Loss and Restoration of Soviet Citizenship

Abstract

Unlike its 1938 predecessor, the new law contains a general provision (Art. 16) outlining how Soviet citizenship may be lost.1 Such termination may occur: a) upon exit from USSR citizenship; b) upon deprivation of USSR citizenship; c) on grounds indicated by international agreements concluded by the USSR; and, d) on other grounds provided by the present statute. The last clause refers, we are told, primarily to situations involving minor children. For instance, the law recognizes that where both parents leave Soviet citizenship, the citizenship of their children younger than 14 changes accordingly. This treatment certainly applies to children “by blood”, but learned opinions diverge on the question of whether it also extends to adopted children, some Soviet sources claiming that it does,2 while others main­tain that “change of citizenship by the adopting parents ... does not automatically entail change in the citizenship of the adopted children”.3 (The technical aspects of this problem will be discussed in greater detail in the next chapter.) In any event, the distinctive feature here is that change in the citizenship of the children does not require the issuance of a special act by the federal Presidium, as would be the case where a standard release from Soviet citizenship is staged. Additional examples concern loss of USSR citizenship by children sanctioned per agreement of the parents or adopting parents where the latter possess the citizenship of different states or authorization for release on occasions where children are adopted by foreigners or spouses of whom one is a foreigner.4