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Soviet Inturist and Foreign Travel to the Latvian SSR in the Post-Stalin Era a Case of Ethnic Tourism

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Soviet Inturist and Foreign Travel to the Latvian SSR in the Post-Stalin Era a Case of Ethnic Tourism Soviet Inturist and Foreign Travel to the Latvian SSR in the Post-Stalin Era A Case of Ethnic Tourism ✣ Ieva Zake Introduction Scholars have long believed that foreign tourism to the USSR primarily served the Soviet political propaganda goals of demonstrating and proving to the out- side visitors the superiority of Communist society over Western capitalism. However, as this article demonstrates, Soviet policy and implementation of international tourism became more complex over time. From the 1960s on- ward, Soviet programs for hosting foreigners developed characteristics of what is defined as “ethnic tourism,” that is, a type of tourism that centers on expos- ing tourists to a unique, and presumably authentic, ethnic culture. This trend was particularly explicit in and relevant to how the Soviet authorities orga- nized travel to ethnic locations such as the “sister republics”—such as Latvia, Estonia, and Georgia—although to a certain extent it was present in travel to Soviet Russia too. To substantiate this claim, the present article takes a closer look at the activities of the Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic’s (LSSR) local branch of the Soviet tourism agency Inturist during the period from the late 1950s to the 1980s. The article analyzes ways in which Inturist structured foreign tourists’ trips to the LSSR and what messages these visits were to impart according to the Soviet authorities. The analysis presented here reveals that over a period of about twenty years Inturist gradually but deliberately integrated Latvian ethnic culture and history into its representation of Soviet reality. Foreign visitors thus not only were exposed to the LSSR’s political reality, but were in- creasingly offered an ethnic experience. In the immediate post-Stalin period, tourism to the Baltic republics had combined political propaganda with some cultural exposure, such as historic West European architecture, contemporary Journal of Cold War Studies Vol. 20, No. 2, Spring 2018, pp. 38–62, doi:10.1162/jcws_a_00816 © 2018 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology 38 Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/jcws_a_00816 by guest on 24 September 2021 Soviet Inturist and Foreign Travel to the Latvian SSR “European” style, and Soviet mass culture.1 However, from the 1960s to the 1980s, displays—and even celebrations—of the “authentic” and “traditional” Latvian ethnic identity became prevalent in tourist itineraries, even at the ex- pense of political indoctrination. This article applies the concept of ethnic tourism to analysis of the work- ings of the Soviet tourism agency Inturist—a form of analysis not previously used in the literature on Soviet tourism. Seeing Inturist’s offerings to foreign- ers through the lens of ethnic tourism helps us elucidate the changes that took place in the Soviet tourism industry. The article also builds on Shawn Salmon’s work on the history of Inturist’s central office by expanding the ex- isting analysis to peripheries such as the LSSR and revealing unique features of foreign tourism in ethnic locales.2 In so doing, the article presents new his- torical material on the operation of the Soviet tourism industry. Sources used here consist of archival materials from the Riga chapter of the USSR Coun- cil of Ministers’ Central Administration of Foreign Tourism Inturist that are stored in Riga at the Latvian National Archives / Latvia State Archives’ Fund 222. These documents include annual reports that the Riga office submitted to the Central Committee of the Latvian Communist Party; letters, orders, and regulations received by the Riga office from the central Inturist office in Moscow; documents outlining internal policies of the Riga Inturist office; and letters sent by Riga Inturist officials to various LSSR organizations and offices from 1957 to 1985. Although these sources do not represent an exhaustive documentation of Inturist operations in Riga, they are detailed and consistent enough to allow for an analysis of the transformation in this organization’s approach to tourism. These documents have been discussed in only one pre- vious publication, written in Latvian by Marta Starostina, who focuses on the role Inturist played in the KGB’s operations against visiting émigré Latvians in the 1960s and 1970s.3 The present article takes a different perspective and 1. Anne E. Gorsuch, All This Is Your World: Soviet Tourism at Home and Abroad after Stalin (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2011), p. 50. In the 1960s–1980s, the Baltics were perceived by Soviet citizens as “our abroad” or the Soviet “West,” and the identity of a pribalt (someone from the Baltic coast) was noticeably different from that of other Soviet citizens. Although the pribalt identity not seen as entirely anti-Soviet, it was closer to the West than any other Soviet identity. On this, see William Risch, “A Soviet West: Nationhood, Regionalism, and Empire in the Annexed Western Borderlands,” Nationalities Papers, Vol. 43, No. 1 (2015), pp. 63–81. 