Russian Citizenship: From Empire to Soviet Union by Eric Lohr

Abstract

Russian Citizenship: From Empire to Soviet Union by Eric Lohr. Cambridge, Massuchetts, Harvard University Press, 2012. 288 pp. $59.95 US (cloth). Not only Soviet Union but also subsequent brief debate on added value of Soviet/Russian-area studies has long since ended in dustbin of history. The present study on Russian citizenship policies is one out of many recent studies to accept comparisons between Soviet/Russian and European polities and policies as a fruitful and legitimate endeavour. Eric Lohr, author of a much-acclaimed study, Nationalizing Russian Empire: The Campaign against Enemy Aliens during World War I (Cambridge, Massachusetts, 2003), argues that every modernizing state of nineteenth century had to define a strategy of citizenship, naturalization, and migration. The debates whether or not individuals living in czarist empire should be called subjects or and what rights and obligations Russian citizenship entailed, seems less relevant for present study than what author dubs the citizenship boundary between citizens and foreigners (p. 11). The author uses a minimalist definition of citizenship (membership in a country, p. 3) that is oblivious to contrasting concepts of nation and political regimes. In other nation-states and empires a similar shift to Russia's from group-based regulations by state authorities toward ideal of universal equal rights for all citizens occurred, albeit earlier. In order to approach such a complex and dynamic policy field, Eric Lohr makes some sweeping statements in introduction: Czarist policies since 1860s were motivated by urge to attract new citizens as part of Russia's modernization drive; and Soviet policies constituted a radical break with these traditions and strove for autarky, keeping/driving class enemies and unwelcome nationalities out. Having thus laid ground for book, author identifies three aspects. In-between a short introduction on pre-1860s policies and two longer chapters on wartime and Soviet policies, book focuses on naturalization of inhabitants of annexed territories, naturalization of immigrants and vice-versa revoking of citizenship of emigrants. The condensed presentation of book's core research findings on half a century of czarist policies in a mere one hundred pages testifies to academic courage and, fortunately, sovereign command of subject. Typically, Russian state relied on social and administrative controls as well as a unique passport system restricting travel abroad rather than on closely guarded borders. The author is interested both in legal framework--but acutely aware of its limitations as a sources of historical realities--and in actual practices of migration and naturalization. Fortunately, he managed to resist temptation of numerous colourful anecdotes and examples he must have found in police and military archives. The spectacular and detailed dossiers in archives, he argues, tend to be a-typical and a transnational comparison requires a painstaking search for general trends and common practices rather than exceptional cases (pp. 23). In empirical chapters, nevertheless, some arguments are based on legal provisions, whereas others focus on actual practices of those days, which deviated from stipulations of law. …