Field of activity

The Society's original aim was to encourage cycling and long-distance records whenever possible.

After the establishment of the institute of local representatives of the Society, an explanation of the Program and Charter of the Society began, and the establishment of contacts with local cycling organizations. Such an active policy of the Society contributed to the strengthening of its influence in many cities of Russia. It led to the fact that by the beginning of the 20th century the Society of Cyclist Tourists became the main tourist organization in Russia and contributed to the growth of its authority not only in our country, but also in many countries of the world. The society carried out active work to compile new highway maps for travel enthusiasts.

Publishing activities

• the magazine “Russian Tourist” with appendices - “Road Worker” and “Yearbook” (a kind of road reference book);
• magazine "Excursion Bulletin";
• magazine “School excursions and school museum” (Odessa);
• magazine “Russian Excursionist” (Yaroslavl);
• theoretical, methodological and reference literature;
• guidebooks

Charter

Structure

• The chairman of the company from the moment of its foundation was Nikolai Andreevich de Shario
• The temporary committee of the Society was active in -1895. The purpose was organizational work and preparation for the official registration of the Society. The Interim Committee was headed by the Secretary of the Society
• Committee for managing the affairs of the Society - selected at the time of the creation of the Society to manage its affairs, develop the program and charter of the Society
• The Board of Directors of ROT in St. Petersburg is the highest body of the Company
• Local ROT committees. The heads of such committees were the main representatives of the Society; they were subordinate to the Board of the Society in St. Petersburg. Committees were organized where there were at least 25 members
• Representatives of the Company in foreign regions

Membership

The Russian Society of Tourists consisted of honorary, full life members of the Society. The entrance fee for full members was two rubles.

According to the Charter of the Society, members of the society Not could be:

1. Lower ranks and cadets in active military service;
2. Subjected to restrictions of rights by court;
3. Administrative exiles;
4. Under police supervision;
5. Professional cyclists;
6. Students in educational institutions of the military, naval and religious departments.

Number of members

Story

Society of Bicyclists and Tourists

Reorganization of the Russian Touring Club

Since the founding of the Society, and then the magazine “Russian Tourist”, there has been a not very noticeable, but fundamental struggle for the right to consider the Russian Touring Club not only and not so much a society of cyclists. Presenting a review of the Belgian Touring Club Bulletin for December 1900, the editors of the Russian Tourist magazine wrote:

“The touring club is by no means exclusively a society of cyclists (cyclists)... Among our fellow members of tourists there have never been only fans of the “steel horse”. The Belgian Touring Club extends its solicitude to all tourists and is always at the service of everyone who travels by rail, on foot, on horseback or in a carriage, by car, yacht, boat or bicycle. Let us remember that some European Touring clubs considered it their duty to pay attention to the same. Touring club means “tourism,” and not “cyclism.”

ROT in the conditions of the Russian revolution

There is evidence that the tourist and excursion business was used even when conducting out-of-town excursions. IN May 1914 In Yukki, under the guise of scientific excursions, political rallies of workers took place, and the Sampsonievsky Educational Society and trade unions of printers, under the guise of an excursion to Lakhta (St. Petersburg), held a large meeting on June 8, 1914.

Termination of the Company's activities

Society of Proletarian Tourism

Magazine "Russian Tourist"

The magazine “Russian Tourist” is the official publication of the “Russian Society of Tourists” (-). Published regularly, once a month, from 1912 to 1912. In 1913, only 4 issues were published, after which the magazine ended the first stage of its existence.

Since January 1899 In St. Petersburg, the monthly printed organ of the Society of Cyclists-Tourists, the Russian Touring Club, the magazine “Russian Tourist”, begins to appear. In an editorial in the magazine “Russian Tourist”, the authors pointed out the importance of tourism:

“The development of tourism in Russia will help us get to know our homeland better, make it easier for us to understand its needs and give us the means to meet these needs. Let’s get down to business together - for the prosperity of our society, for the benefit of tourism, for the service of our fatherland...”

The very concept of tourism was defined in the same issue:

“Tourism is also a sport, and the purest sport, the most free from any material calculations... Only an amateur can be a tourist, a person who has not lost the ability to love nature in all its manifestations, who has retained in his soul the spark of poetry inherent in it at the birth of a person."

All members of the Society received the magazine “Russian Tourist” for free.

