The Soviet passport was an identity document issued pursuant to the laws of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) for citizens of the USSR. For the general purposes of identity certification, Soviet passports contained such data as name, date of birth, gender, place of birth, ethnicity, and citizenship, as well as a photo of the passport holder. At different stages of development of the Soviet passport system, they could also contain information on place of work, social status (marriage, children), and other supporting information needed for those agencies and organizations to which the Soviet citizens used to appeal.
The passport system of the Soviet Union underwent a number of transformations in the course of its history. In the late Soviet Union citizens of age sixteen or older had to have an internal passport. In addition, a passport for travel abroad (заграничный паспорт, загранпаспорт, zagranpasport, often confusingly translated as "foreign passport") was required for travel abroad. There were several types of abroad passport: an ordinary one, known simply as "USSR zagranpasport", a civil service passport (служебный паспорт, sluzhebny pasport), a diplomatic passport, and a sailor's passport.
Internal passports were serviced by "passport offices" (паспортный стол, pasportny stol) of local offices of the MVDs of Soviet republics. Abroad passports were handled by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the corresponding Soviet republic.
Internal passports were used in the Soviet Union for identification of persons for various purposes. In particular, passports were used to control and monitor the place of residence by means of propiska. Officially, propiska was introduced for statistical reasons: since in the planned economy of the Soviet Union the distribution of goods and services was centralized, the overall distribution of population was to be monitored. For example, a valid propiska was necessary to receive higher education or be employed.
The passports recorded the following information: surname, first name and patronymic, date and place of birth and ethnicity,[1] family status, propiska, and record of military service. Sometimes the passport also had special notes, for example blood group.
As mentioned, the internal passports identified every bearer by ethnicity (национальность, natsional'nost'), e.g., Russian, Ukrainian, Uzbek, Estonian, Jew, etc. When an individual applied for a passport at age 16, they had to select the ethnicity of one of their parents.[2]
The internal passports were written in the Russian language and the language of the republic where it was issued. The "green cover" internal passports and passports for travel abroad were written exclusively in the Russian language.
All residents were required by law to record their address on the document, and to report any changes to a local office of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (e.g., by the age of forty-five, a person has to have three photographs of himself in the passport due to the effects of aging, taken at the age of sixteen (when it is issued), twenty-five and forty-five). In Ukraine, these laws were abolished by its Constitutional Court in 2001 on the grounds of unconstitutionality. In Russia, similar cases have so far failed, and the system remains in place, although largely reduced. The system of internal passport registration remains strongly in place in Moscow, which uses the recent[when?] terrorist attacks on that city as a justification for their continued use.
↑ In Russian, word национальность, natsional'nost' means ethnicity. This is not equivalent to the interpretation of "nationality" as "citizenship" as it is sometimes rendered in English and other languages. In Russian there is a separate word for "citizenship": граҗданство, grazhdanstvo.
↑ According to the ethnic demographer V. I. Kozlov, the existence of this so-called "passport nationality," which was largely determined by birth, may have tended to fix the subjective national or ethnic identities of Soviet citizens: V. I. Kozlov, in Динамика численности народов (Dynamics in the Number of Peoples) (Moscow: Nauka, 1969). However, there is a lot of evidence of shifting of subjective nationality, for example as it was reflected in the Soviet censuses, despite the existence of a passport nationality. See, for example, B. A. Anderson and B. D. Silver, "Estimating Russification of Ethnic Identity Among Non-Russians in the USSR," Demography 20 (November 1983): 461–489.
Nationality is a legal identification of a person in international law, establishing the person as a subject, a national, of a sovereign state. It affords the state jurisdiction over the person and affords the person the protection of the state against other states.
An internal passport or a domestic passport is an identity document. Uses for internal passports have included restricting citizens of a subdivided state to employment in their own area, clearly recording the ethnicity of citizens to enforce segregation or prevent passing, and controlling access to sensitive sites or closed cities.
A propiska was both a residency permit and a migration-recording tool, used in the Russian Empire before 1917 and in the Soviet Union from the 1930s. Literally, the word propiska means "inscription", alluding to the inscription in a state internal passport permitting a person to reside in a given place. For a state-owned or third-party-owned property, having a propiska meant the inclusion of a person in the rental contract associated with a dwelling. A propiska was documented in local police (Militsiya) registers and certified with a stamp in internal passports. Residing anywhere for longer than a few weeks without a permit was prohibited.
Nationality law is the law of a sovereign state, and of each of its jurisdictions, that defines the legal manner in which a national identity is acquired and how it may be lost. In international law, the legal means to acquire nationality and formal membership in a nation are separated from the relationship between a national and the nation, known as citizenship. Some nations domestically use the terms interchangeably, though by the 20th century, nationality had commonly come to mean the status of belonging to a particular nation with no regard to the type of governance which established a relationship between the nation and its people. In law, nationality describes the relationship of a national to the state under international law and citizenship describes the relationship of a citizen within the state under domestic statutes. Different regulatory agencies monitor legal compliance for nationality and citizenship. A person in a country of which he or she is not a national is generally regarded by that country as a foreigner or alien. A person who has no recognised nationality to any jurisdiction is regarded as stateless.
