“Wide Is My Motherland”. Domestic Tourism as Vernacular Leisure Practice of Soviet Citizens

Abstract. The article is devoted to the analysis of Soviet tourism as the non-institutional leisure practice of Soviet citizens. For all the wide coverage of various aspects of the Soviet daily life, researchers pay relatively little attention to the leisure time of Soviet citizens, which determines the relevance and novelty of the topic. The interviews given to the author by the hikers and rally participants are the main source of the research. The author tried to determine the value of tourism practices for their participants and identify the influence of the era on the development of Soviet tourism. The article highlights the main formats of the Soviet domestic tourism, the stages of its development and its specific features. These features include overcoming oneself and testing their abilities, opposing existing institutional practices and gaining a certain degree of freedom.

Keywords: tourism, freedom, mode of life, car, song, taiga, hike.