Hotel Viru quickly became the pride of Intourist, a Soviet travel agency that was founded in the 1920s by Joseph Stalin.
We were evidently assigned compartments by Intourist and where we were assigned we'll sleep.
One of the Intourist guides who had brought them from the railroad station stood to one side of the stairs.
The Intourist guide had started off with twenty-five persons and had clucked over them like a hen all afternoon.
Nevertheless, the Intourist guide went out of his way to avoid bringing his charges too near.
After going to our hotel, I was called by the Intourist Office and asked to go there.
He told me, truthfully or otherwise; that he had been there for 10 days on Intourist.
I asked him if Intourist knew about his intentions and he refused to answer.
He hurried through the lobby, past the Intourist desk, thankful that it was a slow time of day for tourist activity.
It was one of the many of the Intourist hotels going back to before the revolution.