In the capitals and in some large cities of pre-revolutionary Russia, there existed an institution known as address bureaux, where anyone could find the address of the person they needed, whether that person lived permanently in the given city or had arrived there temporarily. Such offices were possible at that time because every resident, whether man or woman, was required to have a passport or residence permit and to be registered at the police station of their place of residence. In the event of arrival, the person was obliged to report this at their local station, and upon arriving in another city to register immediately at the appropriate station in the new place.
Thus, the police knew each resident’s movements and their address (permanent or temporary), wherever they might be.
To make it easier to find addresses, the Ministry of Internal Affairs organized address bureaux, where every city resident or visitor was registered on a special card. This made it very easy to find the address of a person about whom it was known only that they were in the given city. To do this, it was enough to apply to the address bureau, where a certificate with the address of any person was issued immediately.
To cover the costs of maintaining the St. Petersburg address bureau, a special fee was established, collected from persons arriving in the capital for some time. This fee was collected by means of special stamps, which were affixed to passports at the moment visiting persons were registered.