The Development of the Tourist-Excursion Sphere in Kazan in the First Half of the ХХ Century

Abstract

The study features the main stages of the tourist-excursion sphere development in Kazanin the first half of the XX century. The research is focused on the issues of the first educational excursions and their organization, compiling the first guidebooks and collections of Kazansites. The author presents examples of the first methodological works on tours around the city, the Kremlin, thematic and panoramic tours with descriptions of sights. The article features the objectives and tasks of the first Kazantourist-excursion societies and organizations. The author describes the main directions of the tourist-excursion business, analyzes the sources and literature of the period in question, and dwells upon the issues of tourist-excursion business development in Kazan. The research involves the sources from the Republicof Tatarstan National Archive, the first reference books and guidebooks around Kazan, as well as methodological works published in the 1920s–1930s.The author studied the theoretical basis of tourist-excursion activity in Kazan, the issues of mass tourism origin and excursion business development and the propagandist and conceptual aspects of tourist movement. Special attention is paid to the inherent ideological orientation of the tourist-excursion sphere, based on the propaganda of ideas and achievements of theUSSR.The research attempts to show that the tourist-excursion sphere became a significant part of socio-cultural activity in the first half of the XX century. Tourist trips and excursions helped to solve the tasks related to increasing the cultural level of the population.The development of tourist-excursion organizations included several stages. In the 1920s–1930s, the organizational-centralization stage of tourism development began inKazan; the system of tourist-excursion service started to form.The article highlights the appearance of the new forms of tourist movement, for instance, research of new routes and study of new venues.Kazantourists participated in trips to the sites of military and revolutionary glory, in All-Russia search trips. The article also touches upon the issue of educational significance of tourism and excursions for schoolchildren and youth.It was in the first half of the XX century that tourist sections in Pioneers’ Houses appeared, as well as children’s tourist stations, excursions for schoolchildren and youth. The work also analyzes the drawbacks in the tourist-excursion sphere in the studied period. However, that period was an important stage of tourism development in Kazan and the Republic as a whole.The content and results of this article can be used in history ofRussiaand tourism courses.