The Czechoslovak passport was issued to citizens of
Czechoslovakia for international travel. After
Czechoslovakia split into the
Czech Republic and
Slovakia, the two countries started issuing their own passports.
History
Czechoslovak passport holders were required to obtain an
exit visa starting
23 February 1948. In the summer of 1948, the directive was temporarily suspended;
In autumn 1951, however, the government mandated that all passports be confiscated, necessitating them to be sent to the Ministry for State Security in
Prague. This move left thousands of Czechoslovaks around the world effectively stateless as their documents were confiscated by their local embassy/consulate-general. Thereon, passports were only issued to people who the Communist government saw fit to possess one. The Czechoslovak ambassador in the Soviet Union, Bohuslav Laštovička, protested the sudden change in policy.
Travelling outside of the Eastern Bloc became a near-impossibility as Czechoslovak identity cards were only valid for travel inside the
Iron Curtain
The Iron Curtain was the political boundary dividing Europe into two separate areas from the end of World War II in 1945 until the end of the Cold War in 1991. The term symbolizes the efforts by the Soviet Union (USSR) to block itself and its s ...
and obtaining a passport through legitimate means was practically impossible. In 1963, however, Czechoslovak citizens were given authorization to visit relatives in the West, and subsequently, the 1965 Act No. 63 on Passports made for a more liberal passport issuance regime.
See also
*
Czech passport
*
Slovak passport
The Slovak passport is issued to citizens of Slovakia to enable legal international travel. Every Slovak citizen is also a citizen of the European Union. The passport, along with the national identity card allows for free rights of movement and re ...
References
Defunct passports
Foreign relations of Czechoslovakia
{{Czechoslovakia-stub