1960s – Soviet Tourist

April 4, 2020April 4, 2020

Barrow of Glory, Minsk. (Postcard, 1969.)

Despite the liberalization and relaxation of Soviet tourism during the “thaw” era from mid-1950s onwards, state sponsored sights were still popular – or at least the politburo wanted them to be. After the victorious war, patriotic attractions actually multiplied all around the Soviet Union during the 1960s, and made their way also to the postcards. Here we see the “Barrow of Glory” near Belarussian capital Minsk. It commemorated the so-called operation Bagration during the Great Patriotic War, as the World War II came to be called in the Soviet Union. The enormous amount of tourists lining up to the monument tells how important the patriotic sights were.

March 21, 2020March 21, 2020

Central department store, Riga. (Postcard, 1962.)

Soviet tourism was not only about ideology. Especially after the war, during the so-called Khrushchev “thaw”, traveling began to loosen up, and one could now have a proper beach holiday, take sightseeing tours without Lenin places – and even go shopping. It would have been too much to promote such frivolous amusements in Moscow or Leningrad, but in the Baltic states shopping was OK. Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania had been occupied by the Soviet Union during the war, and in the 1960s they still had many exotic features that the Russian part of the union lacked, like street cafés. They also carried wider selection of goods in the shops, and that’s why trips to Tallinn, Riga and Vilnius turned into shopping tourism. Here is a postcard of the central department store of Riga. The image stresses the modern side of the city, with the neon lights and all, and there is also a sign for a restaurant.

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