What Soviet ‘Intourist’ hotels for foreigners looked like (PHOTOS)
In the late 1920s, a tourist system for foreign guests appeared in Soviet Russia – a network of travel routes and hotels to stay at. ‘Intourist’ branded hotels appeared in almost every union republic.
In Batumi (now in Georgia), a hotel for foreign guests was built in 1938 according to the design of famous architect Alexey Shchusev – the author of the Lenin Mausoleum and the Kazansky Railway Station in Moscow. It’s believed that it was once considered as one of the possible venues for the meeting of Stalin, Churchill and Roosevelt, but, in the end, it famously took place in Yalta, Crimea.
Another project by Shchusev for the ‘Intourist’ chain was a hotel in Baku. It was located in the very center, on Neftyanikov Avenue.
In Volgograd (then Stalingrad), meanwhile, an ‘Intourist’ hotel, built according to the design of Boris Goldman, was opened in 1957, also in the very center of the city. It accommodated both tourists from abroad and high-ranking foreign guests. Behind the strict classical facades magnificent interiors in the Stalinist Empire style were hidden.
A mandatory point of any trip to the USSR was to get to know Moscow. So, by the end of 1960, on the main street of the capital – Gorky (now Tverskaya), a high-rise ‘Intourist’ hotel with more than 400 rooms was especially built (it has since been demolished, with a Ritz Carlton hotel built in its place).
In Chisinau, the ‘Intourist’ hotel looked like this.
The ‘Intourist’ hotel in Sochi, meanwhile, was a real paradise by the sea.
And, in Khabarovsk, the hotel chain was situated in a giant concrete complex.
And there was even one built by Lake Baikal, with a panoramic view of the majestic lake.
