Dr.Sc.Hist., Professor G.V. Merzlyakova¹
Associate Professor, PhD L.V. Batalova^1
1Udmurt State University, Izhevsk

Keywords: sport tourism, amateur tourism, Udmurtia.

Background. The modern social and  economical development strategy pursued by the Russian government implies more independence being given to the regional governments in making decisions on the issues of regional importance, and this strategy has provided a strong impetus to many regional initiatives. The ongoing transition to the regional self-management and self-provision forces the regions to explore the ways to improve the efficiency of the economic development models with growing reliance on the local resources. Coming to the forefront are the socially sensitive programs geared to advance new strategic initiatives and facilitate development of the promising innovative sectors such as tourism. These initiatives have increased the demand for the comprehensive studies of the history of tourism in the Republic to better understand the process development logics and, knowing them, offer new developmental models for this promising sector.

Objective of the study was to make a retrospective analysis of the amateur sport tourism in Udmurtia.

Methods and structure of the study. In the study we applied a retrospective comparative analysis to consider every aspect of the sector multisided development process in the context of the social and cultural life of the country on the whole in the historical period under study. We used the historical statistical data arrays to explore the general developmental logic and local specifics of the sport tourism sector in the country on the whole and in Udmurtia in particular to find the general and specific aspects and identify the process motivating and restraining factors. Furthermore, we applied a historical reconstruction method to analyse the flow of event in the sector for the study period. The history systemization method was used to analyse the core policies and practices of the relevant governmental agencies and public organizations to promote amateur tourism in the country and region. The method was beneficial in analysing the correlations of the Udmurtia-specific processes with the general national trends in the sport tourism building and management process in the period under study.

Study results and discussion. The history of sport tourism in Udmurtia on the whole is quite typical for the general development process of the Russian regional tourism albeit it has its natural regional specifics. It should be noted that the Republic of Udmurtia was specific in the sense that its economic and social development has been largely formatted by the needs of the local military industries since the early XIX century. Historically, the Republic-based leading industries of national importance played an exclusively important role in the national defence, and this was the reason for the Republic being formally qualified as “closed” region prohibited for tourism prior to 1991. Moreover, the partisan leadership of the Republic considered the region being of little if any promise for foreign tourism and, hence, gave next to no attention to the developmental needs of the local tourist industry. In such situation, local tourism was dominated by the local people’s own enthusiastic activities that required no serious financial investments and material inputs and were propelled by the tourist volunteers and amateurs. It should also be noted that the favourable natural and climatic conditions in the Republic could not but gave rise to a sport tourism industry in fact.

The amateur tourism has always been ranked among the leading mass sports in the Republic since the early 1920ies when the self-supported and planned adventures became very popular among the local activists. Later on these tourist trips were put into system and served by the local excursion commissions and travel bureaus that were established under virtually every leading organization of the Republic by the year of 1926 [8, Op. 1. D. 57. L. 86]. It should be noted that the enthusiasm of the amateur tourists was amazing in those days. In February 1925, for instance, V.N. Salamatov, Physical Education Teacher of Class II School of Glazov town undertook a walking tour Glazov – Simbirsk – Penza – Saratov – Samara – Pokrovsk – Stalingrad – Astrakhan – Caucasus - Krasnodar – Black Sea coast (Novorossiysk, Kerch, Feodosiya, Yalta, Sevastopol and Simferopol) – and back to Glazov [8, Op. 1. D. 44. L. 68]. The tour was successfully completed for one year.

Later on, the Udmurt sport tourism entered the next development stage with the new institutional and management forms being implemented in the Republic. It was in March 1927 that the Provincial Komsomol Committee under the Izhevsk Municipal Government established a Provincial Bureau of the Tourist Association that in 1934 was reformed to the Udmurt Provincial Council of the Proletariat Tourism and Excursion Society that offered a variety of trip planning and management services to the amateur tourists [5, Op. 1. D. 37. L. 36].

In 1936, the newly created Republican Physical Culture and Sports Committee under the Cabinet of Ministers of the Udmurt Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (UASSR) was vested with the powers to control the Republican physical culture and sports sector including the sport tourism subsector. It was at that time that many tourist sections were created under the physical culture groups controlled by the Republican Physical Culture and Sports Committee of UASSR to plan and manage the local tourist activity [4, Op. 1. D. 128. L. 30].

