How did the Soviet Union officially justify the need for foreign travel and emigration restrictions?
score:13
There was no general justification, and formally travel was not prohibited.
Emigration. On this I have heard one justification: In Soviet Union many things were free for all (education on all levels, medicine and other social benefits). In theory every person was expected to "contribute to the society" in return. So the argument was : if you emigrate then you do not return what society spent on you. At some point, when under the pressure from abroad, limited emigration was possible, they charged an enormous sum of money to give a permission to emigrate.
Simple travel, for vacation for example. Soviet citizens were not expected to possess any foreign currency. Any currency speculation was a serious crime. (The punishment depended on the amount, but it could be death sentence). So a person could not just say: "I want to go abroad for vacation". S/he had to ask for some money exchange. So one had to apply for "permission to travel", and some (very small) number of permissions were indeed granted. Who could travel and for what purpose was strictly regulated and the rules were different at different times.
No one would dare to claim that s/he possesses foreign currency. And very few people would dare to say that they have relatives abroad or that some foreign agency invited them. And if you say so, the matter will be investigated, and you may eventually obtain a permission or not. One common reason to decline an application was "there is no guarantee that the person will return". (See section 1 of my answer). For example they normally would not permit an unmarried person to travel to a scientific conference on this ground.
So in theory there was no complete prohibition, and thus no justification was given or needed. In general, the Soviets never accepted the principle that "everything is permitted which is not explicitly prohibited". The general principle of the Soviet society was the opposite: "You need to obtain a permission for every move". This was a totalitarian society.
- On the border patrol. Yes, indeed a huge army was employed (the so-called interior troops, earlier these were KGB troops). The official purpose of this army was to protect the border from the spies, terrorists and saboteurs penetrating from outside:-) They NEVER mentioned the real purpose of the border patrol in official publications.
EDIT 2. There was a whole genre of adventure fiction for children, about glorious border troops (пограничники) who were catching the spies. It was a kind of revelation to realize at a later age what the main function of these troops was.
EDIT. One general remark on the questions "about Soviet Union". Soviet Union existed bout 70 years and the situation changed. My answer addresses the situation from 1960 to the middle 80s, of which I have personal experience. Relaxation of restrictions began in 1989.
Upvote:1
Travelling as a tourist was not officially prohibited, but the thing was, you could not travel alone. You always should get an organized tour, with a guide etc. The main problem though was to get a tour voucher. It was easier for tours to Socialist countries, and much harder for tours to Capitalist countries. You also had to exel in something, usually at work to be awarded a tour, because the number allocated per organization was limited (and different for various enterprises). Possibly, there were also sold tours, but very expensive.
Many people had access to the secret documents so they had no permission to travel (but were paid more for classified access).
Upvote:3
The official position was that there was no limitation for freedom in the USSR, including freedom of movement. On the level of Constitution and laws it was so.
But there were many instructions that were set (not published!) by many state departments. They were even more powerful as the law, for they were set AFTER the law. Practically every state organ could develop such instruction.
And these instructions REGULATED the movement across boundaries. And the result of regulation was practical impossibility of realization of rights given in law.
One of the last declared targets of Gorbi was "law state" - the state where people will be subjects to laws, not to unknown, and often even secret, instructions.
More post
- 📝 Where do the ethics of shounen anime come from?
- 📝 Was WWII Systemic Drug Use by Axis and Allies Supported By Scholarship?
- 📝 Why do some playing cards have only one eye?
- 📝 Did Stalin describe Beria as his Himmler?
- 📝 What are the best resources for studying oracle bone inscriptions?
- 📝 Why did the Sassanid and the Eastern Roman Empire fail to make a lasting peace?
- 📝 How did this 900AD key work?
- 📝 Why is the United States the only developed country whose labour laws leave most up to the employer?
- 📝 Why were the Franks so successful in projecting power?
- 📝 Identification of location and type of bi-plane
- 📝 How were "Wehrbauern" (soldier peasants) in medieval Europe even a thing, at all?
- 📝 How did the French take the Republican Calendar?
