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Introduction

  • Chapter
The Citizenship Law of the USSR

Part of the book series: Law in Eastern Europe ((LEE,volume 25))

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Abstract

Like its predecessor, the 1977 Constitution of the USSR contains several provisions dealing with citizenship questions. An innovation of the latest Fundamental Law is the inclusion of the item “USSR Citizenship” in the title of chapter 6 (along with “Equality of Citizens”) which, in turn, appears in the section devoted to the theme of “The State and the Individual”. These stylistic changes have some interesting implications. In the 1936 federal charter, the main reference to the topic of citizenship — Article 21 — was featured in the chapter on the “State Structure” of the USSR. The location left no doubt that citizenship was then considered the exclusive affair of the state, whereas the present formulation tends instead to emphasize the relationship between the state and the individual in this connection. Or, as a Soviet author prefers to put it,

“the prescriptions on Soviet citizenship in the aforecited constitutions [i.e., those belonging to the 1936 generation] figured in the sections on the state structure of the USSR and union republics. Thereby, citizenship as an institution defining the legal ties between the individual and the state ended up isolated from the fundamental rights and duties of citizens which formed the basis of their legal status.

In the 1978 BSSR Constitution, just as in the 1977 USSR Constitution, the seminal prescriptions on Soviet citizenship are set forth in the same section as the fundamental rights, freedoms and duties of citizens. In this manner, there has been achieved a comprehensive enunciation of the bases of the legal status of the citizens of the Belorussian SSR. ”1

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Notes

  1. V.A. Kuchinskii Osnovnye prava i obiazannosti grazhdan Belorusskoi SSRMinsk 1978, p.74.

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  2. V.S. Shevtsov Grazhdanstvo v sovetskom soiuznom gosudarstveMoscow 1969, p.69; idem Citizenship of the USSR (A Legal Study)Moscow 1979, pp.73–74.

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  3. N.V. Vitruk, in Pravovedenie1971, No.6, p.106.

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  4. For an English—language translation of the text of the 1978 RSFSR Constitution and a concordance with the 1978 Constitutions of the other union republics, see W.B. Simons, in F.J.M. Feldbrugge, ed., The Constitutions of the USSR and the Union Republics: Analysis, Texts, Reports, Alphen aan den Rijn and Germantown, Maryland 1979, pp.263–342. For an analysis of the general principles of the 1977 USSR Constitution, see G. Ginsburgs and S. Pomorski, “A Profile of the Soviet Constitution of 1977”, ibid., pp. 3–67.

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  5. E.g., V.S. Shevtsov, Sovetskoe gosudarstvo i lichnost’, Moscow 1978, p. 23.

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  6. For instance, V.S. Shevtsov Sovetskoe grazhdanstvoMoscow 1965, p.51, fn.l. Idem Grazhdanstvo…p.137, fn.1.

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  7. G.I. Tunkin, “Zakon o grazhdanstve SSSR” Sovetskoe gosudarstvo i pravo1979, No.7, pp.22 (hereafter abbr. as SGiP).

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  8. Vedomosti Verkhovnogo Soveta SSSR1973, No.26, p.396 (hereafter abbr. as VVS SSSR).

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  9. Speech by V.V. Kuznetsov PravdaDecember 2, 1978 (hereafter abbr. as Pr.); IzvestiiaDecember 2, 1978 (hereafter abbr. as Izv.).

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  10. VVS SSSR,1977, No.51, Art.764. Also VVS SSSR,1978, No.49, Art.794.

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  11. N. Salishcheva, E. Koveshnikov, “Novyi zakon o grazhdanstve SSSR” Sotsialisticheskaia zakonnost’1979, No.3, p.9 (hereafter abbr. as SZ).

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  12. For the text of the 1978 Law on Citizenship of the USSR, see Pr., Izv., December 2, 1978; VVS SSSR, 1978, No.49, Art.816. For the text in English, see International Affairs, 1979, No.1, pp.141–144, and W.B. Simons, trans., in Review of Socialist Law, 1979, No. 4, pp. 463–467.

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  13. Pr., Izv.,December 2, 1978; WS SSSR,1978 No.48, Art.817. English text in International Affairs,1979, No.1, p.145.

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  14. V.S. Shevtsov Grazhdanstvo…p.164; R. Kulik, “Pravovye nachala sovetskogo grazhdanstva” Sovety narodnykh deputatov1979, No.2, p.33.

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  15. V.A. Pertsik, in S.N. Bratus’, I.S. Samoshchenko, eds. Teoreticheskie voprosy sistematizatsii sovetskogo zakonodatel’stvaMoscow 1962, p.278.

