Propiska

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Propiska (Russian: пропи́ска; 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. Formally, none of the three Soviet Constitutions prohibited citizens from moving across the country. However, the internal militsiya decrees on propiska were practically regarded as the highest legislation. 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 (i.e. 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 regime, 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.

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 have 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, i.e., to enter Moscow to take certain understaffed job positions, e.g., at strategic plants or at construction works, according to a certain workforce quota (limit).

[edit] 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.

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.

Even today, the process of obtaining the registration is usually not as simple as just notifying the authorities of one's residence. There is still much corruption and abuse related to getting a propiska. For instance, Moscow authorities are known to demand "fines" from anyone who does not have a passport with Moscow registration, particularly those who do not look Slavic.

Reportedly, many people prefer to avoid a time-consuming procedure of getting a temporary registration when they visit Moscow and risk to pay a bribe, which as of mid-2005 was 500 rubles (about $15).

At some point Moscow authorities tried to demand an unreasonable fee (as high as US$5,000) for registration. It was later repealed through court action.

In Ukraine, the Constitutional Court ruled that propiska was unconstitutional in 2001 (November 14); a new "informational" registration mechanism was planned by the government. Additionally, access to social benefits such as housing, pensions, medical care, and schooling is still based on propiska.