Andreas Ratzlaff Russian passport

On February 20, 1907, Andreas Ratzlaff was issued his internal Russian passport.  Although it was just an internal passport, Andreas carried it to America with him and it was kept by my Grandfather, Albert Ratzlaff.

Andreas would have applied for this passport at the police station in either Ostrog or Kuniv.  It’s interesting that he applied for this passport in February, 1907, when he knew that the family would be leaving the country in the upcoming months.  This internal passport would not have done him much good for the international journey.  He was probably just updating the document so that 1) he would be within the rules of the county at that period of time, and 2) so he and the family could travel legally to the Russian border. 

Within the pages of the passport, we read that Andreas’ Forestry Service duty was to resume in 1909.  In Andreas’ Forestry Service paperwork we saw that he was a member of the reserve brigade from 1895 and was given leave from service from March to August of 1905.  Did Andreas leave home periodically to serve in the forestry service?  I don’t know what his service status was in 1907 – his service duty must have been in order for him to have received the internal passport – but it’s clear from the document that he was due for return to the service in a few years, in 1909.

The first page of the passport simply states that the document indeed is a passport and that it was issued in Kynistsky Parish in the Ostrog District in Volyn Province on 20 February, 1907, to the peasant Andreas Yakovlev Ratslaf (Андреасъ Яковлевъ Рацлафъ).  The document cost 15 kopecks (apparently discounted from 25) and expires in 5 years.  Andreas’ patronymic name, Yakovlev, is used throughout this document.  In Russian culture a patronymic name is frequently used.  It’s simply the person’s father’s name followed by “olev” or “ovich”.  Thus Andreas’ patronymic name was his father’s with the proper suffix; Jacob-olev or Yakovlev.  The purple stamp at the bottom apparently indicates that Andreas was a reserve member of his lower rank (see item #7 perhaps?):

The next pages of the passport are data identifying Andreas:
1)   Name, Patronymic, Surname: Andreas Yakovlev Ratslaf

2)      Social Classification: Peasant

3)      Date of Birth or Age: 37 years

4)      Faith: Mennonite

5)      Occupation: Weaver

6)      Marital status: Married

7)      Military Service: Served as Mennonite worker in Forest Brigade.  Duty resumes as of 1 January 1909 (date may have been added later as the handwriting is different)

8)      Passport Issued on the Basis of the Following Documents: Census List #852

9)      Signature of Bearer:

Andreas Ratslaf

If the bearer of this document is illiterate let him make his mark here.

(Signature of government official or notary)

Page 4 lists Andreas’ family members:

10)  Dependants of the Bearer of this Document:

Wife Susanna aged 33

Son Jugen born 1 February 1903

Daughters Maria b 1897

Carolina b 1899

Ekaterina b 1902

Florentina b 1904

Susanna born 1906

Signed and stamped by parish official

Page 5 allows for changes in family status of the bearer or any of the above listed dependents.  No notations have been made here:

Pages 6 and 7 give explanations for the rules of residence and any travelling.  On page 7 is a small space for passport stamps.  Stamped in red across the page is the word "canceled".  I'm not sure what that means in this context; were items 67 and 70 canceled, or could that apply to the whole booklet?:

Page 8 to the end are spaces that would be stamped when the citizen paid his taxes.  The spaces in Andreas’ passport are blank indicating that between the time of issuance until the time the Ratzlaffs left the country, no taxes were paid: