Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
mostly the problems of third-countries incomers as it represents the major
segment, which the regimes are aimed on.
GETTING INTO CENTRAL ASIA PROBLEM
Central Asia has traditionally been a relatively complicated place to gain
access to, for both foreigners and local residents. Migration has been
blocked by significant distances, which must be traveled over inhospitable
deserts and mountains lying between Central Asia and other centers of civ-
ilization. To this must be added the distrust displayed by many in authority
toward the outside world, including on the part of local leaders, who have
many times taken advantage of travelers for their own enrichment (Hopkirk,
2001; Morrier, 1895; Vambery, 2010). For this reason, for example, the
Hungarian Orientalist Arminius Vambery (2010) traveled disguised as a
dervish pilgrim for safety reasons as late as 1863-64 (i.e., the year before
Tashkent was occupied by the Russians). The relatively late development
of modern infrastructure in the region (railroads and later aviation) also
impacted on the region's accessibility to travelers. Although the Turkestan
region was declared a military district in the latter years of the nineteenth
century, a number of European travelers visited the area (Curtis, 1911;
Curzon, 1889; Donovan, 1883; Fait, 1907; Graham, 1916; Hedin, 1903;
Olufsen, 1911; Schuyler, 1877; Skrine, 1899). The Russian authorities of
the time took a relatively benevolent stance toward similar visits, even if
they intervened at the slightest sign of espionage activity taking place on
“their” territory (Hopkirk, 2001).
After the establishment of the Soviet regime, access to Central Asia
was permitted only to selected groups of foreign tourists, as well as to
journalists loyal to the Soviet regime (Hughes and Mikosz, 2006). The
goal for the latter was to build positive references to the regime. Their trips
were coordinated with the local NKVD and, later, the KGB. Another cat-
egory of foreigners who went to Central Asia was the so-called Interhelp
Brigade, aid teams who visited the area during the 1930s.
After the WWII, the region began to open up to organized tourism as
part of the opening taking place to tourism within the Soviet Union in
general. Several favored routes for foreign tourists were established in-
cluding the “exotic” area of the Soviet Muslim East (i.e., Central Asia).
Aside from border and military zones, it was not even necessary to have
a special permit for tours organized by the state tourist agencies Inturist
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