Editing Eastern Bloc (section)

==Emigration restrictions and defectors==
{{main|Emigration from the Eastern Bloc}}
{{further|List of Eastern Bloc defectors|Berlin Wall|Republikflucht|Iron Curtain|Soviet Border Troops|Refusenik|Passport system in the Soviet Union|Grepo|Border Troops of the German Democratic Republic}}
In 1917, Russia restricted emigration by instituting passport controls and forbidding the exit of belligerent nationals.<ref name="dowty68">{{Harvnb|Dowty|1989|p=68}}</ref> In 1922, after the [[Treaty on the Creation of the USSR]], both the [[Ukrainian SSR]] and the [[Russian SFSR]] issued general rules for travel that foreclosed virtually all departures, making legal emigration impossible.<ref name="dowty69">{{Harvnb|Dowty|1989|p=69}}</ref> Border controls thereafter strengthened such that, by 1928, even illegal departure was effectively impossible.<ref name="dowty69"/> This later included [[Passport system in the Soviet Union|internal passport controls]], which when combined with individual city [[Propiska in the Soviet Union|Propiska]] ("place of residence") permits, and internal freedom of movement restrictions often called the [[101st kilometre]], greatly restricted mobility within even small areas of the Soviet Union.<ref name="dowty70">{{Harvnb|Dowty|1989|p=70}}</ref>

[[File:Berlin Wall Potsdamer Platz November 1975 looking east crop.jpg|thumb|left|The [[Berlin Wall]] in 1975]]
After the creation of the Eastern Bloc, emigration out of the newly occupied countries, except under limited circumstances, was effectively halted in the early 1950s, with the Soviet approach to controlling national movement emulated by most of the rest of the Eastern Bloc.<ref name="dowty114">{{Harvnb|Dowty|1989|p=114}}</ref> However, in [[East Germany]], taking advantage of the [[Inner German border]] between occupied zones, hundreds of thousands fled to West Germany, with figures totaling 197,000 in 1950, 165,000 in 1951, 182,000 in 1952 and 331,000 in 1953.<ref>[http://www.stmas.bayern.de/migration/aussiedler/aussstat.pdf ''Bayerisches Staatsministerium für Arbeit und Sozialordnung, Familie und Frauen, Statistik Spätaussiedler''] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090319224912/http://www.stmas.bayern.de/migration/aussiedler/aussstat.pdf |date=19 March 2009 }}, Bundesgebiet Bayern, Dezember 2007, p.3 (in German)</ref><ref name="loescher60">{{Harvnb|Loescher|2001|p=60}}</ref> One reason for the sharp 1953 increase was fear of potential further [[Sovietization]] with the increasingly paranoid{{dubious|date=September 2017}} actions of [[Joseph Stalin]] in late 1952 and early 1953.<ref name="loescher68">{{Harvnb|Loescher|2001|p=68}}</ref> 226,000 had fled in just the first six months of 1953.<ref name="dale17">{{Harvnb|Dale|2005|p=17}}</ref>

With the closing of the Inner German border officially in 1952,<ref name="harrison99">{{Harvnb|Harrison|2003|p=99}}</ref> the Berlin city sector borders remained considerably more accessible than the rest of the border because of their administration by all four occupying powers.<ref name="dowty121">{{Harvnb|Dowty|1989|p=121}}</ref> Accordingly, it effectively comprised a "loophole" through which Eastern Bloc citizens could still move west.<ref name="harrison99"/> The 3.5&nbsp;million East Germans that had left by 1961, called [[Republikflucht]], totaled approximately 20% of the entire East German population.<ref name="dowty122">{{Harvnb|Dowty|1989|p=122}}</ref> In August 1961, East Germany erected a barbed-wire barrier that would eventually be expanded through construction into the [[Berlin Wall]], effectively closing the loophole.<ref name="pearson75">{{Harvnb|Pearson|1998|p=75}}</ref>

With virtually non-existent conventional emigration, more than 75% of those emigrating from Eastern Bloc countries between 1950 and 1990 did so under bilateral agreements for "ethnic migration".<ref name="bocker209">{{Harvnb|Böcker|1998|p=209}}</ref> About 10% were refugee migrants under the Geneva Convention of 1951.<ref name="bocker209"/> Most Soviets allowed to leave during this time period were ethnic Jews permitted to emigrate to Israel after a series of embarrassing defections in 1970 caused the Soviets to open very limited ethnic emigrations.<ref>{{Harvnb|Krasnov|1985|p=1&126}}</ref> The fall of the [[Iron Curtain]] was accompanied by a massive rise in European East-West migration.<ref name="bocker209"/> Famous [[Eastern Bloc emigration and defection#Defectors|Eastern Bloc defectors]] included Joseph Stalin's daughter [[Svetlana Alliluyeva]], who denounced Stalin after her 1967 defection.<ref name="krasnov2">{{Harvnb|Krasnov|1985|p=2}}</ref> {{clear}}