• Charter of the Company;
• Information about the First Congress of the International League of Tourists held in London (June 6-10, 1899);
• A program of joint trips from June 24 to July 18, 1899, mainly along the Karelian Isthmus;
• A story about the activities of the Crimean Mountain Club, founded in Odessa in 1890 and modeled on Western European alpine clubs;

The magazine "Russian Tourist" played a huge role in the history of tourism, uniting all tourist offices into the Russian Society of Tourists. He contributed to the further development of the excursion business in Russia, generalized the experience of foreign touring clubs, established friendly relations with them, and encouraged them to open up and get to know themselves and the world around them.

The editorial in the January 1901 issue of the magazine still sounds very relevant today. It was called surprisingly simply - “Call”:

“Our Rus' is vast, its various treasures are great, its history is rich in events, its picturesque places are numerous, its people are interesting and sympathetic. Do we know it, our Motherland, do we study it? But not only do we not study it, we do not even try to find out in more detail the places where we live. This is unforgivable. This is unpatriotic. Meanwhile, how easy it is to become a participant in a common work that would be fitting for the faithful sons of their Motherland!”

On April 15, 1895, the founding meeting of the Society of Cyclist Tourists took place in St. Petersburg. The 27 founding members elected a Committee to manage the affairs of the society, which shall; his wife was to develop a program of his activities (Essay on the five-year existence of the Society of Cyclist Tourists (Russian Touring Club), 1900).

The reason for the emergence of the association of cyclist-tourists was that it became quite widespread in Russia by the end of the 19th century. two-wheeled bicycles, which by that time had ceased to serve only for the entertainment of wealthy people, but were increasingly turning into a convenient means of transportation, were increasingly used for long country walks.

It should be noted that associations of cycling enthusiasts have arisen before. Back in 1880, i.e. before the invention of the hollow pneumatic tire, the first society of cyclists in Russia was created in St. Petersburg, and in 1884 the Moscow Society of Amateur Cyclists was established. Various cycling societies and clubs began to appear in other Russian cities. These first small organizations, usually consisting of several dozen people, united mainly wealthy people who had the means to purchase a bicycle, which was expensive at that time. They conducted collective trips for their members of various lengths, usually no more than 200 miles, thereby bringing amateur cyclists together and promoting the bicycle in the life of Russian society (Moscow Society of Amateur Cyclists, 1892).

Information about the development of cyclist societies in Russia can be gleaned from publications published at the end of the 19th century. magazines “Velosipedist” and “Cyclist” in Moscow and “Bicycle” and “Samokat” in St. Petersburg.

The magazine "Bicycle" began preparations for the creation of the first association of cyclists-tourists in Russia. Discussion of the charter of the future society began on its pages in 1892, and only three years later the Russian Society of Cyclists-Tourists appeared, which also had a second name, borrowed from the West - Russian Touring Club. Its main goal was “...to promote the development of tourism in general and cycling tourism in particular” (Charter of the Society of Cyclist Tourists..., 1899).

The Russian Society of Cyclists-Tourists (later the Russian Society of Tourists - ROT) consisted of honorary, full and life members. To join the society, two recommendations from its members were required, after which one could stand for admission to the society at a general meeting. The entrance fee for full members was two rubles. The annual fees were the same. To become a lifelong member, it was enough to deposit at least 50 rubles into the cashier at a time. Honorary members were elected by the general. meeting for any outstanding services to society.

Until 1899, its official publication remained the magazine “Bicycle”. Since January 1899, the society, having strengthened, began to publish the monthly magazine “Russian Tourist”.

The number of society members fluctuated significantly. It grew until 1903, when it reached a record number of 2061 people. But in 1904 its numbers decreased by 40 percent (the reason for which was the Russo-Japanese War) and subsequently continued to fall. Already in 1907 it had dropped to 800 people, and by 1917 it had decreased by another 300 members.

The geography of the society's influence was quite wide. Thus, in 1903, its members were registered in 174 Russian cities, as well as in Tunisia, Italy, Korea and Japan. More than half of them lived in the Asian part of Russia.

According to the charter of the society, committees were formed where there were at least 25 members. In the year of the greatest prosperity of society there were only 14 cities in which committees could be created. The largest committee was Blagoveshchensk, which had 562 people, followed by Vladivostok - 240, then St. Petersburg - 179, Rostov (Rostov-on-Don ) – 93 people. In ten cities - Voronezh, Irkutsk, Kyiv, Dalniy, See-Pristan, Lodz, Odessa, Riga, Khabarovsk, Harbin Novy - there were from 30 to 70 cyclist tourists in ROT. In most other cities, even in such large provincial cities as Vladimir, Ryazan, Kaluga, Chisinau, Kharkov, only one member joined the society. It is interesting to note that Moscow, where back in the mid-80s. one of the first societies of amateur cyclists arose; in 1903 there were only 20 members of the Russian Touring Club.

