Soviet Passports and Their Implementation in East and Southeast Lithuania (1944–1989)

Abstract

There was one very special document in the life of each adult citizen of the USSR. This document was the internal passport, which was a short chronicle of a person’s life. It reflected almost the whole life of an individual: from the place and time of their birth, to the duties the holder had to their children (indicated by a stamp in the passport about any underage children and any duty the parent had to support them financially). This article presents an analysis of the development of the Soviet passport system in east and southeast Lithuania in the period 1944 to 1989, and efforts to introduce modernisation, revealing the functions and some details of the universal obligatory registration of citizens based on their place of residence.