The Soviet Passport. Albert Baiburin

they had to present their documents to the police. Anyone not obeying these rules was liable to arrest and to being sent back to their place of residence. Those who were unable to confirm their identity were charged with vagrancy and exiled to Siberia ‘where they were to settle’. People who were in police custody had a red mark stamped in their passport indicating that they had been under suspicion.⁴⁹ ‘Landlords who accepted travellers on a temporary basis were under an extra form of control, as they had to report to the police the following details about their guests: name, title or rank, place of permanent residence and religious denomination.’⁵⁰

      In the second half of the nineteenth century, it was clear that this cumbersome and muddled system was proving to be a serious impediment to Russia’s development. Alexander II created a Passport Commission under the chairmanship of the Interior Minister, Sergei Lanskoy, which was tasked with simplifying the existing passport regime. However, it soon became clear that too much was tied up with the passport system: the social stratification of society; the taxation laws; the recruitment process for the army and much more, not to mention serfdom and the organization of the village communes [Russ: obshchina]. Serious reform of the passport system inevitably threatened to rock the very foundations of society. Nevertheless, the need for it was widely discussed in the press.⁵¹

      By this time the state bureaucratic apparatus had become extremely experienced in documenting the individual.⁵² In principle, they were prepared to make changes, especially as they had already begun to do so in other areas (such as the move from recruitment for the army to conscription, which was carried out in 1875). After the reform of 1861 (which, most significantly, abolished serfdom), the most relevant issues involved the hiring of workers. For the first time there was talk of introducing employment books [Russ: trudovaya knizhka] instead of passports for hired agricultural workers and servants (this idea was brought up again in Soviet times).

      Finally, in 1894, the ‘Resolution on Residence Permits’⁵³ was introduced, thanks to the work of the Passport Commission, chaired by the Secretary of State, Dmitry Solsky. This Commission had begun its work eight years after the reform of 1861, and was succeeded by the so-called ‘preparatory commission’ which presented the results of its years-long work in the State Council. The Resolution was amended by the ‘Decree on Passports’ in 1903 and particularly the Supreme Decree of 5 October 1906, but its basic provisions remained unaltered until 1917.

It is indicative that the title ‘residence permit’ showed that where a person lived – and the place which he could leave only with the appropriate documentation – was the first point of identification.⁵⁴ The residence permit was a document by which the police could keep tabs on the population and was used in conjunction with the passport. According to the Resolution, people who were living at their place of permanent residence were not obliged to have a passport; it was sufficient that they were registered there, or with their place of service or their community.⁵⁵ The residence permit was issued for the homestead and it contained details of all the family members.⁵⁶ A passport was necessary only if a person was travelling more than fifty versts (about sixty kilometres) from their home and for a period longer than six months. Passports were issued not only to men (from the age of eighteen years) but also to women (from twenty-one years); but women could receive a passport only with the permission of their husband or their father. Children who were yet to reach adulthood were registered in their father’s passport.⁵⁷

      The exact place of permanent residence was more clearly defined, since the passport was needed only beyond its boundaries. So for nobles, officials, honorary citizens and merchants, this was recognized as being the place where they worked or carried out their service, as well as the place (or places) where they owned property. For the lower middle classes and artisans, their place of residence was considered to be the town or trading quarter where they lived, and, more precisely, the ‘community’ where they were registered. For the peasantry, this was the rural community where they paid their dues and were registered for military service.⁵⁸

      All categories of citizens could change their place of residence, except for those who paid dues (the lower middle class, artisans and ordinary country folk). There were restrictions for the Jewish population (who were forced to live in the Pale of Settlement), gypsies and also those who had been convicted and were under police observation. Where necessary, passports were given even to those who had served their sentences, although with certain conditions: they were allowed to receive a passport only with the permission of the police, a special mark was made in it about their conviction and they were restricted in where they could live.⁵⁹ If the police doubted that the documents presented to them were genuine, they had the powers to call on third persons to help with the process of identification.

      Various documents acted as passports for the different levels of people in society. Nobles, military officers, honorary citizens, merchants and persons of other ranks [Russ: raznochintsy; i.e., those who had risen from their birth estate through state service or education – Tr.] could receive passport booklets with no expiry date. Those who were at the level where they paid dues received documents that were valid only for a limited period. Those who were not in debt received five-year passport booklets. One-year passports were issued that did not depend on whether the recipient was in debt. Finally, one-year leave-of-absence permits were issued to those who had suffered from a failed harvest, fire or natural disaster. In this way, the type of certification that was given out did not simply indicate social estate, but was also an indication of the type of person the bearer was.

From 1903, according to the ‘Regulation on Passports’, citizens of Russia were also given residence permits with differing periods of validity. In the same year, the mutual responsibility of ‘society’ for the payment of taxes was removed and, as a result, the Finance Ministry lost interest in the passport system. From this point it was only the Interior Ministry that was responsible for its operation. And in the bowels of the Police Department, the Commission under Ivan Durnovo was working on a project which was looking into whether the passport was needed at all. When this was put forward in 1905, it did not receive the necessary support. But ten years later, a conference within the Police Department chaired by the Deputy Director, Konstantin Kafafov, returned to the idea of making the ownership of the passport a right, not an obligation. It was suggested that each citizen should have the possibility, ‘by all means available to them to show who they were’. However, before this could be brought in, it was necessary to solve the long-standing problem of what to do about the Jews, Gypsies, travelling traders and the poor.⁶⁰ The First World War and the Revolution saw these plans dropped.

      In the final two decades of the existence of the Russian Empire, the basic document which confirmed a person’s identity was the ‘passport booklet’, which was brought in by the Supreme Decree of 5 October 1906. This contained the following details about its owner:

      1 First name, patronymic, surname

      2 Title or rank

      3 Date of birth or age

      4 Religious denomination

      5 Place of permanent residence

      6 Is the holder, or has he been, married?

      7 Is he liable for military service?

      8 On the basis of which documents was the passport booklet issued?

      9 Signature of the holder; if the holder is illiterate, the following details: height, colour of hair, distinguishing features

      10 Other people listed in the passport booklet on the basis of Articles 9 and 10 of the residence permit (wife, children)

      11 Any changes which had occurred in the holder’s work, social or marital status; or any changes for anyone else listed in the booklet.

      As well as this, the usual administrative details were also included in the passport booklet: by whom and when it had been issued; the registration number; signature and stamp. In this way, the passport booklet became a fully-fledged document and part of the overall system of documentation.⁶¹

      One notes the unstoppable expansion of the list of personal details which the state needed to