The main tasks of the society were to conduct collective trips of its members, organize hotels in different cities of Russia to receive tourists, publish the magazine “Russian Tourist”, “Road Worker” and “Yearbook”, which were travel reference books for tourists.

Here are some collective trips of members of the St. Petersburg ROT committee, for example, in August 1899 (Results of joint trips of members of the St. Petersburg representative office of the Society of Amateur Cyclists in the summer of 1899, 1899):

Example:

Similar work was carried out in other places. Mostly, trips of small groups to the outskirts of the city were organized.

For participation in collective trips, credit points were awarded depending on the distance traveled, and at the end of the year, those who scored the most points were awarded special commemorative society tokens.

By 1910, a plan for long-distance travel of members of the society throughout Russia had matured. The initiators of these trips were Moscow cyclist tourists. The trips were intended for people who did not have sufficient funds to undertake long-distance excursions on their own. Travel was carried out to the Caucasus, the Black Sea, the Urals and other regions of the Russian state. When creating the route, its organizers focused mainly on ROT representatives in various cities who knew their region well. So, if in one place a group of tourists was met by a geologist, then in another by a botanist, in a third by a historian, etc. Having completed the route, the excursion participants received a fairly complete understanding of the region, its nature, economic features, history, and the life of the local residents. Along the entire route, the society: rented premises for excursionists and converted them into hostels.

By 1912, a system of long-distance travel for the Russian Tourist Society had already been established. 10 different routes across the European territory of the country were proposed. Here's what some of them said:

No. 1. Crimea.

Moscow – Feodosia – Sudak – Yalta and the surrounding area – Sevastopol and the surrounding area – Bakhchisarai – Moscow. 28 days.

No. 2. Caucasus. Georgian Military Road.

Moscow - along the Georgian Military Road to the station Kazbek - Tiflis - Borjomi - Batumi - New Athos - Novorossiysk - Moscow. 30 days.

No. 3. Finland. Southern.

Moscow St. Petersburg – Vyborg – Saimaa Canal – lake. Saimaa trips around the lake and to Imatra - Helsingfors - Ganges - Abo - St. Petersburg. 21 day.

No. 4. Ural.

Moscow Nizhny Novgorod (Volga - Kama - Belaya) - Ufa - Zlatoust - Lake Turgoyak - Miass - Kyshtym - Ekaterinburg - Kungur - Perm (Kama - Volga) - Nizhny Novgorod - Moscow, 28 days. (Excursions in Russia, 1912).

The Rostov ROT committee assigned an important place to long-distance travel. The location of Rostov-on-Don near the Caucasus also determined the geographical focus of Rostov long-distance multi-day excursions.

Trips along the Georgian Military Road from Vladikavkaz to Tiflis and back were very popular among members of the society. The excursionists traveled along the Georgian Military Road on foot and on bicycles and covered about 400 km during the entire trip.

A certain role was given in the work of the ROT to the organization of trips of its members abroad. These trips for the most part were not collective, as we are accustomed to today, but were made alone or in small groups along routes developed by the tourists themselves.

To facilitate the stay of its members abroad, the board of the society entered into friendly agreements with the Belgian, Austrian, English, Italian and other touring clubs, and the General Dutch Cyclists' Union. On the basis of these agreements, foreign societies provided ROT members when visiting their countries with the same advantages that tourists from these countries had in purchasing travel tickets, staying in hotels, receiving tourism publications available only to members of the society for a minimal fee, and repairing bicycles in workshops. In addition, the board ensured that, by order of the Russian, Belgian, Swiss and Italian finance ministers, ROT members enjoyed special customs benefits.

The board of the society devoted a lot of effort and energy to its publications. From 1899 to 1912, the magazine “Russian Tourist” was published regularly. It published official documents of the society, stories about travels throughout the country and abroad, reports about school excursions, to which ROT members attached great importance. From the very first years of the magazine’s existence, the section “Native Corners” was introduced, in which readers found interestingly written notes about various cities of Russia: Irkutsk and Rostov-on-Don, Ryazan and Feodosia and many others. The magazine published materials about the need to preserve cultural values, since at that time cultural and historical monuments were often destroyed. For example, from an article with the biting title “On Ryazan Vandalism,” readers learned that in ancient Ryazan a large porch with an arch and a staircase near Oleg’s palace, which had stood for centuries “to the beauty of the whole city,” was dismantled to the ground.

