Internal passports introduced

In response to mounting pressure on the urban food supply caused by an influx of peasants seeking to escape the horrors of collectivization, the state decrees that “All citizens of the USSR at the age of 16 years, permanently residing in cities, working settlements, working on transport, in state farms and on building sites, are required to have passports.” These documents, which will remain a central feature of citizens’ daily life until the fall of the USSR in 1991, are the key means by which government authorities maintain control over the population.