I write about immigration in the United States. My uncle studied history at Lomonosov University in Moscow in the early 1950s. Years back, he told me about a decree ending the immigration of foreigners to the Soviet Union. To his best recollection, the argument was that only citizens of the Soviet Union should be able to benefit from the prosperity there. The anti-immigration advocates in the United States use the same reasoning now. Several years ago, I asked my uncle for his recollection of that document, but with age and illness, he did not remember that.

That article in the NYT indirectly confirmed that there was a ruling of that kind.