In addition, emigration restrictions were used to keep secrecy about life in the Soviet Union.[30] Starting in 1935, Joseph Stalin had already effectively sealed off outside access to the Soviet Socialist Republics ( and until his death in 1953 ), effectively permitting no foreign travel inside the Soviet Union such that outsiders did not know of the political processes that had taken place therein.[31] During this period, and until the late 1970s, 25 years after Stalin's death, the few diplomats and foreign correspondents that were permitted inside the Soviet Union were usually restricted to within a few miles of Moscow, while their phones were tapped, their residences were restricted to foreigner-only locations, and they were constantly followed by Soviet authorities.[31] Dissenters who approached such foreigners were arrested.[30] For many years after World War II, even the best informed foreigners did not know the number of arrested or executed Soviet citizens, or how poorly the Soviet economy had performed.[30]