The Soviet Union took border security and external travel very seriously. In their attempt to assure impermeable insulation against the influence of the bourgeois West, the Soviet authorities went to great lengths to prevent 'escape'. In KGB: Masters of the Soviet Union, Peter Deriabin, a defector who had been a KGB officer, reconstructs the application form from memory and the testimony of other defectors. The application process would often be delayed so long that the original purpose of the application expired (for example, an application to travel overseas for an international scientific conference might be delayed until the conference had ended).
The process contained heavy overtones of blackmail; for example question 13 of this document requests the details of all the applicant's relatives, and it was common for a defector's relatives to be harassed by the KGB for the rest of their lives as a consequence. This also explains Question 19.
1-4: Full name. (If you have ever changed your name, tell how the formalities were accomplished and the reasons for the change.) Date and place of birth. Nationality. Family situation (married, divorced, single).
5 and 6: Party status: year of entry, card number of member or candidate.
Komsomol status: give dates and card number.
7. Were you a CPSU member in the past? When, and why separated from the party.
8. Education and specialised training, when and in what institutions.
9. Were you ever tried before a court? When, where.
10. Have you ever been abroad? Where, when and why. Where did you obtain exit permit. If you were ever refused permission to go abroad, tell when and why.
11. Military responsibility and rank.
12. Amount of salary or pension.
13. List all your close relatives, alive or dead, who live in the USSR and abroad. [A full page is provided for the answer, with room for 34 entries, including name, birthdate, work place, and current address of each.]
14. List all jobs you have held during your active working life, including periods of study in educational establishments and military service. [Place is provided for duties performed and name of each organisation.]
15. Membership in party, soviet, or other authorities of the centre, republic, kray, oblast, okrug, city, or district, up to the moment of the present application.
16. List all state honours and decorations.
17. Purpose of travel abroad. If you are visiting relatives or friends, give their names and their addresses abroad.
18. When do you intend to go abroad, and by what border crossing point?
19. What members of your family will be abroad at the same time?
20. Passport: number, date, and place of issue.
21. List all documents you are submitting with this application.
22. What else do you want to add about yourself or your close relatives, or other information pertinent to the present application?
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