Works in this category are in thepublic domaininRussia (Article 1281 of the Russian Civil Code; Article 6 of Federal Law 231-FZ from December 18, 2006) because:

• they were published anonymously or under a pseudonym before January 1, 1943 and the name of the author did not become known during 50 years after publication (before January 1, 1993), or
• they were published anonymously or under a pseudonym after January 1, 1943, and the name of the author did not become known during 70 years after publication (as of 2025, this applies to works published before January 1, 1955), or
• the work is non-amateur cinema or television film (or shots or fragments from it), which was first shown between January 1, 1929 and January 1, 1955 (over 70 years ago), or
• the creator died over 74 years ago (before January 1, 1951), or
• the creator died over 70 years ago (before January 1, 1955) and did not fight in or work during theGreat Patriotic War (June 22, 1941–May 9, 1945).

If the author was subjected to repression andrehabilitated posthumously, countdown of copyright protection begins not from the death date, but from the rehabilitation date. If the work was first published posthumously, the copyright term is counted from the date of that first publication, unless the author was later rehabilitated, in which case it runs again from that later rehabilitation date.

Works in this category are also in thepublic domain in the United States because they were first published outside the United States (andnot published in the U.S. within 30 days),and they were first published before 1989 without complying with U.S. copyright formalities (renewal and/or copyright notice)and they were in the public domain in Russia on theURAA date (January 1, 1996). This is the combined effect of Russia having joined theBerne Convention in 1995, and of17 USC 104A with its critical date of January 1, 1996.

The critical dates for copyright in the United States areJanuary 1, 1943 for anonymous works;January 1, 1922 if the creator fought in the Great Patriotic War;January 1, 1926 otherwise.

These works may be in thepublic domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply therule of the shorter term toforeign works.

Works in this category are not an object of copyright according to Part IV of Civil Code No. 230-FZ of theRussian Federation of December 18, 2006.

Article 1259. Objects of Copyright

Paragraph 5

Copyright shall not apply to ideas, concepts, principles, methods, processes, systems, means, solutions of technical, organizational and other problems, discoveries, facts, programming languages.

Paragraph 6

Shall not be objects of copyright:

• official documents of state government agencies and local government agencies of municipal formations, including laws, other legal texts, judicial decisions, other materials of legislative, administrative and judicial character, official documents of international organizations, as well as their official translations;
• state symbols and signs (flags, emblems, orders, banknotes, and the like), as well as symbols and signs of municipal formations;
• works of folk art (folklore), which don't have specific authors;
• news reports on events and facts, which have a purely informational character (daily news reports, television programs, transportation schedules, and the like).

Full text of the Code:in Russian.

According to interstate and international compacts, theRussian Federation is the legal successor of theRussian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and theUnion of Soviet Socialist Republics; therefore, this license tag is also applicable to official symbols and formal documents of the Russian SFSR and the USSR (union level. (Theunion level means that use of official symbols and the formal documents of14 otherSoviet Republics is the subject of law of their legal successor.)