# The Marriage Laws of Soviet Russia/Title 1

TITLE I
RECORDS OF CIVIL STATUS AND DOMESTIC RELATIONS
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Chapter I
Offices for the Registration of Civil Status and Domestic Relations
1. Records relating to civil status and domestic relations shall be under the exclusive jurisdiction of the civil authorities of the Bureaus of Vital Statistics.
Note I. Records relating to civil status and domestic relations of Russian citizens abroad shall be under the jurisdiction of the foreign representative of the Russian Republic.
Note II. The registration of births, marriages and deaths occurring on ship-board on the high seas, or in the army engaged in active military operations, shall be the duty of the captain of the ship or the adjutant general of the respective army corps. The said persons shall keep copies of the documents and shall transmit the records at the first opportunity to the nearest Bureau of Vital Statistics which shall then file them with the proper local bureau.
​2. The following Bureaus of Vital Statistics are established: (a) the Central Bureau attached to the Local Self-Government Bureau of the Commissariat of the Interior; (b) the Provincial Bureaus attached to the Soviets of Soldiers' and Workmen's Deputies in the principal cities of a province or territory; (c) the Local Bureaus attached to the Soviets of Soldiers' and Workmen's Deputies in the townships and villages or, in large cities, to the district Soviets.
3. The duties of local Bureaus of Vital Statistics shall comprise: (a) The registration of all events occurring within the territory under the jurisdiction of the respective Soviets which affect a person's civil status, (Sect. 7); (b) the preparation of certified abstracts from the records upon the request of parties interested therein.
4. The duties of provincial Bureaus of Vital Statistics shall comprise: (a) the preparation on the basis of information supplied by the local bureaus of the personal records of citizens registered within the territorial limits of the respective province or territory; (b) the furnishing of information and abstracts from the records; (c) the supervision over the due performance of the work of the local bureaus.
5. The duties of the Central Bureau of Vital Statistics shall comprise: (a) the preparation and the keeping of the general register of persons registered within the territorial limits of the Russian Republic and those Russian citizens who have been registered abroad; (b) the furnishing of information and certified abstracts from the general register; (c) the general supervision over the due ​performance of the work of the provincial bureaus and the framing of regulations for the guidance of the said bureaus.
6. The duties of the officials charged with the registration of documents relating to civil status (registrars), their appointment, transfer, and dismissal, as well as their responsibility for the fulfillment of their duties, shall be governed by the general regulations concerning civil servants and persons assisting in the work of governmental institutions.
Chapter II
Forms of Registers
7. The local Bureaus of Vital Statistics shall keep the following registers: (a) a register of births; (b) a register of deaths; (c) a register of absentees; (d) a register of marriages; (e) a register of divorces; (f) a register of declarations concerning the parentage of conceived, but yet unborn, children; (g) a register, with an alphabetical list, of persons who have changed .their names or surnames, inherited or acquired.
Note I. All the registers mentioned in the preceding section shall be kept in accordance with the forms provided by the Central Bureau of Vital Statistics.
Note II. The registers, prepared in accordance with the forms set by the Central Bureau, shall be sent to the local offices with the tape, seal, and signatures of the ​secretary of the Central Bureau and the chief of the bureau or his assistant, attached thereto.
Note III. The registers shall be kept in accordance with the forms prescribed in the present article, until such time as new forms shall have been worked out by the Central Bureau.
8. Every document relating to a person's civil status or domestic relations shall be entered in the proper register and shall have a number assigned to it. The annual numeration of every register shall be consecutive.
9. No altering or erasure of words or sentences shall be permitted in the register kept for the recording of documents relating to civil status and domestic relations. Insertions and corrections shall be permitted, provided a clause to that effect shall be appended at the close of the document and the signatures of the parties thereto shall be attached to the same. Alterations shall be made by drawing a thin line across erroneous or superfluous words in such manner that they may still be legible.
10. Each document recorded in the register kept at the local bureau shall be signed by the official making the entry in the register, by the person furnishing the information contained in the document, and by the witnesses, in case the presence of the latter shall be required for the attestation of the said document.
