Passport System Campaign in the Closed Cities of Kuzbass in 1933

In 1933, Kuzbass entered the national passport system project to become one of its leaders in Western Siberia. Modernization proceeded here at an accelerated rate and had a pronounced industrial character. The article describes the passport system campaign in the so-called closed cities of Kuzbass in 1933. The list included young industrial centres of all-union significance, e.g., Stalinsk, Prokopievsk, Leninsk-Kuznetsk, and AnzheroSudzhensk. On the one hand, the passport system was a national project; on the other hand, it was a mobilization and repressive campaign. The author identified the features of the nationwide policy in the field of registration and passportization and characterized its dynamics in Siberia in 1932–1940. The essence of the passport regime and its structural elements, including passport restrictions, was defined by correlating the statuses of passported and non-passported communities. The analysis of the regional passport system policy revealed the mechanism of introducing a nationwide system of administrative registration, bureaucracy practices, and repressive measures in a region with a rapid migration and urbanization. A set of archival materials on militia activities made it possible to describe the goals and mechanisms of introducing of the passport system, as well as to identify its regional specifics, quantitative parameters, and public response. The documents were obtained from the State Archive of the Novosibirsk Region, collection of the West Siberian Regional Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks). In 1933, the passported population was 214,000 people; more than 27,000 people left the cities; 4,189 people were deported.

1. Ablazhey N. N., Zhanbossinova A. S. "Mass" operations of the NKVD in 1937–1938 against criminal and "declassed elements". Modern History of Russia, 2024, 14(1): 102–126. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.21638/spbu24.2024.107

2. Ablazhey N. N., Potapova N. A. Repressive policy as a tool of resolving the "Chinese issue" in the USSR in the 1930s. RUDN Journal of Russian History, 2023, 22(1): 125–138. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.22363/2312-8674-2023-22-1-125-138

3. Baiburin A. K. Prehistory of the Soviet passport (1917–1932). Neprikosnovennyi zapas. Debaty o politike i kulture, 2009, (2): 140–154. (In Russ.) https://elibrary.ru/uobqcg

4. Baiburin A. K. The Soviet passport: History, structure, and practices. St. Petersburg. EUSP, 2017, 488. (In Russ.)

5. Bikmetov R. S. Labor settlers in the mines of Kuzbass (1930 – mid 1950). Bulletin of the Kuzbass State Technical University, 2004, 1(38): 113–121. (In Russ.) https://elibrary.ru/pwlshb

6. Goldman W. Prose about the Soviet passport: Workers and free resettlement (late 1920s – early 1930s). Novyj Istoricheskij Vestnik, 2005, (1): 72–92. (In Russ.) https://elibrary.ru/kwbslr

7. Isupov V. A. Urbanization of the Western Siberia: In the eyes of an historian. ECO, 2018, (7): 7–22. (In Russ.) https://elibrary.ru/xtfdvz

8. Isupov V. A. The population number of West-Siberian territory according to Siberian statisticians of 1930th. Vestnik NSU. Series: History and Philology, 2010, 9(1): 188–200. (In Russ.) https://elibrary.ru/kzbumb

9. Meerovich M. G. Punishment by housing: housing policy in the USSR as a means of managing people, 1917–1937. Moscow: ROSSPEN, 2008, 300. (In Russ.) https://elibrary.ru/qqwdfh

10. Moiseenko V. M. Rural-urban migration in the USSR in the 1920s. Demographic Review, 2018, 5(2): 122–146. (In Russ.) https://elibrary.ru/xwcdzb

11. Muan Ya. Intra-union boundaries of citizenship: territorial expression of discrimination in the Soviet Union through the passport system. Regime people in the USSR, eds. Kondratyeva T. S., Sokolov A. K. Moscow: ROSSPEN, 2009, 257–276. (In Russ.)

12. Popov V. P. Passport system in the USSR (1932–1976). Sotsiologicheskie issledovaniia, 1995, (8): 3–14. (In Russ.) https://elibrary.ru/srcncn

13. Popov V. P. The passport system of Soviet serfdom. Novyi Mir, 1996, (6): 185–203. (In Russ.) https://elibrary.ru/smukwm

14. Potemkina M. N., Kuznetsova I. V. Passport sistem of the urban population of the USSR in the 1930s. Problemy istorii, filologii, kul’tury, 2014, (4): 167–174. (In Russ.) https://elibrary.ru/tcwcxv

15. Tarasov A. Yu. Formation of the passport system of the USSR at the beginning of the twentieth century. Ruza: Moscow Region Branch of Kikot Moscow University of the Ministry of the Interior of Russia, 2010, 160. (In Russ.) https://elibrary.ru/vricmt

16. Фицпатрик Ш. Повседневный сталинизм. Социальная история Советской России в 30-е годы: город. М.: РОССПЭН, 2001. 332 с.

17. Fitzpatrick S. Everyday Stalinism: Ordinary Life in Extraordinary Times: Soviet Russia in the 1930s: The city. Moscow: ROSSPEN, 2001, 332. (In Russ.)

18. Shearer D. R. Policing Stalin's socialism: Repression and social order in the Soviet Union, 1924–1953. Moscow: ROSSPEN, 2014, 541. (In Russ.)

19. Chernolutskaya E. N. "…In accordance with passport regulations": Mass expulsion of "insecure" citizens from the Far East of the USSR in 1930s. Bylye Gody, 2013, (27): 71–78. (In Russ.) https://elibrary.ru/pwppuh

20. Chernolutskaya E. N. Passportization in Russia’s Far East in 1933–1934. Revue des Études Slaves, 1991, 71(1): 17–33. (In Russ.) https://elibrary.ru/yoraxe

21. Baiburin A. The Soviet passport: The history, nature and uses of the internal passport in the USSR. Cambridge & Medford, MA: Polity Press, 2021, XXIX+451. https://elibrary.ru/wwrqfd

22. Glebov S. Interview with Zygmunt Bauman in the court where multi-ethnic polities are on trial the jury is still out. Ab Imperio, 2008, (1): 19–34. https://elibrary.ru/pbzqyx

23. Holquist P. Making war, forging revolution: Russia’s continuum of crisis, 1914–1921. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2002, 384.

24. Holquist P. Violent Russia, deadly Marxism: Russia in the epoch of violence, 1905–1921. Kritika: Explorations in Russian and Eurasian History, 2003, 4(3): 627–652. https://doi.org/10.1353/kri.2003.0040

25. Kessler G. The passport system and state control over population displacement in the Soviet Union, 1932–1940. Cahiers du Monde Russe, 2001, 42(2-4): 477–504. https://doi.org/10.4000/monderusse.8464

26. Kuzemska L. "The Soviet passport. The history, nature and uses of the internal passport in the USSR: Albert Baiburin, Cambridge & Medford, MA: Polity Press, 2021, XXIX+451". Europe-Asia Studies, 2023, 75(5): 889–890. https://doi.org/10.1080/09668136.2023.2205317

27. Shearer D. R. Elements near and alien: Passportization, policing, and identity in the Stalinist state, 1932–1952. The Journal of Modern History, 2004, 76(4): 835–881. https://doi.org/10.1086/427570