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  16. E.g., B.V. Shchetinin, Problemy teorii sovetskogo gosudarstvennogo prava, Moscow 1974, p. 184.

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  17. A. Arbuzkin, “Pravovoe polozhenie inostrantsev v SSSR” Chelovek i zakon1979, No.6, pp.12–13.

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  18. Radio Free Europe ResearchCzechoslovakia/4, January 24, 1973, p.7.

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  19. Khronika zashchity pray y SSSR,1973, vyp.4, p.33 (hereafter abbr. as Khronika); ibid.,1977, vyp.28, p37; U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Public Affairs, “Implementation of the Helsinki Accord, 6th Semiannual Report, December 1, 1978—May 31, 1979”, Special Report No.54 (July 1979), p.14; ibid.,7th Semiannual Report, June 1—November 30, 1979, Special Report No.62 (January 1980), p.13; ibid.,8th Semiannual Report, December 1, 1979—May 31, 1980, Special Report No. 73, p.14.

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  20. Soviet News,January 27, 1976, No.5819, p.35, and June 17, 1980, No.6024, p.183.

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  21. Radio Free Europe Research,Hungary/3, January 15, 1974, p.2.

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  22. G.K. Matveev, “Voprosy sovetskogo kollizionnogo semeinogo prava” Pravovedenie1972, No.2, p.99, fn.2.

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  23. Ibid.,p.13, and Special Report No.73 (note 29 above), pp.14, 16.

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  24. Of course, the phenomenon is by no means new and, in fact, predates the Second World War. See, for instance, M.M. Whiteman, Digest of International Law, Department of State Publication 8290, Washington, D.C. September 1967, Vol.8, p.657. For early postwar diplomatic contacts between the United States and the USSR concerning, inter alia, more than 250 “wives of American citizens who have been denied exit visas from the Soviet Union”, although they had “for many months, and in several cases years,… sought permission to leave the Soviet Union in order to join their husbands in the United States”, see ibid., pp.637–639. At one point, the U.S. State Department officially informed the Soviet embassy in Washington that “the continued refusal of the Soviet authorities to permit the departure of these wives of American citizens is incomprehensible to the Government and the people of the United States” (p. 638 ).

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  25. The Chilean delegation to the 3rd session of the UN General Assembly (1948) protested against the refusal of the USSR to permit the Soviet wives of foreigners to join their husbands abroad including the wife of the son of the Chilean ambassador in Moscow). Other states joined the chorus of denunciations and in 1949 the General Assembly adopted a resolution calling on the USSR to “withdraw the measures of such a nature which have been adopted”. In the course of the debates, the U.S. government revealed that from the time of recognition of the Soviet government in November 1933 to 1948 only about 50 of the Soviet wives of American citizens have been permitted to leave the USSR. There were still 350 Soviet wives and 65 Soviet husbands of American citizens who had applied for permission to depart from the USSR without success and “the Soviet Government has been adamant in refusing to permit them to leave” (pp.657–658).

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  26. G.K. Matveev, in SGiP1974, No.5, p.151.

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  27. G.I. Tunkin op. cit.p.23; R. Kulik op. cit.p.33.

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  28. V.V. Kuznetsov /oc. cit. (note 12 above). Likewise, V. Shevtsov Citizenship..p.88.

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  29. V. Durdenevskii, “Zakon o grazhdanstve Soiuza Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik”, Problemy sotsialisticheskogo prava, 1938, No.6, p.61. Cf., “Closing word by deputy N.A. Bulganin”, Pr., August 20, 1938.

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  30. E.g., M. Shafir, Grazhdaninom byt’ obiazan, Moscow 1972, p. 23.

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  31. VVS SSSR,1939, No.22; Sbornik zakonov SSSR i ukazov Prezidiuma Verkhovnogo Soveta SSSR (1938g.—noiabr 1958g.),Moscow 1959, p.76.

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  32. Pr., Izv.,December 2, 1978; VVS SSSR,1978, No.48, Art.817. Also, International

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  33. VVS SSSR,1979, No.25, Art.436. English translation by W.B. Simons in Review of Socialist Law,1979, No.4, pp.468–469.

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  1. Law School, Rutgers University (Camden), USA

    George Ginsburgs (Distinguished Professor of Foreign and Comparative Law)

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  1. George Ginsburgs
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© 1983 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht

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Ginsburgs, G. (1983). Introduction. In: The Citizenship Law of the USSR. Law in Eastern Europe, vol 25. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-1184-1_1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-1184-1_1

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  • Print ISBN: 978-94-015-1186-5

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