Институт прописки в СССР в 1920–1930-е годы: законодательство и ведомственная нормативная база
The Institute of Registration in the USSR in the 1920s–1930s: Legislation and Departmental Regulatory Framework

Summary/Abstract: The article is devoted to the evolution of the institute of registration in the USSR in the 1920s–1930s, which has become an important element of the passport system. The purpose of the article is to describe practices of registration as an integral part of the passport system and passport regime. The analysis is based on the study of legislation, decisions of party and Soviet authorities, departmental administrative regulations of the Joint State Political Directorate — People’s Commissariat for Internal Affairs (OGPU‒NKVD) and militia (police). The algorithm and the specifics of registration in regime and non-regime passport areas are dismantled; administrative and control supervisory activities of the police and state security agencies during the introduction of the passport system and registration as its most important element are analyzed; the positions of individual groups of the population, which were discriminated when choosing a place of residence and registration including foreigners are described; the essence of discriminatory restrictions and changes in the restrictions of rights is specified; the features of administrative and criminal liability for violation of registration rules are specified. Since introduction of the passport system, the character of the registration changed. It became permissive (permission authorities was required), and transformed into one of the Institute of the state control over population It is shown that the institution of registration in the Soviet Union (USSR) during the introduction of the passport system became the main tool for administrative control, but its effectiveness was supported to a large extent due to administrative managerial practices, which in a number of cases were of punitive and discriminatory nature. The conclusion is made that there were specific practices of residence and registration, as well as special registration regulation for different groups of the population.

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