ABSTRACT
This contribution focuses on visitors to the USSR together with reflections on visitors since 1991, noting especially the continuation of Cold War tropes in many of the post-1991 accounts. Less politicised views have emerged from the growing number of adventure tourists – mountaineers, walkers, canoeists, cyclists, and motorcyclists – who have begun to “explore” the formerly “forbidden” territories. It centres on a subset of travellers – notably John Gunther, Hedrick Smith, Robert Kaiser, Colin Thubron, Jonathan Dimbleby – and some recent adventure tourists. The chapter asks questions about the nature and origins of their “gaze”, the notion of achieving “true” representation of another culture, and the nature and persistence of Cold War perspectives in western views of Russia/USSR.
