Abstract
On the face of it, the Soviet position on the question of dual (or multiple) nationality sounds deceptively plain: within the frontiers of the USSR, the Soviet regime simply refuses to recognize the legal consequences of dual (or multiple) nationality in cases involving persons also in possession of a valid Soviet citizenship.
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Notes
V. Durdenevskii, “Zakon o grazhdanstve Soiuza Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik”, Problemy sotsialisticheskogo prava, 1938, No.6, p.59.
Ibid., p.65. In the same vein, V.N. Durdenevskii, in V.N. Durdenevskii & S.B. Krylov (eds.), Mezhdunarodnoe pravo,Moscow 1947, p.187; O.E. Polents, in E.A. Korovin (ed.), Mezhdunarodnoe pravo, Moscow 1951, pp.231–232; K.Ia. Chizhov, in F.I. Kozhevnikov (ed.), Mezhdunarodnoe pravo,Moscow, 1957, p.145; V.I. Menzhinskii, in F.I. Kozhevnikov (ed.), Mezhdunarodnoe pravo, Moscow 1964, p.288; N.T. Samartseva, in D.B. Levin & G.P. Kaliuzhnaia (eds.), Mezhdunarodnoe pravo, Moscow, 1964, p.159; D.L. Zlatopol’skii, Gosudarstvennoe ustroistvo SSSR, Moscow 1960, pp.258–259; A.I. Lepeshkin, Kurs Sovetskogo gosudarstvennogo prava, Moscow 1961, Vol.1, p.471; V.S. Shevtsov, Sovetskoe grazhdanstvo,Moscow, 1965, pp.25, 47; idem, in Entsiklopedicheskii slovar’ pravovykh znanii (Sovetskoe pravo), Moscow, 1965, p.91.
D.L. Zlatopol’skii, op. cit., p.260, fn.1, citing Izvestiia, May 30, 1956. 1966 witnessed renewed controversy between the two capitals centering around the mailing of pension questionnaires by the Bonn Government to which the Soviet authorities objected on grounds that they sought secret data. The addressees could be the Soviet citizens of German origin whom the West Germans had attempted to locate through the Soviet officialdom on the earlier occasion and the rebuff may have prompted the West Germans to try to reach some of them by direct post or elicit information about them through personal contacts. See New York Times, June 29, 1966, p.12, and Soviet News, 1966, No.5291, pp.157, 159.
K.Ia. Chizhov, in F.I. Kozhevnikov (ed.), International Law, Moscow, 1957, tr. from the Russian by Dennis Ogden, p.149. Likewise, O.E. Polents, in E.A. Korovin (ed.), op. cit., p.231; V.I. Menzhinskii, in F.I. Kozhevnikov (ed.), op. cit., p.276; V.N. Durdenevskii, in V.N. Durdenevskii & S.B. Krylov (eds.), op. cit., p.178.
V.S. Shevtsov, op. cit., p.47, fn.1.
Idem, Grazhdanstvo v sovetskom soiuznom gosudarstve, Moscow, 1969, p.117.
L.B. Kuzmenko, “Razvitie pravovogo regulirovaniia statusa lichnosti v novom zakone o grazhdanstve SSSR”, Vestnik Moskovskogo universiteta, 1980, No.4, seriia 11, Pravo, p.30.
SZ SSSR, 1933, No.34, Item 200. The text is also published in G.E. Vilkov (comp.), Zakonodatel’stvo SSSR i mezhdunarodnye soglasheniia po voprosam grazhdanstva (sbornik), Moscow, 1964, pp.22–23.
I. Trainin, “K voprosu o grazhdanstve”, Sovetskoe gosudarstvo, 1938, No.5, p.66.
V. Shevtsov, Citizenship of the USSR (A Legal Study), Moscow, 1979, p.48.
Note that the 1933 decree that mandated the forfeiture of Soviet citizenship by all former Russian citizens who had gone abroad before November 7, 1917, and had acquired a foreign citizenship or applied for a foreign citizenship, does not contradict this observation since its terms dealt with Russian emigrés of the pre— Soviet period. Technically, they were eligible to succeed to Soviet citizenship, but had let the opportunity lapse by failing to take the necessary steps to register as Soviet citizens. The 1933 edict thus cancelled their potential title to Soviet citizenship and did not strip them of effective possession of Soviet citizenship.
