Diploma tax

The diploma tax is an informal reference to the one-time payment imposed in the Soviet Union on would-be emigrants who received a higher education in the USSR. It was introduced in August 1972. While the professed justification for this tax was to repay state expenses for public education, this measure was designed to combat the brain drain caused by the growing emigration of Soviet Jews and other members of the intelligentsia to the West. The accompanying Instruction issued the same day set the fee to 12,200 roubles (an average monthly salary was 130-150 roubles).