Internal passport: Encyclopedia II - Internal passport - Soviet Union

Internal passport - Soviet Union

Main article: Passport system of the Soviet Union.

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 medical treatment.

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 45, a person has to have three photographs of themself in the passport due to the effects of aging, taken an the age of 16 (when it is issued), 25 and 45). In Ukraine, these laws were struck down 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 terrorist attacks on that city as a justification for their continued use.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Soviet Union", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki