Czechoslovak passport

Czechoslovak passport
Front cover of a Czechoslovak passport issued in 1980
Picture page of a Czechoslovak passport issued in 1980
Issued by  Czechoslovakia
Type of document Passport
Purpose Identification
Eligibility requirements Czechoslovak citizenship

The Czechoslovak passport was issued to citizens of Czechoslovakia for international travel. After Czechoslovakia split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia, the two countries have issued their own passports.

History

Czechoslovakian passport holders were required to obtain an exit visa from the authorities starting February 23, 1948. In the summer of 1948, the directive was temporarily suspended;[1] However, the 1949 Act No. 194 on Czechoslovakian State Citizenship[2] abruptly invalidated all passports previously issued on November 30, 1949.

In autumn 1951, this happened again as the government mandated replacements for all then-current passports, necessitating them to be sent to the Ministry for State Security in Prague. This move left thousands of Czechoslovakians around the world effectively stateless as their documents were confiscated by their local embassy/consulate-general. Some in the diplomatic circle protested, with Ambassador to the Soviet Union Bohuslav Lastovicka sending a strongly worded letter to the Foreign Minister spleneticly excoriating the change in policy.[3]

Travelling outside of the Eastern Bloc became a near-impossibility as Czechoslovak identity cards were only valid for travel inside the Iron Curtain and obtaining a passport through legitimate means was practically impossible. The 1965 Act No. 63 on Passports, however, liberalized requirements. Even two years prior, Czechoslovak citizens had already been given the official go-ahead to visit relatives living in the West.[4]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "A remarkable Czechoslovak diplomatic passport and its bearer´s destiny". Passport-collector.com. 2016-10-27. Retrieved 2017-11-14.
  2. ↑ "Who is citizen? Guide to Czech citizenship in 1949 - 1968". Embassy of the Czech Republic, Tel Aviv.
  3. ↑ Polišenská, Milada (2015-12-10). Czechoslovak Diplomacy and the Gulag: Deportation of Czechoslovak Citizens to the USSR and the Negotiation for their Repatriation, 1945-1953. Central European University Press. ISBN 9789633860106.
  4. ↑ Stolarik, M. Mark (2010). The Prague Spring and the Warsaw Pact Invasion of Czechoslovakia, 1968: Forty Years Later. Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers. ISBN 9780865167513.


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