Chronology

10th century: Believed appearance of a customs service in Kievan Rus.

16th century: The appearance of ‘customs charters.’ These were legislative acts by the state of Muscovy involving forced selection of members of the merchant class as ‘customs heads.’

1649: Passing of the Sobornoye Ulozheniye, a legal code forbidding trade by foreigners on the territory of Russia, excluding Arkhangelsk.

1653: Introduction of the Trade Statute, replacing numerous customs taxes with a single ‘ruble duty.’

1667: Introduction of the Novotorgovoi statute, the first Russian customs tariff.

December 14, 1924: Customs Statute of the USSR passed by the Presidium of the USSR Central Executive Committee.

December 19, 1928: First Customs Code of the USSR passed.

1971: Crackdown on administrative accountability for the smuggling of hard currency and goods bought for it.

1976: A series of measures to tighten controls on the export of items of cultural value.

December 11, 1989: Passing of a resolution by the USSR Council of Ministers, legally confirming the departure from the principle of state monopoly on foreign trade.

October 25, 1991: Decree by the President of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, ‘On the State Customs Committee of the RSFSR.’

June 18, 1993: The Supreme Soviet of the Russian Federation passes the Russian Customs Code.

August 4, 1995: Decree by the President of the Russian Federation setting October 25 as Russian Customs Officers’ Day.