Lost documents of the USSR - A yellow ticket • by Tom Topol

Albert Bayburin is a Russian Anthropologist at the European University in Sankt Petersburg, and he wrote some interesting articles on passports. Albert also published a book about the USSR passport system. He allowed me to use this article on my website. Lost documents of the USSR

The following document caught my attention. The “Yellow ticket.”

Lost documents of the USSR — A substitute ticket and a viewing book giving the prostitute the right to work at the Nizhny Novgorod Fair during 1904 and 1905 (Wikimedia Commons)

A “Yellow ticket” was the personal identification document of sex workers in Russia. The document combined an ID card, a residence permit, a license to practice prostitution, & a medical check-up card. This booklet was introduced in 1843 & was abolished in 1917.

Replacement (yellow) tickets were documents issued to Russian citizens in exchange for residence permits lost or seized by the police. Including a substitute ticket was issued to officially registered prostitutes in exchange for a residence permit: they were not supposed to have other documents. It served a prostitute with a “passport” and gave the right to engage in prostitution legally. The ticket contained the “Supervision Rules” and the “Rules for Public Women.” For example, a prostitute was charged with respecting decency in public places and forbidden to molest men. In turn, the prostitute had the “right to examine the genitals of visitors before communication with them” to prevent infection. The ticket was marked with regular medical examinations: one of the mandatory rules was to undergo inspection twice a week.

By the way…
Foreign passports were introduced following the instruction “on the rules of entry and exit from Russia” dated December 21, 1917. The passport was considered valid for one year; therefore, it was called temporary, but it was necessary to use it within three months from the time it was received. The NKVD issued such passports. The rules for crossing the border were approved by the regulation of 1925 on entering and leaving the USSR.

Thank you very much, Albert, for permitting me to republish the article

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