This was noted earlier by B. Trachtenberg, “La Législation Soviétique sur la Nationalité”, Revue de Droit International Privé, 1931, p.152, fn.1, in commenting on the provisions of the 1930 Regulations, where he disputes the opinion expressed by E.A. Korovine in his article “La République des Soviets et le droit international”, Revue générale de droit international public, 1925, p.301, that “Soviet law repudiates the status of dual nationality”, based on the same evidence. Today, Soviet legal writers openly concede that the fact of Soviet refusal to recognize the status of dual citizenship does not prevent the latter’s actual occurrence. See, for instance, G.I. Tunkin, “Zakon o grazhdanstve SSSR”, Sovetskoe gosudarstvo i pravo, 1979, No.7, pp.26–27 (hereafter abbr. as SGiP); V.M. Safronov, Ty — grazhdanin Sovetskogo Soiuza, Moscow, 1978, pp.29–30.
See, American Journal of International Law, 1979, No.4, p.678.
S.V. Chernichenko, Mezhdunarodno–pravovye voprosy grazhdanstva, Moscow, 1968, p.99. In similar vein, V.S. Shevtsov, op. cit. (note 6 above), p.55; idem, in Konstitutsionnyi status lichnosti v SSSR, Moscow, 1980, p.42; idem, “Sovetskoe grazhdanstvo i gosudarstvennyi suverenitet”, SGiP, 1970, No.6, p.45; idem, Gosudarstvennyi suverenitet (Voprosy teorii), Moscow, 1979, p.113.
S.V. Chernichenko, op. cit., p.99. For a similar judgment by a Hungarian author, see V. Baiaki (V. Bajäki), “Obshchee i osobennoe v pravovom regulirovanii grazhdanstva v evropeiskikh sotsialisticheskikh stranakh”, SGiP, 1976, No.11, p.83.
V.S. Shevtsov, op. cit. (note 6 above), pp.24–25.
B. Nepesov, “`Dvoinoe grazhdanstvo’: chto eto takoe?”, Chelovek i zakon, 1979, No.11, p.12.
V.S. Shevtsov, op. cit. (note 6 above), p.59.
Cf., V. Baiaki, op. cit., p.84.
B.V. Shchetinin, Problemy teorii sovetskogo gosudarstvennogo prava, Moscow, 1974, p.184.
B. Nepesov, op. cit., pp.16–17. Likewise, V.V. Polianskii, “Printsipy sovetskogo grazhdanstva”, SGiP, 1980, No.5, pp.125–126, fn.8.
L.N. Galenskaia, in G.I. Tunkin (ed.), Mezhdunarodnoe pravo, Moscow, 1974, p.221.
S.V. Chernichenko, op. cit., p.25.
Ibid., p.78.
Ibid., p.108.
V. Shevtsov, op. cit. (note 10 above), p.48. Also, G.I. Tunkin, op. cit., p.26.
S.V. Chernichenko, op. cit., p.110.
M.M. Whiteman, Digest of International Law, Washington, D.C., 1967 (Department of State Publication 8290), Vol.8, p.640. Per contra, in the Choolokian case, decided in 1947, the New York court ruled against the father, a native of Armenia and a naturalized citizen of the U.S., who sought to regain custody of his three minor children, native–born citizens of the U.S., with a view to removing them and himself to Soviet Armenia to which he was being repatriated. The Court reasoned that “if the father were permitted… to take these three children to Soviet Armenia, it seems clear under present conditions that their right to avail themselves of the privileges of their American citizenship might be forever lost. It is unthinkable that an American court would permit this father to place his infant children in such an irretrievable position. While he may make that choice for himself, it will certainly not promote the interests of the children… to permit the father or anyone to dissipate beyond redemption these priceless rights of the children. The exercise of these rights should not be left to the remote chance that they might some day before their twenty–third birthday be able to escape from Armenia and return to the United States” (pp.639–640). Soviet charges that the Choolokian children were held by “unlawful actions taken by the American authorities” and U.S. retorts that they were “protected from forced transfer” became the subject of heated diplomatic exchanges (p.656).
I.K. Gorodetskaia, “Grazhdanstvo detei”, SGiP, 1971, No.4, p.38. These cases are again being rehashed with much vitriol in connection with the current Polovchak hearings. See, I. Konstantinova, “Amerikanskaia femida protiv pray roditelei i detei”, Chelovek i zakon, 1981, No.1, pp.120–123.