The Society also published 8 plans of Russian cities, 20 road maps along the routes Moscow - Torzhok, Moscow - Yaroslavl, in the outskirts of St. Petersburg, Novgorod - St. Petersburg, etc.

Having achieved some success, the Russian Society of Tourists still has not turned into a powerful tourism organization in the country due to a certain passivity of its members. Thus, even in the first years of its existence, for example, in 1900, out of 300 members of the society in St. Petersburg, no more than 30 people attended general meetings, and this situation did not change in all subsequent years.

“Wake up!” - the most active members of society cried out in 1900 from the pages of the magazine “Russian Tourist”, who wanted to see ROT as strong as the Belgian or French touring clubs, which numbered tens of thousands of people in their ranks. But this was never achieved. Readers also found complaints about the hibernation of ROT members in the latest issues of the magazine.

Despite the rather limited number of members and the absence of such wide excursion activities as, for example, the Crimean-Caucasian Mountain Club, the Russian Tourist Society has left a significant mark on the history of tourism. This was the first organization that pursued exclusively tourist purposes, inviting people to visit, unlike mountain clubs, not only the mountains of the Caucasus or Crimea, but also various regions of Russia, as well as other countries. With its well-known publications, which told about Russian cities, travels around Russia, wonderful places that represent our national pride, it aroused among compatriots an interest in knowing the Motherland.

In an editorial in the magazine “Russian Tourist”, the authors pointed out the importance of tourism: “The development of tourism in Russia will help us get to know our homeland better, make it easier for us to understand its needs and give us the means to satisfy these needs. Let’s get down to business together - for the prosperity of our society , for the benefit of tourism, for the service of our fatherland..." In the same issue the very concept of tourism was defined: "Tourism is also a sport, and the purest sport, the most free from any material calculations... A tourist can be only a lover, a person who has not lost the ability to love nature in all its manifestations, who has retained in his soul the spark of poetry inherent in it at the birth of man.”

In the same year, “Dorozhnik” was published in the form of monthly supplements to the magazine.

The Society devoted a lot of attention in its activities to organizing and conducting school excursions. Back in 1899, a special column “About school travel and educational outings” was established on the pages of the magazine “Russian Tourist”. The experience of conducting excursions in Russian schools was presented here. The Society itself, at its own expense, organized such an excursion in 1902 for public schools in the city of Blagoveshchensk. Similar work was carried out in various educational institutions and departments, for example, at the Yaroslavl Directorate of Public Schools, at Yuryev University, at a number of pedagogical institutes and museums.

The great merit of the Russian Tourist Society was the organization of the All-Russian Sports Exhibition in St. Petersburg on May 15, 1902. In addition to Russian organizations, foreign societies took part in this exhibition. For active organization and participation in this exhibition, the Russian Society of Tourists was awarded a diploma of gratitude, and its publication, the magazine "Russian Tourist", was awarded a small gold medal.

The chronicle of tourism has left us with the names of enthusiasts who made truly marathon treks along unexplored routes, the names of pioneers and brave athletes who participated in skiing, cycling, horseback riding, circumnavigation of the world, kayaking, boating and sailing. The unprecedented trip around the world by the “hero of the wheel” Anisim Petrovich Pankratov, a resident of the Russian colony in Harbin, can be considered the height of energy, courage and courage.

Previously, all attempts by foreign tourists to travel around the world by bicycle had ended in failure.

In total, by the end of 1895, representatives of the Society of Cyclist Tourists were appointed in 24 cities of Russia. This allowed the leading local representatives of the Cycling Touring Society to verbally explain their program, Bylaws and establish links with local cycling organizations.

Such an active policy of the Society of Cyclist Tourists contributed to strengthening the influence of the Society in many cities of Russia. It led to the fact that by the beginning of the 20th century the Society of Cyclist Tourists became the main tourist organization in Russia and contributed to the growth of its authority not only in our country, but also in many countries of the world.

The Society of Cyclist Tourists has been actively working to compile new road maps for travel enthusiasts. To this end, in 1898, an all-Russian competition was announced to compile new route guides and highway maps. The winners of this competition were awarded badges of honor.

