In this remarkable book, Albert Baiburin provides the first in-depth study of the development and uses of the passport, or state identity card, in the former Soviet Union. First introduced in 1932, the Soviet passport took on an exceptional range of functions, extending not just to the regulation of movement and control of migrancy but also to the constitution of subjectivity and of social hierarchies based on place of residence, family background, and ethnic origin.
While the basic role of the Soviet passport was to certify a person’s identity, it assumed a far greater significance in Soviet life. Without it, a person literally ‘disappeared’ from society. It was impossible to find employment or carry out everyday activities like picking up a parcel from the post office; a person could not marry or even officially die without a passport. It was absolutely essential on virtually every occasion when an individual had contact with officialdom because it was always necessary to prove that the individual was the person whom they claimed to be. And since the passport included an indication of the holder’s ethnic identity, individuals found themselves accorded a certain rank in a new hierarchy of nationalities where some ethnic categories were ‘normal’ and others were stigmatized. Passport systems were used by state officials for the deportation of entire population categories – the so-called ‘former people’, those from the pre-revolutionary elite, and the relations of ‘enemies of the people’. But at the same time, passport ownership became the signifier of an acceptable social existence, and the passport itself – the information it contained, the photographs and signatures – became part of the life experience and self-perception of those who possessed it.
This meticulously researched and highly original book will be of great interest to students and scholars of Russia and the Soviet Union and to anyone interested in the shaping of identity in the modern world.
Cuprins
List of Abbreviations
List of Illustrations
Foreword by Catriona Kelly
Preface
Introduction
PART I: THE HISTORY OF THE SOVIET PASSPORT SYSTEM
Chapter 1: The Formation of ‘the Passport Portrait’ in Russia
Chapter 2: Fifteen Passport-less Years
Chapter 3: The Introduction of the Passport System in the USSR
(1932-1936)
General Situation
The Official Version of the Introduction of Passports
Organizational Work
Issuing Passports
‘Legal Excesses’
The Second Phase of the Introduction of Passports
The Consequences of the Introduction of Passports
Chapter 4: Passport Regimes and Passport Reforms
Passport Regimes
The Hundred-and-First Kilometre
The Propiska
Registering Natural Population Changes
Maintaining the Passport Regime
Statutes on Passports and Instructions for Passport Work in 1940 and 1953
Reform Projects of the 1960s
The 1974 Statute
From the Soviet to the Russian Passport System
Part II: THE PASSPORT AS A BUREAUCRATIC DEVICE
Chapter 1: The Passport Template and the Individual’s Basic Information
The Passport Template
‘Surname, Name, Patronymic’
‘Place and Date of Birth’
‘Ethnic Origin’
‘The Personal Signature’
‘Social Status’
‘Liability for Military Service’
Chapter 2: The Notes and Properties of the Passport
‘Who Issued the Passport’
‘On the Basis of Which Documents is the Passport Issued’
‘People listed in the holder’s passport’
The Photograph
Special Observations
Observations about the Propiska
Part III: WHAT THE PASSPORT WAS IN PRACTICE: THE EVIDENCE IN DOCUMENTS AND MEMOIRS
Chapter 1: Receiving a Passport
The Right to a Passport
Defining Ethnicity
Taking the Passport Photograph
How do I sign?
The Passport Desk and the Pasportistka
Receiving the Passport
Chapter 2: Life With – and Without – the Passport
Look After It; Should You Carry It With You?
The Document Check
Changing One’s Name
A ‘Clean’ Passport
Marriages of Convenience
Lost! What it Meant to be Without Your Passport
Refusing to Have a Passport
‘The Most Important Document’ and Why it was Needed
Conclusion
Appendix: Interview Details
Glossary
Bibliography
Notes
Index
Despre autor
Albert Baiburin is Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the European University at St Petersburg
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