How can I get a copy of my Russian birthcertificate?

Question

I was born in Moscow, raised in Israel. My grandparents smuggle me out of Russia and smuggle me into Israel in 1953. I have a birth certificate showing I was born in the US and I am both an Israeli and US citizen. I need this for my own understanding. My parents are both gone.

Answer 1

Well, it sounds like you are illegal, so you might want to be careful. If you already have a birth certificate, even if it is an illegal one, why would you want your legal one? Can you imagine what would happen if you were caught with BOTH of them?

Look, you know in your heart that you are Russian and I would imagine that there are many ways you could absorb your native culture, but I suggest you leave this idea alone. You could get into some SERIOUS trouble, and you probably do not even have a birth certificate any more, if you ever even had one in the first place. Because of the multiple Soviet government overthrows, I very seriously doubt that there are records of you ever having been a Russian citizen, so you're quite literally screwed.

In order for you to get a birth certificate, considering what I have said about the unlikelihood of you being on record as Russian-born, you'd somehow have to prove to the Russian government where and when you were born. Again, considering your illegal status in Israel and your illegal US birth certificate, I suggest you leave this alone and find other ways to bring Russia close to your heart.

Answer 2

contact the Russian embassy. Depending on how you were born, midwife, or in a hosiptal. You may not even  have one. But contact russian embassy.

Answer 3

yea this is a bit risky i would assume. personally, i wouldn't mess with the russian embassy. you have to bend over backwards to renew your passport, i cant even imagine what they're going to put you thru for a birth certificate.

if you need it for yourself, find out where your parents were from, where you were born, where you lived etc etc.. then try google. some agencies are actually putting images of old documents online. you might not get lucky with a birth certificate, but hopefully you'll find something just as good.

if all else fails and you still want to find out something, i guess you could go over there (get a recently immigrated russian you trust to go with you so s/he could be a tour guide of sorts) and maybe you'll be able to dig in the archives... obv, you'd have to bribe someone to do that (sigh)

anyways... best of luck!!

Answer 4

AS the previous writer said; you should give up on this. You are really wishing to stir a hornets nest there. You cannot become a Russian citizen without giving up your American citizenship. This is Russia's rule, not the U.S. You have, what you believe, to be a phony American birth certificate, and if what you say is true, and you were not born in the US, then you risk losing your American citizenship. You say that you were smuggled out of Russia in 1953 which means that you are a minimum of 55 years old. The records that are kept in Russia are actually pretty accurate, despite the big change several years ago, but you have nothing to prove that you are Russian, certainly no ID to present to the Russian Embassy to even ask about obtaining a copy of your birth certificate. In 1953 Stalin was weeks from sending all of the Jews in Russia to camps in Kazakhstan; fortunately for the world the demon died that year before he could do this. You also say that your parents are both gone, and by this I assume that you knew your parents and were not last separated from them in 1953.

     I think that you should let sleeping dogs lie and just be thankful that your grandparents got you out of that insanity when they did.