Thread by @Iamthisnotthat1

Today I was reading some old Soviet laws,while searching more about "tax for not having kids",& found out that I had a misconception about "everyone received passport & stopped being serf in 1974".
Thread 🧵 in details about it & about my family's & my personal experience with it

In reality in 1974 it was a law that was saying: "Kolkhoz members and villagers in general must now all receive passports. However,their ability to work in cities/towns will be limited to prevent mass migration".
So they were able to change job & move from one village to another.

Before law was adopted,in report from 1967 about situation by Vice Chairperson of Minister's Council of USSR Polyansky D.S. it was stated:
"37% of population of USSR have no passports,this makes it hard or impossible for them to vote,get education, change job, or move elsewhere".

Basically they were - serfs and system was serfdom.

Villagers and Kolkhoz members were able to move outside only with permit from Kolkhoz director or from local communist party leader.

Education was only from 1 to 7 grades (out of 11) of school, with pauses in it to do farming.

Moving outside of Kolkhoz or village was permitted only for 30 days (or for 1 years if it is "work in Siberia or on dangerous jobs").

Marriages, divorces, etc - all were depending on a local head of Kolkhoz or communist party leader.

Kids were becoming Kolkhoz serfs at age 16.

A way to save kid was - somewhere get books and teach kid during very few hours of free time,and then at age 15 sent to big city to receive specialised college (ПТУ) education.
Boys could go to Military and ask to serve more than 2 years,after 5 years was a chance to get to city.

People who had no passports - were not included in most of statistics.

Until 1966 year, Kolkhoz members were paid in the production from fields they were working on. They had no money and were paid with food and sometimes with cloths.

Only private property they had - was house.

And to statistics of income and averages - those who were not getting paid in money - were not included. So 37+% of population were not included into statistics of average income.

Passportisation fully ended in 1981.
So until 1981 ~37% of USSR had no vote and no freedom to move.

My father is Chinese.
He got to USSR during Soviet invasion to China to "help Communist Party of China to win against Republic of China" (it is how RoC ended in Taiwan).

Soviets killed all his family and relocated him to Kazakhstan to small Kolkhoz, where he was paid with food.

My mother is Kazakh, who was later moved to same Kolkhoz. My mother's father starved to death during Holodomor in 1932 in Kazakhstan and her mother gave birth to her during Holodomor in 1931, it is miracle she had survived.

They not wanted kids at first, but "tax for not having kids" was too high - villagers paid much more than people from cities. But first kid was miscarriage - however, it temporary lifted tax from them.

Later they were lucky to get to the city in mid-late 1960s.

Father moved to city to build some dangerous factories. And there he was noticed by one guy. In communist party in city there was Chinese man, who suffered similar fate to my father, so he tried his best to temporary move father and mother to live in the city.

It is around when I was born (in city), and I had big health problems (DSD condition - salt-wasting CAH, deadly congenital disorder), so doctors there were able to save my life, and because of constant need in care, we were allowed to stay in city and live there.

However, city was "a bit too patriotic" - most spoke Kazakh language and were following Kazakh traditions, which was pissing communist party, so me and my family were deported for Russification to Soviet Russia (to Rostov-na-Donu) and Russians were resettled to our homes.

And parents finally got their passports.

My grandmother (other grandparents were dead) stayed in village until 1980s. And I was able to take her to Ukraine only in 2000s (as I moved to Ukraine in 1990).

Grandmother never voted in her life until that time, as she received passport in mid 1970s, but even after that - it was small village, so voting cars were not entering it, and so she never had ability to vote. That's how "men and women got vote rights in 1921 in USSR", yeah.

Even tho this medical disorder makes my life much harder, but if not it - I would've received 5-7 grades of education and would not be a Professor of Physics as I became (thought, no longer, as Russia invaded Donetsk and occupied it - taking away my home once again).

That's all, for now.

Ah yes - without passport, people had no pension.

Only in 1966 there was adopted a law to give minimal pension to villagers & Kolkhoz workers.
Size was 12.5 rub - which was around 10% of average monthly income of regular workers.
And it is when they still needed to pay taxes.

So imagine being in village in USSR before 1966 when you are 60+?
You own no land - it all belong to the State or Kolkhoz (so to State by proxy).
You get no money/pension.
If you are allowed to have cattle or small farmland - you need to pay % of what you gathered.
How to live?

And speaking about work.
There was mandatory work for most people to do, that was not compensated.

For example, me and my classmates at age 10-15 were moved to farmlands to dig and gather potatoes for 10 days every year - unpaid.
Father had to fix roads for 6 days per year.
Etc.

Телебачення Торонто (@tvtoront / @VsimPohuy ) зробили відео по схожій темі до цього мого треду (сподіваюсь буде англійська версія відео пізніше), і там є додаткова інформація, якщо кому цікаво.

@tvtoront @VsimPohuy Also,after re-reading thread - payment was not with literal food,but with "трудодни" - "workdays(?)". It was just a number written by local party leader, and those "workdays" were exchanged for food or working cloths. Basically it were imaginary money with no real monetary value.