in a new district. The minister issues orders that the governors should not allow unauthorized settlement! A governor knows better than the peasant what place is good for the peasant! The peasant is a little child and must not move without permission of the authorities! Is that not feudal dependence? Is it not an insult to the people when any profligate nobleman is allowed to lord it over grown-up farmers?1
These words of the future leader of the revolutionary proletariat are always quoted whenever there is a discussion about the first stage of drawing up the new legislation.
Just a few days after the October coup in 1917, on 11 November,2 the All-Russian Central Executive Committee (VTsIK) and the Council of People’s Commissars (SNK) jointly issued the decree, ‘On the Abolition of Class Distinctions and Civil Ranks’:
1. All classes and class distinctions, class privileges and class limitations, class organizations and institutions, as well as all civil ranks which have hitherto existed in Russia, are abolished.
2. All estates (noble, merchant, commoner, peasant, etc.), titles (prince, count, etc.), and designations of civil ranks (privy councillor, state councillor, etc.) are abolished, and in their places the inhabitants of Russia are to have one name common to all: citizens of the Russian Republic.3
Given that the passport system was based on class distinctions (there were different rules for registration for each class, as well as different residence permits), a decree doing away with social classes automatically precipitated the dismantling of the previous passport system. What was more, this was taking place at the very moment when movement of the population was at its greatest, because of the war and the shock of the Revolution, and when the second principle behind the passport system – tying the person down to a particular place – had ceased to operate. With the demise of the old passport system, the Empire’s whole system of registration and control of the population also vanished. Nevertheless, passports and other documents issued previously would continue to function for a long time in the new circumstances.4
Having effectively declared the internal passport system no longer valid, the new authorities set about erecting barriers between Soviet Russia and the outside world. As early as 2 December 1917, the People’s Commissariat of Foreign Affairs (NKID) published a resolution stating that anyone wishing to enter the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic (RSFSR) would need a visa in their passport.5 From now on, the only foreigners allowed to cross into Soviet Russia were those whose passports had been approved by the sole Soviet representative abroad: Vatslav Vorovsky, who was based in Stockholm. Three days later, the People’s Commissar of the People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs (NKVD RSFSR),6 Grigory Petrovsky, issued an order forbidding ‘until further notice’ exit from the RSFSR without the permission of the local Soviets (Councils) for any citizen of a country that had been fighting against Russia.7
In his study of isolationism in the Soviet state, Yury Felshtinsky wrote:
This was a timid and cautious step by the inexperienced Soviet authorities. Towards the end of December 1917, they devised such positions on entry to and exit from the country as had never been known, neither in Russia, nor in Europe. Here, all at once, there were passports with photographs, and the appropriate stamps, and special permits with special signatures, special representatives of both the NKVD (internal affairs) and the NKID (foreign affairs); here provision was made to carry out searches and personal examinations of everyone, including women, old people and children. At least they followed international norms and made an exception for diplomats.8
In the first few years after the Revolution, the displacement of a huge mass of the population, through those wanting to resettle, refugees and emigrants, led to a complete collapse of control over migration. Many of these people had no documents at all that could confirm their identity. The Main Directorate of the Workers’ and Peasants’ Militia even had to issue a special circular, ‘What to Do With People Held for Not Having Papers’. It was addressed to all the heads of the militia’s regional directorates:
Under the tsarist regime, passports served only as a residence permit (Article 1 of the ‘Regulation on Passports’). Because of this there were various constraints on the population in terms of freedom of movement when searching for employment etc. At the present time, under the freedom of movement for citizens which has been recognized by the Soviet authorities, a passport or other residence permit (such as an employment book) can suffice as an identity document. And no-one should suffer repression or arrest for not having papers, as long as they do not belong to counter-revolutionary elements and if they do not have unserved criminal sentences or if there is no evidence of them avoiding military service. On the other hand, the militia should, without hindrance, provide written proof of identity to people who do not have it if they can show some appropriate evidence of their identity, including witness statements.10
Figure 2: Warrant for Stepan Arkhipovich Bolotov to inspect the activity of the Special Department of the VeCheKa9 attached to the 3rd Army of the Eastern Front in 1919, during the Civil War.
(Source: http://stopgulag.org.)
A wide variety of organizations had to issue all sorts of certificates for ‘working elements’. They divided into two types: ‘permanent’ and ‘special’. The permanent ones were meant to be the equivalent of identity documents. The special ones, or warrants (see figure 2), were issued by Party, government or military organizations to senior officials who had to travel from one place to another. They had a dual task: to confirm both the identity of the bearer and their authority. These warrants did not have a standard form, but as a rule they included the name, patronymic and surname of the bearer; their position in whichever organization had issued the warrant; the purpose of their mission; and their authority.
The first step towards the re-establishment of a means of registering the population was the Decree of the Council of People’s Commissars [Russ: Sovnarkom or SNK] of the RSFSR of 5 October 1918, ‘On Employment Books for Non-Working People’.11 The publication of this Decree had been preceded in July of that year by the passing of the first Soviet Constitution. In paragraph ‘f’ of Article 3 of the Constitution, it states: ‘Universal obligation to work is introduced for the purpose of eliminating the parasitic strata of society and organizing the economic life of the country’. Article 18 of the Constitution declares: ‘The Russian Socialist Federated Soviet Republic considers work the duty of every citizen of the Republic, and proclaims as its motto: “He shall not eat who does not work.”’12 In this context, the document, which showed a citizen had fulfilled their work obligation, had every chance of becoming the basic document for the Soviet person. This was exactly what was planned for the employment book. In the ‘Decree on Employment Books’ it is stated that since labour is the duty of every citizen of the republic, employment records will be used in place of passports and other identity documents (‘Article 1: To introduce employment books in place of the previous identity documents, passports and so forth’).13
It may seem strange that the first employment books were intended not for working people, but specifically for ‘non-working elements’. This was because first and foremost the Soviet authorities were concerned to observe the principle of the universal obligation to work. It was assumed that the victorious proletariat would observe this principle, but that the ‘non-working people’ would need to be put under special control. According to the Decree, this included the following categories:
1 those who lived