S. Voronitsyn, “New Approach to `Compatriots Abroad”‘, Radio Liberty Research 348/76 (July 8, 1976), 4pp.
V. Semenov, “Solntsa pravdy ne zaslonit”, in Vot ona, ikh “pravda”, Kharkov, 1972, pp.83–86. For more on the subject, see S.V. Chernichenko, op. cit., pp.104–105; Kurs mezhdunarodnogo prava, Moscow, 1967, Vol.3, p.75, and B. Nepesov, op. cit., p.14.
M.M. Whiteman, op. cit., pp.649–657.
U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Public Affairs, “Implementation of Helsinki Accord, June 1-November 30, 1979”, 7th Semiannual Report, Special Report No.62, p.13.
See Khronika zashchity pray y SSSR, vyp.10, p.50.
Compare the case of A.V. Malkin, reported ibid., vyp.17, pp.47–53.
R. Kulik, “Pravovye nachala sovetskogo grazhdanstva”, Sovety narodnykh deputa toy, 1979, No.2, p.37. See, too, V.S. Shevtsov, in Konstitutsionnyi status lichnosti v SSSR, p.42.
Cf., G.I. Tunkin, op. cit., p.26.
S. Chernichenko, “Nash grazhdanin”, Izvestiia, June 15, 1968.
E.g., V.I. Lisovskii, Mezhdunarodnoe pravo, Kiev, 1955, p.101; idem, Mezhdunarodnoe pravo, 2nd ed., Moscow 1961, p.113. Also V.N. Durdenevskii, in V.N. Durdenevskii & S.B. Krylov (eds.), op. cit., p.176.
Vide B. Trachtenberg, op. cit. (note 12 above), p.156.
S.V. Chernichenko, op. cit., (note 14 above), p.59.
N. Bar-Yaacov, Dual Nationality, London, 1961, p.124.
V. Baiaki, op. cit., p.86.
Ibid.
Ibid., p.83.
S.V. Chernichenko, op. cit. (note 14 above), pp.129–130.
Ibid., p.129.
V.M. Safronov, op. cit., pp.32–33.
S. Kosakov, “Konstitutsionnye osnovy kompetentsii soiuznoi respubliki po voprosam grazhdanstva”, Izvestiia Akademii nauk Kazakhskoi SSR, 1980, No.5, seriia obshchestvennykh nauk, p.65.
V.S. Shevtsov, Sovetskoe grazhdanstvo, p.46; G.I. Tunkin, op. cit. (note 12 above), p.26.
S.V. Chernichenko, op. cit. (note 14 above), p.129; V.M. Safronov, op. cit., p.32.
See, for example, the literature cited in note 39 above.
A.Ia. Berchenko, “Voprosy sovetskogo grazhdanstva”, in Torzhestvo leninskoi natsional’noi politiki, Moscow, 1963, p.277.
With the further proviso, laid down in Article 25, that the change of the citizenship of the children between the ages of 14 and 18 in case of adoption can take place only with the consent of the children expressed in written form. See, too, V.S. Shevtsov, Sovetskoe grazhdanstvo, p.46.
V.N. Durdenevskii, op. cit., p.64; idem, in V.N. Durdenevskii & S.B Krylov, eds., op. cit., p.186.
Again, with the same qualification as mentioned in note 54 above relating to Article 25.
V.N. Durdenevskii, op. cit., p.65.
Vedomosti Verkhovnogo Soveta SSSR, 1968, No.27, Art.241. The decree of the USSR Supreme Soviet Presidium of October 9, 1979, amplified these provisions by adding that “where, in conformity with Soviet legislation, it is permitted to establish paternity in the organs of registry of acts of civil status, the parents of a child who reside outside the confines of the USSR, when at least one of them is a citizen of the USSR, have the right to file a statement concerning establishment of paternity with the consular offices of the USSR”, VVS SSSR, 1979, No.42, Art. 6%.
V. Baiaki, op. cit., p.82. It is not clear whether this is also true of the Soviet Union. Note that Article 9 of the federal decree of September 20, 1968, on the procedure for putting into effect the Basic principles of legislation of the USSR and union republics on marriage and the family (VVS SSSR, 1969, No.39, Art.353) provides that in the event of recognition of fatherhood in the case of children born out of wedlock before the Basic principles went into force either by declaration or court order, the mutual rights and duties between a child born before October 1, 1968, and the father, as well as the father’s relatives, are considered as arising from the date of the child’s birth. Whether this procedure applies only to “private” rights or, by analogy, further extends to the public domain, such as citizenship law, remains uncertain.
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Ginsburgs, G. (1983). Dual Nationality. 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_4
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