Belgium 'abolished'

[Przemolog]

Originally Posted by Asick

What a Pole should have done to enter a non socialist country? Was it necessary to apply for another passport? Was it easy to cross socialist to socialist borders? In USSR people just kept passports for internal use, any foreign trips required another 'foreign' passport that you could not easily get.

What you call 'passport for internal use', in Poland is named "dowód osobisty" what stands for "personal proof (of identification)". Now it's just a plastic ID card (credit card format) valid in EU, Norway, Iceland and (not 100% sure) Switzerland. However, until recently it was a small green booklet. "Dowód osobisty" was also often a document used for travelling to socialist countries (especially 1971-1981) and to Germany, Czech Rep. and Slovakia for inhabitans of border zones only (1993-2004).
For going to non-socialist country a special passport, valid "for the all the country of the world" had to be used. It was valid usually for 3 years, either single or multiple use. Even if it was a multiple use one, it had to be deposited in the passport office right after the return. "Socialist" passport were kept at home at valid for 10 years.

Difficulties of crossing the borders were changing along time. Until 1971, going abroad usually required to be a businness trip, organised tour or a invitation from a foreigner - no matter from a socialist country or not (of course, it was much easier to go socialist countries). 1971-1980 was a "golden decade" . Travelling to European sociallist countries was practically free of restrictions (excluding USSR). Travelling to "West" was relatively easy, too (it was possible to travel at least one year and to buy officially $150/year). In 1980, invitations for Polish citizens travelling to socialist countries were reintroduced (but other countries) as a "punishment" for the Solidarity movement. "Martial law" decade (1981-1989) was generally a return to the situation prior to 1971 - the law was pretty restrictive. In February 1989 the last communist goverment changed its attitude and started to give "all the world" passports to everyone without any special restrictions. Hovewer, invitation requirements "survived" 1989 (but these were requirements of other countries): East Germany until 1990 (unification of Germany), Czechoslovakia until 1991, Baltic states until late 1990's and Russia and the rest of the former USSR until visa introduction in 2003 (however, it was always easy to skip invitation requirements by buying "never-to-be-used hotel vouchers" )