2. Shawn Salmon, “To the Land of Future: A History of Intourist and Travel to the Soviet Union, 1929–1991,” Ph.D. Diss., University of California, Berkeley, 2008; and “Marketing Socialism: Intur- ist in the Late 1950s and Early 1960s,” in Anne E. Gorsuch and Diane P. Koenker, eds., Turizm: The Russian and Eastern European Tourist under Capitalism and Socialism (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2006), pp. 186–204. 3. Marta Starostina, “Padomju ideoloģijas un propagandas izpausmes Vissavien¯ıbas akciju sabiedr¯ıbas Inturists¯ Rigas nodaļas darba¯ ar latviešu trimdas turistiem¯ (1957–1985),” in Totalitarisma¯ sabiedr¯ıbas 39 Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/jcws_a_00816 by guest on 24 September 2021 Zake analyzes both the evolution and inherent dilemmas of Soviet foreign travel per se, not just as a cover for Soviet intelligence and counterintelligence activities.4 Finally, Inturist served tourists from both Western capitalist countries and the Soviet bloc. There were many overlaps but also numerous differences in how Inturist handled these two groups. This article pays particular attention to Inturist’s approach to hosting Westerners because it reflects the trend to- ward ethnic tourism most explicitly. Characteristics of Ethnic Tourism The gradual changes that took place in the organization of international tourism to peripheries such as the LSSR were not accidental or inconsequen- tial. They were cumulative and significant enough to warrant analysis and explanation in their own right. These changes affected the nature of the inter- national tourist’s experience in the USSR, and they can be best understood by applying the concept of ethnic tourism. What are the distinguishing features of ethnic tourism? Within the larger field of the sociology and anthropology of tourism, “ethnic tourism” describes tourist experience that is marketed to the public in terms of ‘quaint’ customs of indigenous and often exotic peoples. Destination activities that stimulate tourism include visits to native homes and villages, observation of dances and ceremonies, and shopping for primitive wares and curios, some of which may have considerable intrinsic value to the art historian.5 kontrole un represijas: Dokumentu izp¯ete un tas¯ metodoloģija: Conference Proceedings (Riga: LPSR Valsts droš¯ıbas komitejas zinatnisk¯ as¯ izpetes¯ komisija, 2015), pp. 241–280. 4. This article looks at international tourism to the USSR solely from the perspective of the Soviet authorities. The goal here is to uncover the internal transformations in how and what the Soviets presented to foreign visitors. The experience of visitors who took advantage of Inturist’s trips is covered in other published research of mine; for example, American Latvians: Politics of a Refugee Community (New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers, 2010). 5. Valene L. Smith, ed., Hosts and Guests: The Anthropology of Tourism (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1990), p. 4. On the larger field, see, for example, Erik Cohen, “The Sociology of Tourism: Approaches, Issues, and Findings,” Annual Review of Sociology, No. 10 (1984), pp. 373–392. According to Smith’s definition, ethnic tourism involves travel that is far removed from the “beaten path” and “attract[s] only a limited number of visitors motivated by curiosity and elite peer approval” (ibid., p. 4). This type of tourism may have minimal host-guest impact if the number of visitors stays low. Cultural tourism, on the other hand, is visiting “the ‘picturesque’ or ‘local color,’ a vestige of a vanishing life-style that lies within human memory with its ‘old style’ houses, homespun fabrics, horse or ox-drawn carts and plows, and hand rather than machine-made crafts. Destination activities include meals in rustic inns, folklore performances, costumed wine festivals, or rodeos reminiscent oftheWildWest....Host-gueststressesmaybemaximalbecausetheruralpeasantareasareoften 40 Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/jcws_a_00816 by guest on 24 September 2021 Soviet Inturist and Foreign Travel to the Latvian SSR Ethnic tourism differs from other forms of tourism because it is essentially “a form of ethnic relations . where the very existence of the ethnic boundary creates the tourist attraction,” and the tourist is actively seeking or is exposed to “ethnic exoticism.”6 That is, ethnic tourism involves contact between dif- ferent ethnic groups, as represented by hosts and guests, and it is predicated
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