Nansen certificate

Not a passport, and not the paper of a state. When the Soviet government revoked the citizenship of Russians living abroad, a person with no nationality had no document, and so no visa and no frontier. The conference Fridtjof Nansen called at Geneva from 3 to 5 July 1922 agreed on one form, and recommended that every country of residence issue it.

You name the country that issued it; there are no arms. The form is printed whole on one leaf, in the national language and in French, as the Paris resolution of 1920 asked of passports. It carries the authority that issued it, the place and the date, how long it runs, the notice about coming back, the particulars down to the names of the bearer's father and mother, a short description, the photograph to be struck through with the seal, and the authority's certificate that both are the bearer's.

Bearer makes an investigator's papers for Call of Cthulhu and any 1920s or 1930s tabletop campaign: the passport a consul would have filled in, with the visas and frontier stamps a campaign leaves in it, and the permits, certificates and tickets of the period, to print or to share.

An example

Open this example in the office

The passport, from 5 July 1922

The description of the bearer

• Date of birth
• Place of birth
• Surname of Father
• Surname of Mother
• Occupation
• Former residence in Russia
• Present residence
• Age
• Hair
• Eyes
• Face
• Nose
• Special peculiarities
• Remarks

The passport, from 12 May 1926

The description of the bearer

• Date of birth
• Place of birth
• Surname of Father
• Surname of Mother
• Occupation
• Former residence in Russia
• Present residence
• Age
• Hair
• Eyes
• Face
• Nose
• Special peculiarities
• Remarks

The passport, from 30 June 1928

The description of the bearer

• Date of birth
• Place of birth
• Surname of Father
• Surname of Mother
• Occupation
• Former residence in Russia
• Present residence
• Age
• Hair
• Eyes
• Face
• Nose
• Special peculiarities
• Remarks

The same paper elsewhere

• Passports by country

Still to be confirmed

• 24 pages, and the title page that carries the number, the year of validity, the price and the Nansen stamp, as on the Bulgarian certificate of 1929 read; the German certificates were a single sheet (one of 1939 read), which Bearer does not print. What would settle it: certificates of France, Britain and other issuing countries.
• the size of the document: the League's 15.5 by 10.5 cm is used. What would settle it: a certificate measured.
• validity of one year. What would settle it: certificates of 1922 to 1926: the model prints 'valable jusqu'à' and fixes no term, and the one year is the rule the conference of May 1926 laid down afterwards.
• which page of the booklet carries the form: in the Bulgarian certificate read, the title page is page 1, so its form stands on page 2; Bearer prints the title page as the cover and the form as page 1. What would settle it: certificates of several issuing countries, to say whether the title page was always counted.
• 24 pages, and the title page that carries the number, the year of validity, the price and the Nansen stamp, as on the Bulgarian certificate of 1929 read; the German certificates were a single sheet (one of 1939 read), which Bearer does not print. What would settle it: certificates of France, Britain and other issuing countries.
• the size of the document: the League's 15.5 by 10.5 cm is used. What would settle it: a certificate measured.
• which page of the booklet carries the form: in the Bulgarian certificate read, the title page is page 1, so its form stands on page 2; Bearer prints the title page as the cover and the form as page 1. What would settle it: certificates of several issuing countries, to say whether the title page was always counted.
• 24 pages, and the title page that carries the number, the year of validity, the price and the Nansen stamp, as on the Bulgarian certificate of 1929 read; the German certificates were a single sheet (one of 1939 read), which Bearer does not print. What would settle it: certificates of France, Britain and other issuing countries.
• the size of the document: the League's 15.5 by 10.5 cm is used. What would settle it: a certificate measured.
• the German of the return notice of 1928: the German column is read off a blank form of 1924; a German certificate issued at Frankfurt in June 1939, read, is still on the form the Reichsdruckerei printed in September 1923, with the notice of 1922, so no German wording of the notice of 1928 is known to have been printed, and this line is left in French and English only. What would settle it: a certificate of another issuing country printed after June 1928.
• the origin line, still the Russian one. What would settle it: a certificate issued to an Armenian, an Assyrian or a Turkish refugee after the Arrangements of 30 June 1928 extended the measures to them.
• which page of the booklet carries the form: in the Bulgarian certificate read, the title page is page 1, so its form stands on page 2; Bearer prints the title page as the cover and the form as page 1. What would settle it: certificates of several issuing countries, to say whether the title page was always counted.

Sources

• League of Nations, Arrangement with regard to the issue of certificates of identity to Russian Refugees, signed at Geneva, July 5, 1922, with the form of certificate annexed, Treaty Series, vol. XIII, no. 355, pp. 237-241 (French and English official texts) (read directly)
• Wikimedia Commons (public domain), Personalausweis / Certificat d'identité No. 376, issued by the Polizeipräsident in Frankfurt am Main on 21 June 1939, valid to 7 April 1940, to a Russian refugee born at Goldingen, form Nr. A 53 Berlin Reichsdruckerei (9. 23), one sheet, German and French: Ausstellende Behörde, Ort der Ausstellung, Datum; Personalausweis Nr., Gültig bis; the return notice of 1922 (Dieser Ausweis berechtigt nur dann zur Rückkehr in das Land, das ihn ausgestellt hat, wenn dies besonders in ihm vorgesehen ist. Er verliert seine Gültigkeit, wenn der Inhaber irgendwann russisches Gebiet betritt); Familienname, Vornamen, Geburtstag, Geburtsort, Familienname des Vaters, der Mutter; Russischer Herkunft ohne Erwerb einer anderen Staatsangehörigkeit; Beruf, Früherer Wohnort in Rußland, Gegenwärtiger Aufenthaltsort; Personenbeschreibung; the photograph, the holder's signature, the office's certificate and signature; the foot citing the Geneva conference of 3 to 5 July 1922; a 3 RM fee stamp (read directly)
• League of Nations, Arrangement relating to the issue of identity certificates to Russian and Armenian refugees, supplementing and amending the previous Arrangements dated July 5th, 1922, and May 31st, 1924, signed at Geneva, May 12, 1926, Treaty Series, vol. LXXXIX, no. 2004, pp. 47-51 (read directly)
• photograph on Wikimedia Commons, Nansen certificate issued in Bulgaria in 1929, page 1, the booklet's title page: 'PASSEPORT NANSEN / CERTIFICAT D'IDENTITE / VALABLE POUR UN AN', 24 pages, price, and the cancelled Nansen stamp of 1929 (read directly)
• League of Nations, Arrangement relating to the legal status of Russian and Armenian refugees (no. 2005) and Arrangement concerning the extension to other categories of refugees of certain measures taken in favour of Russian and Armenian refugees (no. 2006), both signed at Geneva, June 30, 1928, Treaty Series, vol. LXXXIX, nos. 2005 and 2006, pp. 53-65 (read directly)

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