Children's Excursion Tour Station

an extracurricular institution that is the organizational and educational center for tours, excursions, and the study of local lore by schoolchildren. It is directed by educational organizations in conjunction with the Komsomol committees, the councils of the Pioneer Organization, and the tourist councils.

The first Soviet institution for excursions and tours for children, The Bureau of School Excursions under the direction of the People’s Commissariat for Education of the RSFSR, was organized in Moscow in 1918 and later reorganized as the Central Experimental-Model Excursion Center of the People’s Commissariat for Education. On this basis, the first Central Children’s Excursion Tour Station was opened in 1932 (now known as the Central Children’s Excursion Tour Station of the Ministry of Education of the RSFSR). Over the period of Soviet power, such organizations have been opened in all the republics and in most of the krais and oblasts in the country. In 1971 there were 169 Children’s Excursion Tour Stations functioning in the USSR.

In the Children’s Excursion Tour Stations and with their assistance at schools, clubs, circles, and societies of tourists, students of local lore, hikers, travelers, and so forth are organized. These centers provide rental facilities and dispense traveling equipment. Excursions and expeditions organized at the request of various organizations, institutions, and enterprises to study the natural resources of an area or participate in historical and archaeological excavations are important activities of the centers.

The Children’s Excursion Tour Stations work out the form, content, and methodology of excursions and tours.