Discrimination against Internal Migrants in the Kyrgyz Republic. Analysis and Recommendations

Abstract

Introduction of the institution of propiska (residence registration) in the 1920s was explained by the special conditions existing at that time, which required “population registration in cities, towns and agglomerations of new houses, decongesting these areas of the persons, not engaged in socially useful work, as well as clearing of sheltering kulak, criminal and antisocial elements in order to strengthen the dictatorship of the proletariat“. Eventually, however, despite the fact that the kulaks had been dispossessed and then disappeared as a social class, antisocial elements had been isolated in the camps, and no one encroached on the strengthened proletariat dictatorship, the compulsory propiska procedure was intentionally kept in force. The reason for maintaining the propiska requirement was that such a procedure provided the authorities with full information about all the citizens and their movements. Gradually, the nature of the institution of propiska changed, assuming a permissive character and becoming one of the public administration institutions.