11. Each document recorded in the register, prior to its being signed by the persons mentioned in the previous section, shall be read to them by ​the official entering the document in the register.
12. The forms of the records, and the abstracts of information mentioned in subdivision (a) of Section 4 shall be prescribed by the Central Bureau of Vital Statistics. The said bureau shall make public these instructions as soon as its organization shall be completed.
13. All the registers of local bureaus and all personal records kept by the provincial bureaus shall be made in duplicate; one copy of all registers kept in the local bureaus shall remain on file with the respective bureaus, the other shall be transmitted at the close of the calendar year, or at the latest by the 15th of January next ensuing, to the provincial bureau. The personal records shall be similarly transmitted by the provincial bureaus to the Central Bureau.
14. Local bureaus shall immediately report to the provincial bureau any alterations made in the register subsequent to transmission of the original record and shall send a copy of the page of the register containing the alteration.
15. Entries made in the register may be contested by the interested parties only by proper proceedings in a court of law.
16. An entry made in the register may be corrected solely by an order of the court, excepting that if an error be the result of an obvious oversight it may be corrected by an order of the officers intrusted with supervisory powers.
17. Registers of vital statistics are open to the inspection of all parties, who have the right to ​obtain duly certified abstracts thereof, on payment of a fee, prescribed by the Central Bureau.
Chapter III
Manner of Registration of Vital Statistics
18. The register of births shall contain entries of births and of finding of children, as well as of changes in a person's civil status resulting from the establishment of his or her parentage.
19. Notice of the birth or of the finding of a child shall be given within three days from the day on which said event occurred.
Note. The provincial bureaus in the case of far outlying localities may extend the notification period of the present section, provided that the said extension shall not exceed one month.
20. Notification of the place wherein the birth of a child occurred shall be given to the registration bureau, by the parents of the child, or by either of them, or by any other person in whose custody the child may happen to be because of the illness, absence, or death of the parents.
21. Notification shall be made in writing or by oral declaration.
22. The notice shall mention the day, the hour, and the place of birth, the sex of the child, the name given to it, the names, surnames, permanent residence and the ages of the parents, and the relative age position of the child as compared with other children of the same parents.
​23. Attached to the notification of birth shall be a note written by the father and mother, each one separately, confirming the parentage of the child.
24. The birth shall be attested by two witnesses, one or both of whom may be the persons making the notification.
25. In case of the birth of twins, separate notices of the birth of each shall be given and the register of births shall contain two separate entries.
26. Notice shall be given of every still-birth and an entry thereof shall be made in the register of births.
Note. Entries of still-births shall be made simultaneously in the registers of births and deaths.
27. Notice of the finding of a child shall be given by the persons by whom the child was found.
28. The notice of the finding of a child shall have appended to it an official report drawn up and attested by the local administrative officials. The official report shall state the time and circumstances under which the child was found, the child's sex, special marks if any on its body, the child's apparent age, the articles and documents found on the child, and a certified copy of the contents of the said documents. The official report shall also indicate the name of the institution or the person to whom the child has been or will be entrusted.
29. Immediately on receipt of notification from a competent local court, stating that the parentage of a child has been ascertained and proved, an ​entry to this effect shall be made in the register of births containing the entry of the birth of the person in question; to wit, in the column entitled "Special Remarks."
30. The entry relating to the ascertainment and proof of actual parentage shall contain the title of the court, a transcript of the order of the court, and the date of the said order.
31. The register of deaths shall contain besides entries of death and the discoveries of dead bodies, entries of judicial decrees in relation to persons declared civilly dead.
32. Notifications of death and of the finding of a dead body shall be made within three days of the date on which said event occurred.
33. Notification of death shall be made by the relatives with whom the deceased resided, or by the inmates of his house, or, in the absence of such, by the neighbors, or by the government officials in charge of the institution (hospital, home, prison, etc.) where the death occurred; or by the persons who found the dead body.
34. The notification of death shall contain the name, surname, year of birth, and last place of residence of the deceased, his or her family relations, the year, month, and day of death and the cause of death. It shall also contain the name, surname, and place of residence of the person giving the notice.
35. The notification of death shall be accompanied by a certificate of death attested by a Soviet physician or by the local Soviet authorities.
​36. The notification of the finding of a dead body shall have appended thereto, besides the said certificate of a physician, an official report drawn up and attested by the local administrative officials, and containing a detailed account of the circumstances under which the body was found.
37. Any person failing to make, in due time, the notification mentioned in Sections 19 and 32, shall be liable to a fine of not less than 50 rubles.
38. On reaching the conclusion that a person is presumed to be dead, the Court shall notify the respective Bureau of Vital Statistics wherein the entry of the birth of the person presumed to be dead is kept on file.
Note. If the Court shall have no information of the locality wherein the person presumed to be dead was registered, or if such person was registered in the offices of localities which do not at the present time form part of the Russian Republic, the Court shall notify of its decision the Bureau of Vital Statistics in the locality which was the last place of residence of the person presumed to be dead.
39. The entry in the register of the civil death of any person shall also contain the statement that the same has been made in accordance with a decision of a court of law, which has found that the person in question shall be presumed to be dead. The said statement shall recite the title of the Court in making the decree, the number of the order, and the date thereof.
​40. Immediately on receipt of information from the Court to the effect that a person is presumed to be dead an entry concerning the said fact shall be made in the register.
42. The regulations prescribed in Sections 38–40 shall also be applicable to the entries to be made in the Register of Absentees kept for the registration of persons whose absence has been duly established.
42. Local Bureaus of Vital Statistics shall, not later than two days after the making of an entry, furnish transcripts of all records of deaths, and of all orders declaring the civil death of any person, or his absence without trace, to the Councils of Workmen's and Soldiers' Deputies of the village or the township which was the last known place of residence of the person in question.
43. The entries of marriages shall be made in the register kept for that purpose by the officials of the local Bureau of Vital Statistics assigned especially to the registration of marriages.
44. An official, on receipt of the notice stating the intention of the parties to marry and of the additional documents enumerated in Section 59 following, shall inquire what surname the parties to the marriage intend to adopt and shall record the documents in the register.
45. In case a register of marriages shall be destroyed or otherwise lost, or if for any reason whatsoever the married persons shall be unable to obtain a copy of their marriage certificate, they may make a declaration to the office for the recording of marriages at the place of the residence ​of both or either of them, stating that they were married on a certain date. A statement signed by the married persons alleging that the register in question has been lost, or that for a sufficient reason they are unable to obtain a copy of their marriage record, shall be deemed sufficient ground for making a new entry of the marriage, and for the issuance of a copy of the record thereof.
46. The notification of divorce, besides being entered in the Register of Divorces, shall also be entered in the Register of Marriages in the column "Special Remarks", on that page thereof wherein the entry of the marriage had been made.
47. An entry of a divorce judicially decreed shall be made immediately on receipt of the decree and shall recite the title of the Court, the number of the order, and the date on which the said decree was made.
48. If the petition for the dissolution of marriage in the form prescribed in Section 91 hereafter is delivered directly to the Bureau of Vital Statistics, the proper official shall, prior to the entry of the divorce in the register, ascertain whether the petition for the dissolution of the marriage was made by both parties thereto.
49. Immediately on receipt of the notification made in accordance with Section 140 following, the names of the parents of the children conceived, but yet unborn, shall be entered in the register kept for that purpose.
50. Changes of names or surnames shall be recorded in the register kept for that purpose on ​receipt of a declaration duly made to that effect, provided the formalities required by Sections 2 and 3 of the Decree concerning the right of citizens to change their names have been compiled with (Manual of Laws and Decrees, 1918, No. 37, Sect. 488).
51. The said changes in-names and surnames shall not only be entered in the register kept for that purpose, but at the request of the interested parties a notice reciting the change of the name or surname shall be inserted in all other registers, as well as in all abstracts which contain information concerning the person whose name or surname has been changed.