- 📝 Is Russia a direct successor of the USSR? Could the USSR be considered to continue existing under a different name?
- 📝 What ideas diffused into China via the trade route established by emperor Han Wudi with the area around Persia?
- 📝 What exactly do eyewitness testimonies say about Hitler's behavior during the Munich Putsch?
- 📝 How did early farmer societies "know" about protein contents of peas and lentils?
- 📝 Did any "tanks in front" tactic exist during WW2?
- 📝 Need help identifying 2 old coins? Struck coins, one with two standing human figures facing each other
- 📝 What was the German perspective on Stalingrad?
- 📝 When did Mesoamericans stop using their native weapons?
- 📝 Can anyone help me identify this coin? Basiliea Selvykou. Rev: ICA
- 📝 Book on history of international trade
- 📝 Were certain soldiers considered to be neutral by both sides?
- 📝 After World War 2, why did European farmers switch from crop cultivation to grazing?
- 📝 Have human runners delivered messages faster than horses?
- 📝 Meaning of 19th-century American parlour games
- 📝 Was there a town called Munich in Jackson County, Tennessee?
- 📝 Can you tell me if my Father, a Lt Colonel, was paid during WW2?
- 📝 Who kept noble prisoners captured in battle?
- 📝 1 coin found in Sachsen Anhalt Germany, please help me to identify the coin
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 How did the Soviet Union officially justify the need for foreign travel and emigration restrictions?
- 📝 Why did the Soviet Union close its borders and restrict travel abroad?
- 📝 How long did it take for a diplomat to travel between Berlin and Vienna in the 1770's?
- 📝 How and Why Did the Soviet Union Collapse?
- 📝 Why did Britain and France not declare war against the Soviet Union when it invaded Poland in WW2?
- 📝 Did the U.S. and Soviet Union have a submarine battle in 1968?
- 📝 Did the Soviet Union or its satellite states have any broadcast propaganda media for an international audience?
- 📝 When and how did the West lose its dependency on the USSR for Titanium?
- 📝 Did the Soviet Union need both prongs to succeed at the Battle of Stalingrad?
- 📝 How did diplomats of the Axis powers travel and communicate among themselves in World War II
- 📝 Where and how did the allies scrounge enough food for the Soviets AND the British?
- 📝 How strong a land force did Germany need for a conquest of the British Isles in the summer of 1940?
- 📝 Did the US government officially apologize for Indian Removal Act and Native American Indian genocide?
- 📝 Where and how did scientists of the 18th and 19th century learn foreign languages?
- 📝 When did the Soviet Union stop blaming the Entente for WW2?
- 📝 How difficult was Muraviev's amassing of troops for the forcing of the Treaty of Aigun, and what effects on development did it have?
- 📝 What alternate north-south supply routes did the Soviet Union have when the Volga and Stalingrad were under attack?
- 📝 Did Ted Kennedy turn to the Soviet Union for help winning an election?
- 📝 How did Western leaders justify NATO's eastwards expansion after promising the Soviet leadership it won't happen?
- 📝 How much did the western world know about the Soviet Union pre-WWII?
- 📝 How much resemblance did the industrialization of the Soviet Union bear to those of the rest of the world?
- 📝 How did the US vet Soviet refugees for possible spies/infiltrators?
- 📝 How did a criminal trial in the Soviet Union work after World War 2?
- 📝 How many rapes did the Wehrmacht commit in the Soviet Union during World War II?
- 📝 At the beginning of the 20th century, how did Austria-Hungary and Russia's foreign policies conflict in the Balkans?
- 📝 What was the basis for the Nazis to support various ethnic minorities in the Soviet Union and elsewhere over the majority populations?
- 📝 How many troops did the Confederate and Union army have in each year of the Civil War?
- 📝 How did the Soviet Union support the development of their atomic bomb in 1949?
- 📝 How did AIDS generate losses? And what are the methods to compensate for them?
- 📝 How did the accounting and capital organization system work in communist countries like the USSR? Did ideology justify or undermine the system?