CYIL vol. 9 (2018)

CYIL 9 ȍ2018Ȏ CZECHOSLOVAKIA: CERTIFICATES AND PASSPORTS OF REFUGEES influx of refugees. Therefore, the Ministry of Interior entered into the political and legal problem early in order to sustain national security and public order. The Russian and Ukrainian diaspora were not overwhelming. It could not be greeted with hostility or animosity by a state established in October 1918 and its population. Besides, during the second half of the 1920s, the number of Russian and Ukrainian refugees in Czechoslovakia decreased, depending on their departure to other European as well as non-European countries, due to individual assimilation and barely perceptible repatriation. In 1922, roughly 6,000 refugees sought shelter in the Czechoslovak state, but a year later their numbers varied at around 21,000. In 1925 there were approximately 25,000 refugees here. From an ethnic reference point, the Russians constituted a substantial part of the diaspora (56.6 %) in 1924, whereas refugees of Ukrainian origin made up a third (36%). The Belarusians only came to Czechoslovakia in hundreds (0.74%). The number of Armenian refugees was negligible. The introductory part of the study contains a specification relying on material, bald facts, or period circumstances. They should not be understood as dead ornaments or simple symbols of historical reality. Foremost, the description focuses on the organized arrival of Russian and Ukrainian refugees and the political response of the government and specific ministries to this socially vivid phenomenon, which was little known. The investigative description also sheds light on the so-called Russian aid operation, which was governed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Other ministries, including non-governmental associations and committees of volunteers that grouped together both Czechoslovak citizens as well as Russian and Ukrainian refugees, were also present in the governmental program. The second object of the description are the control measures taken by the Ministry of Interior at state frontiers in order to ensure national security. The following part embraces three separate sections that form the core of scientific scrutiny. Its objects are personal certificates of residency, Czechoslovak provisional passports, and certificates of identity. In addition to the specification, functional analysis is meticulously utilized in relation to the enumerated personal documents. The scrutiny draws attention to the documents contained in the official gazettes of the Ministry of Interior and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In the spring of 1921, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs began to issue personal certificates of residency in a simplified form. At that time, Soviet Russia and the Ukraine did not have diplomatic or consular representation in Czechoslovakia. The personal certificates of residency fulfilled registration, identification, and a permissive function, but their limited duration of validity was exclusively tied to the Czechoslovak state. The legal starting point for granting Czechoslovak provisional (temporary) passports to Russian and Ukrainian refugees was the Austrian Passport Regulation of 1867. The regulation was transposed into the Czechoslovak legal order by the Reception Act. These temporary passports were only intended for non-nationals. Provisional documents could solely be granted to non-nationals whose home state had no diplomatic or consular representation in Czechoslovakia. Passports of this kind were a one-off and valid for a unique purpose. Non- nationals were not legally entitled to have them issued. Provisional passports fulfilled both an identification and permissive function as well as could be used abroad. These passports sui generis acquired a statutory basis only in 1928, according to the Czechoslovak Passport Act.

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