In the “land of icy horror”: the scientific and tourist expedition of “Intourist” to the Arctic in 1931

The article for the first time introduces into a wide scientific turn two documents of the Federal archives (the State Archive of the Russian Federation and the Russian State Archive of the Economy) and analyzes memoirs. Based on them author recreates unknown pages of the early history of «Intourist», and, in particular, the history of the first scientific tourism expedition on the icebreaking steamer «Malygin», organized by «Intourist» in the summer of 1931. Departmental documents make it possible to consider the icebreaker navigation not as a scientific expedition, but as a tourist tripto promote «Intourist» and demonstrating the success of Soviet science and the building of socialism in general. The materials of the Soviet tourism agency show that the politico-ideological and scientific tasks dominated to the prejudice of tourism targets. Organizational confusion, lack of unity of command and the fact that «Intourist» and the ship’s crew were inexperienced in organizing such trips had negative impact on the course of the trip. But against the backdrop of significant scientific results and generally positive reviews of foreigners conquered by the beauty of the Arctic, the first experi- ence of the Soviet Arctic tourism can be considered successful.