1936 On the Continent

was to cling to whatever guide was provided for me. They were invariably good interpreters. They were almost always intelligent people. And the plan on which they had been taught to do their work was an excellent one. They proposed expeditions to all that was interesting both in the old and the modern Russia—to old palaces, art collections and things that the Germans call “Sehenswürdigkeiten” (“things that must not be missed by any chance”), and also to the newer developments of factories, schools, crèches and manifestations of modern Russia in the full tide of its daily work. With them I saw in my first few weeks more than I had hoped to see, more than I would have thought it possible to see. They almost overdid it. If I asked to see one factory I was shown forty factories—partly as a result of their natural enthusiasm, partly so that I should
not
be able to say on my return to England, “Ah, they only showed me one factory. That, of course, was only a show place, preserved for the especial benefit of foreign visitors.”
    With all this, I repeat, I got a wider view of the country in my first few weeks of my first visit than I have ever had of any other country in a corresponding time. But I should also like to state—and this is of at least equal importance—that no visit with any guide was ever compulsory. One could either go with the guide, if one cared; or could go elsewhere if one cared.
    During my second, third, fourth and fifth visits, I by that time “knew the ropes”; I began to know my way about the cities of Leningrad and Moscow as well as I know my way about London and Paris; I had made many friends, acquaintances and contacts among the residentsthere—and on recent visits I have not troubled (nor seen) the excellent guides provided by “Intourist” for as much as weeks on end together.
    This last fact is worth emphasising, because it is still one of the least understood things about modern Russia. There are still rumours current on every hand (among people who have never been there) that “one is bear-led round the place,” that one is only taken to those places “that the Government want one to see,” and so forth. It is one of the most prevalent rumours about Russia, and one of the most difficult to dispel.
Complete Freedom
    Nevertheless, I should like to repeat that of all the nonsensical rumours current about Russia it is one of the most nonsensical. In my time I have travelled long distances in Russia accompanied, when I chose to be accompanied, with guides and with fellow visitors. I have also travelled at other times all over Russia-in-Europe, from the Baltic to the Black Sea, from Stalingrad at the mouth of the Volga to the Polish border,
without
guides, interpreters and fellow visitors; I have bathed on the beaches of Yalta, the south coast resort, unattended by guides and without another Englishman within a hundred miles of me; and I have even sat for weeks in a Moscow hotel in the middle of winter, doing my daily work and seeing my friends, as unsupervised and unregarded as I would have been at any hotel in the Strand in London.
    To sum up this phase of the subject: My advice to anyone going for the first time to Russia on a short visit would be to use the assistance of the guides to the greatest possible extent. The choice of places that they take one to is enormous, and if one has a special or expert interest in any particular subject—education, medicine, art, and so forth—“Intourist” goes out of its way to meet one’s special requirements and to give one special facilities. You will see far more with “Intourist” and its guides than you would on your own.
    If you are going for the first time, even on a long visit, I again advise you to use the services of the guides for atleast the first two or three weeks. They will give the visitor the “hang” of the place in half the time that he would take to acquire it on his own; and he will not afterwards, however long he stays, count the first weeks with them wasted.
    If the visitor is going on his second or third visit he will need no advice. He can tag on to the guides when he likes and if he likes—and he will probably find that they still have some interesting things to show him that he has missed the first time. But he needn’t fear that there will be any compulsion on him to go with them; and by now being on familiar territory, he will find himself as free to follow his own interests in his own way