Everything about Propiska totally explained
Propiska (; full term
Прописка по месту жительства, "The record of place of residence") was a regulation in the
Soviet Union designed to control internal population movement by binding a person to his or her permanent place of residence.
The noun derives from the Russian verb "propisat" ("to write into") — meaning to "write a passport into a registration book" of the given local office. The initial
1930s decree on propiska demanded to register
documents, not the
people. Later, "propiska" became an official term. The
propiska was to be recorded both in the
internal passport of the
citizens of the
Soviet Union and at the local governmental office. In cities it was a local office of
MVD (for example police precinct). In rural areas it was
selsovet, or "rural soviet", a governing body of a rural territory. The administrations of hotels, student dormitories and people who let their premises for rent were also obliged to maintain
propiska problems of their guests. The
propiska played the roles of both
residency permit and residential registration of a person.
The
propiska system was similar to the
Tsarist internal passport system, which had been viewed as a
tyrannical means of controlling population movements in the
Russian Empire. The
Bolsheviks abolished the internal passport system in
1917, but
Joseph Stalin reinstated it in December
1932.
Under the Soviet rule, a valid propiska was required to apply for
jobs, to get
married, to receive medical treatment, and in many other situations. At the same time, it was almost impossible to get a local propiska in a major city without having a job (constituting a sort of
Catch 22) or having relatives living in the city.
Upon renewal, the
MVD would do a check on the person's activities in the five years since the last renewal. Those engaged in activities deemed by the authorities as "
anti-Soviet" were under constant risk of losing their
propiska.
At a certain period of Soviet history residents of rural areas had their passports stored at
selsoviets (officially "for safekeeping") which prevented them from unauthorized migration. It was mainly a result of
1930s rural famines which had caused peasants look for survival in the cities.
Residency permits were extremely difficult for migrants to obtain in large cities, especially
Moscow, and were a matter of
prestige. Certain "risk groups", such as
dissidents,
Roma and former
Gulag inmates, were often barred from getting
propiska in Moscow and some other major cities. However, many people used subterfuge to get Moscow
propiska, including fake marriages and
bribery. Another way of obtaining Moscow residency was to become a
limitchik, for example, to enter Moscow to take certain understaffed job positions, for example, at strategic plants or at construction works, according to a certain workforce quota (
limit).
Propiska after 1991
Following the
collapse of the Soviet Union, the
propiska system was officially abolished. However, some of the former
Soviet republics, such as
Belarus,
Kyrgyzstan, and
Russia, chose to keep their
propiska systems, or at least a scaled down version of them. Most, on the other hand, have done away with residence permits, but still require registration of a person's place of residence. The abolition of the propiska system triggered a rise in realty and residential costs.
Georgia and
Moldova have completely outlawed registration and any form of internal passport.
Russia replaced
propiska with
registration primarily used for economic and law enforcement reasons such as accounting social benefits, housing and utility payments, taxes,
conscription, etc.
In
Ukraine, the
Constitutional Court ruled that
propiska was unconstitutional in
2001 (
November 14); a new "informational" registration mechanism was planned by the government but in effect has never come into being. Additionally, access to
social benefits such as housing, pensions, medical care, and schooling are still based on a
propiska, as are things like the location for a driving test (and the associated driving lessons).
Further Information
Get more info on 'Propiska'.
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