“Forbidden for Foreigners”: Regional Restrictions on Stay in Soviet Ukraine (1919-1959)

Abstract

The purpose — to highlight the peculiarities of the construction of the regime of residence and movement for foreign citizens in Soviet Ukraine in 1919s—1959s. The analysis covers the period from the beginning of the formation of the recording and registration system to the time when a clear organizational and executive system of legal and geographical prohibitions for visitors from abroad was built. The research objectives are to analyze the main principles of the Bolshevik concept of geographical and social isolation, the legal framework of various prohibitions and restrictions, and to review the institutional and instrumental specifics of control over foreigners.

The methodology combines the tools of historical and legal analysis, social anthropology and the concept of social creation of spatial.

The scientific novelty lies in the formulation and disclosure of the problem of conceptualization and practical implementation of prohibitions and restrictions for foreigners who visited the Ukrainian SSR, highlighting the peculiarities of transformations on the way from regular registration to strict control over them.

Conclusions. The author has proved that the first practices of restrictions for foreigners who, for various reasons, were in Soviet Ukraine emerged in the first years after the Bolsheviks seized power. Certain milestones in the establishment of a special regime for foreign visitors were in 1935—1936 when the first rules of residence and movement were introduced for them, and 1959, on the eve of the beginning of mass foreign tourism, when a clear hierarchy and area of institutional responsibility were already established and the list of closed areas was specified. It was established that the Communist Party leadership, the high military command, and the Soviet special services were involved in the formation of the inaccessible area. The latter also took practical measures to ensure that guests from abroad complied with the regime rules. Strict control of behavior and restrictions on the movement of foreigners formed their specifi c view of the Soviet state.