The historical image of a Russian tourist in the French resort of Biarritz at the beginning of the 20th century

Abstract

Copyright © 2018 by Sochi State University. Everyday practice of rest of subjects of the Russian Empire abroad at the beginning of the 20th century testified about the adherence of Russian society to European culture and about the integration processes of the Russians into the historically-cultural world space. The motives of trips of the Russians to the Azure Coast were beach holidays on the Atlantic coast, spa treatment, family rest in the mild winter climate of Biarritz. The historical image of the Russian holidaymaker in France is recreated on the basis of the analysis of travel notes and memoirs written by contemporaries. General characteristics of the historical image of the Russian tourist abroad at the beginning of the 20th century were: education and openness to receive vivid impressions and new knowledge; availability of funds for the possibility of organizing such a holiday; departure to rest in the autumn-winter period, called by contemporaries "Russian season" in Biarritz; the desire to form a cohesive community of "Russian tourists" in the conditions of a foreign resort, with characteristic Russian communication techniques and traditions. The vast majority of holidaymakers in Biarritz were not constrained by the Russians, which left their imprint on the techniques of their daily rest: beach, horse, bicycle and foot excursions, public receptions, casinos, visiting fashionable shops and salons, cinema, etc. In the everyday life of the Russians in the conditions of rest at a foreign resort, the characteristic features of bourgeois society are traced more sharply and distinctly than those in the Russian Empire, in which property status played a key role, but not the class position. European resorts became on the one hand a field of interpenetration of cultures, on the other, it was here that, against the backdrop of the prevailing European traditions, the characteristics of everyday and mental practices of Russians were more vividly and more clearly manifested.