In this remarkable book, Albert Baiburin provides the first in-depth
study of the development and uses of the passport, or state identity
card, in the former Soviet Union. First introduced in 1932, the Soviet
passport took on an exceptional range of functions, extending not just
to the regulation of movement and control of migrancy but also to the
constitution of subjectivity and of social hierarchies based on place of
residence, family background, and ethnic origin.
While the basic role of the Soviet passport was to certify a person's
identity, it assumed a far greater significance in Soviet life. Without
it, a person literally 'disappeared' from society. It was impossible to
find employment or carry out everyday activities like picking up a
parcel from the post office; a person could not marry or even officially
die without a passport. It was absolutely essential on virtually every
occasion when an individual had contact with officialdom because it was
always necessary to prove that the individual was the person whom they
claimed to be. And since the passport included an indication of the
holder's ethnic identity, individuals found themselves accorded a
certain rank in a new hierarchy of nationalities where some ethnic
categories were 'normal' and others were stigmatized. Passport systems
were used by state officials for the deportation of entire population
categories - the so-called 'former people', those from the
pre-revolutionary elite, and the relations of 'enemies of the people'.
But at the same time, passport ownership became the signifier of an
acceptable social existence, and the passport itself - the information
it contained, the photographs and signatures - became part of the life
experience and self-perception of those who possessed it.
This meticulously researched and highly original book will be of great
interest to students and scholars of Russia and the Soviet Union and to
anyone interested in the shaping of identity in the modern world.