With time, the Republican Physical Culture and Sports Committee established a central Tourism Section to coordinate activities of the local physical culture and tourist teams and promote sport tourism in the Udmurt Republic [1, Op. 2. D. 1305. L. 37]. After the special tourist cells were established under the physical culture groups of the Republican companies, industries and educational establishments, they contributed a lot to the advancement of sports in general and tourist trips in particular since they were increasingly appreciated as a highly efficient tool of the youth physical culture promoting policies and practices. Moreover, the amateur tourism received growing support from a variety of the industrial trade union committees that helped the tourist groups procure necessary tourist equipment and outfits and finance the tourist trips.

It was in September 1941 that the national government introduced a general military education system in the country, and the national physical culture organizations were required to contribute to the mass combat sports and physical training process [3, Op. 1. D. 531. L. 15]. The combat and physical training practices at that time were dominated by the mass cross-country ski races, paramilitary field drills and the GTO Complex tests.

In the post-war period, the Udmurt voluntary sport associations gave an increasing priority to the tourist initiatives in their mass sport event schedules. These initiatives included mass weekend trips, visits to the local tourist attractions, long trips for the formally qualified skilled tourist teams, tourist festivals, training trips, tourist relay trips etc., with every tourist event being designed to encourage the tests to qualify for the “USSR Tourist” badge [1, Op. 1. D. 3. L. 151].

It was in November 1959 that the “Trud” [Labour] Voluntary Sport Association established the first Tourist Club in Udmurtia [7,  Op. 1. D. 75. L. 7] that was reformed (in 1962) to the Provincial Council for Tourism [2, Op. 1. D. 679. L. 145]. Soon the Udmurt Provincial Council for Tourism evolved to an instruction centre in charge of the tourist sector personnel training in the Republic. In addition, it was responsible for the tourist trips planning and management in the Republic and abroad; field sport events organising and management; and for the Masters of Sport Tourism training process. The activities were spearheaded by the management team of the Tourism Section of the Physical Culture Group under the Udmurt Provincial Council for Tourism. The key objective of the tourist enthusiasts was to lure as many people as possible to the tourist activities from among the personnel of their industries, companies and educational establishments and to consolidate teams of the local activists. The physical culture projects of the corporate activists at that time were dominated by the weekend trips customized for different age groups that proved highly popular with time. Very soon the physical culture groups including small amateur tourist teams or even individual enthusiasts grew up into popular tourist sections and movements of hundreds activists engaged in amateur tourism activities on a regular basis.

Udmurt tourists since then had been successful in many difficult amateur trips (formally supported by the relevant trip qualification commissions) in mountainous areas of Urals, Caucasus, Trans-Carpathian, Tien-Shan, Pamir, Transbaikalia etc., and qualified for the relevant sport tourist classes as a result of the trips. The qualification trips were mostly performed to qualify for the sport classes and titles, upgrade skills of the tourist service sector specialists and develop and test new tourist routes. The commissions designed a variety of qualification cross-country skiing, cycling, walking and water routes of the first-to-third difficulty levels in Udmurtia.

It was in the 1970-80ies that the amateur tourism control system reached the peak of its authority and activity. Since the year of 1970, the Udmurt Republican government had established a network of provincial sections for different tourism subsectors and Tourist Federation. Among other projects, the Udmurt Provincial Section for Orienteering was established in 1970; Republican Section of Speleological Tourism [6, Op. 1. D. 43. L. 39] and Republican Section of Water Tourism [6, Op. 1. D. 50. L. 1] in 1974; Republican Section of Waking/ Mountain Tourism in 1975 [6, Op.1. D.47. L.13], and the Republican Section of Ski Tourism in 1977 [6, Op.1. D.57.L.43].

The sport tourism activities taking place in Udmurtia were classified at that time into qualification and non-qualification trips, adventures, festivals, expeditions and competitions; and by the route types into walking, skiing, mountain, water, speleological, alpine, cycling, motorcycling and combined routes. It was in that period that amateur tourism was fully acknowledged as the efficient health improvement, willpower strengthening, ethics culturing and personality improvement activity.

