In 1968, the predecessor of this volume was published as Number 15 of
the Law in Eastern Europe series, under the title "Soviet Citizenship
Law". The decision to put out a new version of that study was prompted
by the enactment in 1978 of the CUTTent Law on the Citizenship of the
USSR and the various changes in Soviet prac- tice in this domain which
occurred in the intervening decade. I have drawn on the earlier work for
background material and in order to make comparisons between the
previous record here and the substance ofthe latest statute. However,
the pres- ent monograph is not a second edition in the sense of being an
expanded and updated revision of the original, but stands as an
independent piece of research and analysis. Thus, three of the chapters
(out of a total of six) featured in the 1968 vol- urne - citizenship and
state succession, state succession and option of nationality, and
refugees and displaced persons - have now been omitted for the simple
reason that the situation in these areas has remained virtually static
during the past ten years so that the initial treatment requires no
significant alteration. On the other hand, fresh problems have meantime
arisen - such as, for instance, the connection between citizenship and
emigration, and the relationship between citizenship status and the
international protection of human rights - which called for attention
and are dealt with in this book.
