101st kilometre

101st kilometre (Russian: 101-й километр, sto pervyy kilometr) is a colloquial name for the law restricting freedom of movement in the Soviet Union.

In the Soviet Union, the rights of an inmate released from a prison would typically still be restricted for a long period. Instead of regular documents, inmates would receive a temporary substitute, a "wolf ticket" (Russian: волчий билет, volchij bilet), confining them to internal exile without the right to settle closer than 100 km (62 mi) to large urban centres where they would automatically be refused the residency permit, "propiska". This has resulted in many residential communities established at 101 km (63 mi) away from city borders. Such cities and towns would have unusually large former-inmates populations. In modern Russia, the restrictions have been abolished and the expression is used in a context similar to that of boondocks.

See also

• Eastern Bloc emigration and defection

References

• Mass uprisings in the USSR: Protest and Rebellion in the Post-Stalin Years, by Vladimir A. Kozlov and Elaine McClarnand MacKinnon, M.E. Sharpe, 2002.
• The Decline and Fall of the Soviet Empire: Forty Years That Shook the World, by Fred Coleman, Macmillan, 1997.