Very true, and very sad. The fact is that the Soviet Union was so exhausted and wretched by the end that it was incapable of producing a pen that actually worked for the purposes of signing itself out of existence. When Gorbachev went to publicly sign the document that would end the Soviet Union, he had a ceremonial pen that had been produced specifically for this task. When Gorbachev went to use this ceremonial pen, it didn't work. Nobody had thought to actually check to see if the pen worked. Typical Soviet efficiency. A reporter from CNN had to hand Gorbachev a ninteen cent Bic pen, that actually worked, and Gorbachev used that pen to sign the instrument that ended the existence of the Soviet Union.
My question still stands, however. What was the official policy of the Soviet Union regarding ID? Did they have a national ID? How was it handled? How did it impact the daily life of the average Russian or Ukrainian? Is the new "National ID" being proposed similar to what the Soviets had? How similar, or how different? I'm really curious here, does anyone have the facts handy?