parts of this collection span, Intourist was essentially an arm of the KGB rather than a tour company; hotels were bugged, drivers recorded all conversations, the guides reported even the most casual of disclosures to their superiors, and no opportunity was lost to gather information on the one hand, and disseminate pro-soviet propaganda on the other. Itineraries of Intourist tours for the period show very clearly that even the First Class tourists paying an eye-watering premium were not permitted anything other than the most token periods of 'freedom', with one Moscow-Leningrad tour timetabling only 8 hours of 'unsupervised' time spread across 10 days beginning at 8am and ending at around 11pm.
All forms of Soviet culture from collective farm visits, to mountain hikes, to visits to the Bolshoi served a concrete purpose; to showcase the USSR's successes whilst concealing any of its blemishes. Impromptu hangouts with the actors at the Moscow State Theatre were in fact carefully scripted and choreographed encounters with no dissonant (or dissident) notes, night life was restricted to a carefully chosen list of venues, and wherever possible visitors were kept moving from one location to another in quick succession, emphasizing the cavalcade of wonders whilst denying any insights that might be gathered by more leisurely viewing. Looking behind the scenery, would only result in you seeing more scenery.
"in the alternate universe that was the Soviet Union, the 'giant squid' of the Soviet state [would] engulf the traveler.. [There were] myriad ways in which the Soviet tourist monopoly, Intourist, both hindered the foreigner and shielded him from the vagaries of Soviet material life, and above all, the psychological costs of 'routine surveillance'... and the barriers the Soviets erected between foreigners and unvarnished (and uncomfortable) truths about the Soviet Union." Alex Hazanov "Porous Empire; Foreign Visitors and the Post-Stalin Soviet State" University of Pennsylvania 2019.
Parts of this collection have some cursory presence in OCLC, but the ephemeral nature of the majority of pieces means that their specific representation is largely invisible in US institutions.
Condition is largely Very Good, with a few of the pieces having some wear or damp staining, a number of pieces have small "Book Sale" ink stamps, presumably pieces that originated in the same collection and were then donated somewhere for sale. A fascinating and varied collection of theatrical and tourist ephemera, with much of it originating in one of the most dynamic and experimental periods in Soviet performing arts.
"Good intentions do not play a role in art. In art, only achievements play a role." A.V. Lunacharski.
Intourist was originally formed in 1929 as "Всероссийское акционерное общество по приему иностранных туристов ВАО «Интурист»" which more or less translates as the "All-Russian Joint-Stock Company for the Acceptance of Foreign Tourists". It was far more than a travel agency, however, controlling as it did almost all tourist access from the West into the USSR, and operating on a number of levels to carefully control and curate the view of Soviet Russia that was presented to the rest of the world. The president of Intourist in 1933, Wilhelm Kurz of the Central Committee, was the first USSR visitor to be formally accepted by the US when he visited immediately after the nation had been granted recognition. Higher officials in Intourist (actually "иностранный турист", with the popular name simply being a contraction of the Russian language phrasing of "Foreign Tourist", or "Innostrannyy Turist") tended to be secure and solid party officials whose loyalty to the state was rarely questioned, the main reason for this being that their interactions with foreign nations (and nationals) increased the possibility of defection; something Intourist learned early on when their UK representative in London, Aron Sheinman, declined to return to the Motherland when summoned, and became a British citizen in 1939, which was probably rather good timing.
Intourist in the 1930's, midway through another Soviet Five Year Plan, was given the brief to attract wealthy Western culture vultures and businesspeople to the USSR, and display to them (with astonishing attention to detail), how much better the Soviet people were doing than their Western counterparts, whilst also planting the seeds for future collaboration. The US was in the midst of the Depression, not that the people paying $465 for their trip tickets in 1934 needed to worry much about that, but being met from your luxurious "Soviet Ship" and ferried to your Moscow hotel by a fleet of brand new Lincoln town cars for two solid weeks of high culture and fine dining, being escorted every step of the way by guides and assistants, must have made quite an impression. The number of Americans who could afford a new Lincoln was pretty small at that point, and the number who could travel even smaller, so the Intourist agenda was aimed to within a minute of accuracy at the Westerners who could do them the most good; the rich, the famous, and the culturally influential. There's nothing accidental about the Intourist literature being filled with Margaret Bourke White's photographs, and commentaries from notable Western culture critics and authorities.
Tales abound, from the Western tourists able to take advantage of Intourist's services, of constant surveillance, an absence of any freedom of movement (usually disguised by the concept that there was so much to see in the Wonderland of the USSR that wandering off would just mean you missed the best parts), and some very strict non-fraternisation policies that only eased off after 1953 when Stalin's strictures against marrying non-Soviet citizens were rolled back.
At the height of the Cold War, a period parts of this collection span, Intourist was essentially an arm of the KGB rather than a tour company; hotels were bugged, drivers recorded all conversations, the guides reported even the most casual of disclosures to their superiors, and no opportunity was lost to gather information on the one hand, and disseminate pro-soviet propaganda on the other. Itineraries of Intourist tours for the period show very clearly that even the First Class tourists paying an eye-watering premium were not permitted anything other than the most token periods of 'freedom', with one Moscow-Leningrad tour timetabling only 8 hours of 'unsupervised' time spread across 10 days beginning at 8am and ending at around 11pm.
All forms of Soviet culture from collective farm visits, to mountain hikes, to visits to the Bolshoi served a concrete purpose; to showcase the USSR's successes whilst concealing any of its blemishes. Impromptu hangouts with the actors at the Moscow State Theatre were in fact carefully scripted and choreographed encounters with no dissonant (or dissident) notes, night life was restricted to a carefully chosen list of venues, and wherever possible visitors were kept moving from one location to another in quick succession, emphasizing the cavalcade of wonders whilst denying any insights that might be gathered by more leisurely viewing. Looking behind the scenery, would only result in you seeing more scenery.
"in the alternate universe that was the Soviet Union, the 'giant squid' of the Soviet state [would] engulf the traveler.. [There were] myriad ways in which the Soviet tourist monopoly, Intourist, both hindered the foreigner and shielded him from the vagaries of Soviet material life, and above all, the psychological costs of 'routine surveillance'... and the barriers the Soviets erected between foreigners and unvarnished (and uncomfortable) truths about the Soviet Union." Alex Hazanov "Porous Empire; Foreign Visitors and the Post-Stalin Soviet State" University of Pennsylvania 2019.
Parts of this collection have some cursory presence in OCLC, but the ephemeral nature of the majority of pieces means that their specific representation is largely invisible in US institutions.
Details
Title
INTOURIST: A Collection of Material Relating to Moscow Theatrical Performances 1930's -1960's; with the majority of the material aimed at Western Visitors to the USSR, produced & supplied by Intourist
Author
[SOVIET UNION] [PERFORMING ARTS] [INTOURIST] [VARIOUS: VOLKOV, N.; MAYAKOVSKY, V. STANISLAVSKY, K. GORKI, M. etc.]
Condition
Unknown
Publisher
Various; Intourist: Moscow; New York; Leningrad
Date
1933-1966