Polish nationality law is based primarily on the principle of jus sanguinis. Children born to at least one Polish parent acquire Polish citizenship irrespective of place of birth. Besides other things, Polish citizenship entitled the person to a Polish passport.
A Belarusian passport is issued to citizens of Belarus and is used for both external and internal travel. Unlike Russia, there are no internal passports in Belarus. Passports are issued by the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Belarus and by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to citizens who live abroad.
Belarusian citizenship is membership in the political community of the Republic of Belarus. Belarusian citizens also hold citizenship in the Union State of Russia and Belarus.
The Russian passport is a booklet issued by the Ministry of Internal Affairs to Russian citizens for international travel. This external Russian passport is distinct from the internal Russian passport, which is a mandatory identity document for travel and identification purposes within Russia. Russian citizens must use their Russian passports when leaving or entering Russia, unless traveling to/from a country where the Russian internal ID is recognised as a valid travel document.
The Montenegrin passport is the primary document of international travel issued by Montenegro.
The Ukrainian passport is a document issued for nationals of Ukraine as proof of Ukrainian citizenship. The country issues international passports that are used for travel abroad. Until 2016, Ukraine was also issuing internal passports as a soft booklet that was the primary identification document of Ukrainian citizens within Ukraine. These internal passports are now substituted by a credit card-sized Ukrainian identity card, however previously issued passports still remain valid. Also, legislatively regulated electronic passports are available to Ukrainian citizens within a government-issued smartphone application Diia.
An Estonian passport is an international travel document issued to citizens of Estonia, and may also serve as proof of Estonian citizenship. Besides enabling the bearer to travel internationally and serving as indication of Estonian citizenship, the passport facilitates the process of securing assistance from Estonian consular officials abroad or other European Union member states in case an Estonian consular is absent, if needed. If an Estonian citizen wishes to receive an identity document, especially an Estonian passport, somewhere other than the foreign representation of the Republic of Estonia, then the bearer of the Estonian citizenship staying abroad could receive the travel documents in embassies of any EU country worldwide by paying 50 Euro. Many countries require passport validity of no less than 6 months and one or two blank pages.
Kazakhstani passports are issued to citizens of the Republic of Kazakhstan to facilitate international travel. Within the Republic of Kazakhstan citizens are required to use internal identification card which can also be used for travel to Russian Federation, Kyrgyzstan and Albania. The Kazakhstani Ministry of Justice started issuing biometric passports on January 5, 2009.
Bulgarian passport is an international travel document issued to nationals of Bulgaria, and may also serve as proof of Bulgarian citizenship. Besides enabling the bearer to travel internationally and serving as indication of Bulgarian citizenship, the passport facilitates the process of securing assistance from Bulgarian consular officials abroad or other European Union member states in case a Bulgarian consular is absent, if needed.
Estonian citizenship – based primarily on the principle of jus sanguinis – is governed by a law promulgated on 19 January 1995 by the Riigikogu which took effect on 1 April 1995. The Police and Border Guard Board is responsible for processing applications and enquiries concerning Estonian citizenship.
Ukrainian nationality law is the law that governs the acquisition and loss of citizenship of Ukraine. This body of law includes the constitution, several treaties, and the Law on Citizenship of Ukraine. Key secondary legislation comprises the procedure, established by the president, for the authorities to decide on and record each case of acquisition or loss of citizenship. There also exists a body of administrative case law.
Citizenship of Russia is regulated by the Federal Act regarding citizenship of the Russian Federation, by the Constitution of the Russian Federation, and by the international treaties that cover citizenship questions and to which the Russian Federation is a party. In accordance with the supremacy clause of the Constitution, international treaties of the Russian Federation have precedence over Russian domestic law.
An Estonian Alien's Passport is a travel document that may be issued to a person who is stateless or of undefined citizenship residing in Estonia by the Police and Border Guard Board of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. It can also be used as an identity document. Estonia has about 80,000 to 90,000 alien's passports.
The passport system of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was an organisational framework of the single national civil registration system based upon identification documents, and managed in accordance with the laws by ministries and other governmental bodies authorised by the Constitution of the USSR in the sphere of internal affairs.
Registration in the Russian Federation is the system that records the residence and internal migration of Russian citizens. The present system was introduced on October 1, 1993, and replaced the prior repressive mandatory Soviet system of propiska. The word "propiska" is still widely used colloquially to refer to the registration program.
The Internal Russian passport is a mandatory identity document for all Russian citizens residing in Russia who are aged 14 or over. The Internal Russian passport is an internal passport used for travel and identification purposes within Russia, which is distinct from the International Russian passport used by Russian citizens to travel in and out of Russian borders.
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