Prior to 1990, the Udmurt amateur tourism was mostly considered a public initiative and a core responsibility of the tourist clubs under control of the Udmurt Provincial Council for Tourism and Excursions, Tourist Federation and voluntary sport associations – and responsibility of the corporate tourist groups established by large industries, companies and educational establishments. It was the municipal tourist clubs responsible for the network of the corporate tourist sections and clubs operating under their umbrella companies and institutions that acted as a core element of the mass amateur tourism in the Republic. The municipal tourist clubs operated as institutional, educational, instructional and consulting hubs for the mass amateur tourism under control of the Republican Council for Tourism and Excursions with significant contribution from the relevant trade unions, komsomol, physical culture and other organizations.

Conclusion. Summarizing the sport tourism development history for the period of 1920-1990ies, we should underline the valuable experience of mass tourism promotion with due support from every social stratum. The sport and health tourism was promoted as an objectively attractive social phenomenon greatly contributing to the popular physical culture, sporting and health tempering initiatives, plus patriotism, civil consciousness and social adaptation improvement activity.

References

1. Gosudarstvenny arkhiv Rossiyskoy Federatsii. Fond R-7576 (State Archive of the Russian Federation. Fund R-7576). Committee on Physical Culture and Sports of the USSR.
2. Gosudarstvenny arkhiv Rossiyskoy Federatsii. Fond R-9520 (State Archive of the Russian Federation. Fund R-9520). Central Council for Tourism and Excursions of A-UCTUC.
3. Tsentralny gosudarstvenny arkhiv Udmurtskoy Respubliki. Fond R-890 (Central State Archive of the Republic of Udmurtia. Fund R-890). Office of Physical Education under regional council of trade unions of the UASSR.
4. Tsentralny gosudarstvenny arhiv Udmurtskoy Respubliki. Fond R-1419 (Central State Archive of the Republic of Udmurtia. Fund R-1419). Committee of Physical Culture and Sports under Council of Ministers of the UASSR.
5. Tsentralny gosudarstvenny arkhiv Udmurtskoy Respubliki. Fond R-89 (Central State Archive of the Republic of Udmurtia. Fund R-89). Council of Trade Unions of the UASSR.
6. Tsentralny gosudarstvenny arkhiv Udmurtskoy Respubliki. Fond R-1592 (Central State Archive of the Republic of Udmurtia. Fund R-1592). Udmurt Regional Council for Tourism and Excursions.
7. Tsentralny gosudarstvenny arkhiv Udmurtskoy Respubliki. Fond R-1343 (Central State Archive of the Republic of Udmurtia. Fund R-1343). Udmurt Regional Council of Voluntary Sports Society "Trud".
8. Tsentr dokumentatsii noveyshey istorii Udmurtskoy Respubliki. Fond 92 (Central State Archive of the Republic of Udmurtia. Fund 92). Udmurt regional committee of AULYCL.

Corresponding author: galavit@udsu.ru

Abstract

The study raised the archive data to consider the history of amateur sport tourism in Udmurtia from its start to the modern progress, with a special emphasis on its institutional design, forms and methods. Objective of the study was to make a retrospective analysis of the amateur sport tourism in the area considering the local sport tourism movement in Udmurtia as an integral part of the national tourism with an emphasis on the local specifics. The local amateur tourism, as demonstrated by its history, has always been in the lead of the national movement. The study specifies its key development stages with the relevant new institutional/ sector management forms. Prior to 1990, the amateur sport tourism in Udmurtia had evolved as a public movement with the tourist clubs managed by the Udmurt Regional Council for Tourism and Excursions, Tourist Federation, voluntary sport associations and tourist sections supported by most of the large-scale industries, institutions and educational establishments. It was the municipal tourist clubs that heavily contributed to the mass amateur tourism development at that time for they established and supported a wide network of the tourist sections and clubs under industrial companies and different institutions. It was at that time that the amateur tourism had been increasingly popular and commonly recognized as an efficient health improvement activity of high benefits for the human volitional and ethical progress and due appreciation of the national historical and modern values.