SUMMARY:

The author analyzes the attitude of Russian-Soviet authorities to the problem of migration in the first third of the 20th century. The author focuses on the problem of rupture and continuity in the policy toward migration as it evolved in imperial Russia, under the Provisional Government, “White” authorities during the Civil war, and the Soviets. The article is a case study of particular mechanisms of regulating migration as developed under different political regimes in the northern region of European Russia. The scrutiny of migration policy based on the concept of imperial citizenship (“subjecthood”) serves as the point of departure for the Teterevleva’s analysis. The author argues that the transition from the Russian empire to the Soviet regime was accompanied by a change in the ideological premises and legislature that shaped migration policy. However, the author contends that numerous administrative stereotypes as well as perceptions of priorities in the relationship between personal liberties and state interests remained very much intact.