In 1903, the number of members reached a record number of 2,061 people. Gradually the number decreased. The reason is the Russian-Japanese war. By 1907 it had dropped to 800, and by 1917 it had dropped by a further 300 members. In order to more actively work to involve new members, it was decided to create local committees under the leadership of their main representatives. The heads of such committees were the main representatives of the Society of Touring Cyclists; they were subordinate to the Board of the Society in St. Petersburg. Committees were organized where there were at least 25 members. In 1903, members of the Society were in 174 Russian cities, as well as in Tunisia, Italy, Korea and Japan. More than half of the Society's members lived in the Asian part of Russia. The largest committee was the Blagoveshchensk committee, it had 562 people, followed by the Vladivostok committee - 240, then the St. Petersburg committee - 179. In Rostov-on-Don there were 93 people. In other cities, significantly fewer members joined the Society.

The Society of Cyclist Tourists adopted its charter on March 15, 1895. Subsequently, it changed several times, but its main provisions remained unchanged; later they formed the basis of the charter of the Russian Tourist Society in 1901.

The Charter of the Society of Touring Cyclists (Russian Touring Club) consisted of 35 articles. An interesting article entitled “They cannot be members of society”:

• 1. lower ranks and cadets in active military service;
• 2. subjected to restrictions of rights by court;
• 3. administrative exiles;
• 4. under police supervision;
• 5. professional cyclists;
• 6. students in educational institutions of the military, naval and religious departments. Usyskin G.S. Essays on the history of Russian tourism. - Moscow - St. Petersburg: Publishing Trading House "Gerda", 2000. - p.65

It should be noted that the Company's charter was continuously revised. On March 31, 1899, the third approval of the Society's charter followed. At the same time, instructions were adopted to the Board, local committees and representatives of the Society in foreign regions.

In 1899, the Society took part in the Luxembourg International Congress of Tourism. A.I. sends his representative there. Bruderer to study tourism abroad. At the same congress, Russian society joins the international League of Tourist Societies and at the same time assumes serious responsibilities for creating in Russia everything “that has been developed by the practice of tourism abroad.”

An important element that contributed to the development of tourism in the country was the bold initiative of the leadership of the Society of Cyclist Tourists to conclude, based on the experience of foreign clubs, agreements with hotel owners where members of the Society of Cyclist Tourists could stay on preferential terms.

By 1900, 14 Committees of the Society were established in Russia. Representative offices were opened in 135 Russian cities. 8 representative offices were established abroad: Brussels, Vienna, Geneva, London, Harlem, Milan, Munich and Paris. Friendly agreements have been concluded with 12 foreign tourism societies from Austria, Belgium, Germany, Italy, the USA and other countries.

Thus, over the 5 years of its existence (1895-1900), the Society turned into the largest and most authoritative organization in the country, the number of its members by this time was 1200 people.

The very first hotels in Russia, the owners of which entered into agreements with the Society of Cyclist Tourists on benefits for members of this Society and received the right to be called “Hotels of the Society of Cyclist Tourists”, were:

• · in St. Petersburg - "Hotel Hermitage";
• · in Tsarskoe Selo - "Hotel V.S. Utkin"
• · in Gatchina - "Hotel of Semyon Verevkin";
• · in Tambov - "Slavic Hotel".

By communicating this first information about hotels, the Board of the Society asks its members to use only them. A month later, the fifth hotel, “Orient,” opened in Tiflis.

In connection with the great challenges facing Russian tourism, the old organ of the Society of Cyclist-Tourists, the magazine "Bicycle", ceased to correspond to them.

Since January 1899, the monthly magazine "Russian Tourist", the organ of the Society of Cyclist Tourists, began to be published in St. Petersburg. Russian touring club. The publisher of the magazine "Bicycle" violated its obligations. The magazine began to be published extremely carelessly and negligently, which forced the Board to apply for a loan to publish its own magazine.

In an editorial in the magazine “Russian Tourist”, the authors pointed out the importance of tourism: “The development of tourism in Russia will help us get to know our homeland better, make it easier for us to understand its needs and give us the means to satisfy these needs. Let’s get down to business together - for the prosperity of our society , for the benefit of tourism, for the service of our fatherland..."

In the same issue, the very concept of tourism was defined: “Tourism is also a sport, and sport is the purest, most free from any material calculations... Only an amateur can be a tourist, a person who has not lost the ability to love nature in all its manifestations, preserving in his soul the spark of poetry inherent in it at the birth of a person." In the same year, “Dorozhnik” was published in the form of monthly supplements to the magazine.