Formation of citizenship law in Russia (October, 1917 - 1922)

As a result of the historical events of October, 1917 there appeared an institution of RSFSR citizenship instead of the institution of Russian allegiance. The first and also the most clearly revealing the policy and ideology of the Soviet regime was a decree “On elimination of class and civil ranks” published on November 10, 1917, according to which the pre-existing socio-political stratification was abolished. Instead of ranks, statuses and titles there was established the only concept - the citizen of the Russian Republic. The vast majority of published decrees of that time dealt with issues of citizenship of foreigners. These documents expose principles of proletarian internationalism established by the Soviet government, according to which the foreign workers, who had not used hired labour, had more rights than the Russian kulaks or landlords, and could receive citizenship without any challenging formalities. At that moment there were a lot of Soviet-minded foreigners living in the RSFSR, who came there during the war. The question of citizenship of compatriots living abroad was of controversial nature. The Soviet state raised the issue of deprivation of citizenship of certain categories of people who were abroad at the moment (for example, those who voluntarily had served in the White Army, who had participated in the counter-revolutionary organizations, and so on), according to the decree of April 5, 1921. Besides, the decrees adopted during the first years of the Soviet power regulated the issues of dual citizenship and citizenship of children. The author pays particular attention to the development of authoritarianism of the citizenship institution, where neutral “acquisition of citizenship” (the wording carries a tinge of will declaration by a person) is replaced by “admission to citizenship” (which can be regarded as the state condescends to a person applying for citizenship).