had left their possessions in those rooms, which will be discussed in detail in the text on the housing situation), another issue arose: such a refugee was trying to find different accommodation. And he did find some but when he came to the upravdom for registration, the upravdom demanded a passport or at least a gusievka, refusing to register him otherwise. The refugee went with a complaint to his militia station, showed the station head the certificate issued by the trade union and the management of his company, factory, or school, explained that to be able to work he had to have some accommodation, and then asked for permission to stay until he obtained a gusievka.
[6.1] Having browsed through all the papers, the station head replied to that dictum by asking about the same thing again, “Do you have a passport?” “No, but …”. “There is no ‘but.’ Do you have a gusievka?” “I don’t have that either”. “So you don’t have a right to stay in Lvov. And be happy that I’m not arresting you right away. But I advise you to collect a passport at the station as soon as you can and leave Lvov, because you might meet the same fate as all the others”. (A reference to the deportation).
No persuasion or certificates had any effect. The head was interested only in whether the refugee had a passport. “OK”, the refugee said, “but if I already had a passport, I would not have come here”. Nothing worked. As in the public prosecutor’s office there was a special public prosecutor who supervised the militia; the stubborn refugee went to him, thinking that he was in the right. [2] He filed a written application with the prosecutor and explained that the process of his obtainment of a gusievka had begun, and to prove that he produced a certificate from his institution that affirmed the above data in writing. The document also requested the militia head to comply and issue a temporary permit. The refugee also explained that he was in a paradoxical situation, that he had to work in a school every day (he was a teacher), that the school management and the board of education had deemed him an indispensable employee, and that they were trying to obtain a gusievka [for him]. But as obtainment of a gusievka was connected with certain formalities, which everybody knew about, it had to take some time, and that was why he should have had accommodation. The public prosecutor (a very young man, approximately 22 or 23 years old), or actually acting public prosecutor, for he was a deputy, heard [3] the whole story out very patiently and having finally discovered that the militia head had refused to grant the request he wrote down his decision on that application: “I order the … militia
LVO V AN D SOUTH EASTERN REGIONS [ 33] 494
