From International Activity to Foreign Tourism

Abstract

This article examines foreign travels and international tourism to and from Czechoslovakia in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Based on the annual reports of the international department of the ÚV ČSM and reports on their foreign travels submitted by youth officials, the article argues that rather than representing communist efforts “to maximally isolate Czechoslovak citizens from the outside world and to hinder interaction with foreigners,” communist restrictions on private foreign travel could be interpreted as a shift in emphasis from an individual to a collective form of travelling. The article suggests that collective travel abroad as a socialist form of travel had a political meaning and purpose: it represented “society-wide benefit” and thus was part of the communist societal transformation, educating the labouring classes and eliminating inequalities in the realm of transnational mobility. It explores how socialist travel abroad was intended to mitigate differences of opinion, balance particular interests and create ideological consensus.