Propiska in the Soviet Union

A propiska (Russian: пропи́ска, IPA: [prɐˈpʲiskə] ^ⓘ, plural: propiski) was both a written residency permit and a migration-recording tool, used in the Russian Empire before 1917 and in the Soviet Union from 1932 until 1991.

The USSR had both permanent (прописка по месту жительства or постоянная прописка) and temporary (временная прописка) propiskas. In the transition period to a market economy in the aftermath of the collapse of the Soviet Union in late 1991, the permanent propiska in municipal apartments was a factor that allowed dwellers to obtain private-property rights on the living space they were "inscripted" in during privatization (those who built housing at their own expense obtained a permanent propiska there by definition).