Metadata: Chancellery of the Chief Police Officer of Vilnius
Collection
- Country:
- Lithuania
- Holding institution:
- Lithuanian State Historical Archives
- Holding institution (official language):
- Lietuvos valstybės istorijos archyvas
- Postal address:
- Gerosios Vilties g. 10, 03134 Vilnius
- Phone number:
- (8 5) 213 74 82
- Web address:
- http://www.archyvai.lt/lt/lvia_naujienos.html
- Email:
- istorijos.archyvas@lvia.lt
- Reference number:
- f. 421
- Title:
- Chancellery of the Chief Police Officer of Vilnius
- Title (official language):
- Vilniaus policmeisterio kanceliarija
- Creator/accumulator:
- Chancellery of the Chief Police Officer of Vilnius
- Date(s):
- 1809/1913
- Language:
- Russian
- Polish
- Yiddish
- Extent:
- 6,622 files
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Physical condition:
- good
- Scope and content:
-
In 19th-century Russian-ruled Vilnius, the Politzmeister, or chief police officer, filled multiple roles beyond mere policing and surveillance. The archival materials of the Chancellery of the Politzmeister therefore refer to a wide array of administrative matters alongside law enforcement, such as residence permits and resident registration, ownership of real estate and sanitation control. In most cases the materials comprise administrative correspondence referring to the chancellery’s activities.
Accordingly, the Jewish-related materials in this collection include not only materials on criminal and other illegal activities, but also papers on various administrative issues. Several files refer to the enforcement of trade regulations. Documents from various years mention Jewish individuals involved in smuggling and counterfeiting customs seals and money (in one case, for example, Jewish merchants and bankers from Brody are suspected of producing and smuggling forged currency to Russia). The papers also include a printed manifest, issued by the Jewish community of Vilnius in 1820, declaring a Cherem (ban) on Jews who break trading laws and regulations. Papers from the late 1870s mention the collection of data on the Hebrew newspaper Ha-Kol, which was issued in Konigsberg and smuggled into the Russian empire.
Papers from the 1810s mention an investigation into the sudden death of a Jewish resident of Vilnius who had reported on smuggling activities. Correspondence from 1825 mentions Jewish tavern-keepers who informed the authorities of smuggling activities and had allegedly been victims of false allegations. In some cases, police escorts of Jewish suspects and vulnerable Jewish individuals are mentioned (papers from 1869 include a report on the escort of a Jewish man and woman who wished to accept baptism).
In many cases, the files mention investigations and surveillance of individuals suspected of various offences; papers from the 1810s mention the early maskil N. H. Schulman, who was wanted by the local police in connection with his complaint against the Governor of Kiev.
In some cases, theft, burglary and other violent crimes are mentioned (for instance, a file from 1825 includes an investigation into an assault on a Jewish merchant from Trakiai in a tavern not far from Vilnius; correspondence from 1842 mentions a resident of Vilnius who was suspected of a theft from a Catholic church in Navahrudak).
Papers from the late 19th and early 20th centuries also mention illegal political activities: gatherings, demonstrations and strikes (such as a strike at Rivkin's tanning factory in 1906).
The administrative activities of the Chancellery of the Politzmeister are also reflected in the Jewish-related materials. These include the issuing of passports and residence permits (papers from the late 1810s reflect the government's efforts to enforce accurate registration of Jews in the census books); the supervision of Jewish drug stores; the supervision of real-estate ownership and construction works (including requests for construction permits and complaints of poorly built houses). Correspondence from the early 1820s refers to the construction of additional rooms for the Jewish hospital in Vilnius. Papers from 1818 mention a fine imposed on the Jewish chimney sweeps of Vilnius, who were accused of negligence.
- Archival history:
- The materials of the Chancellery of the Politzmeister of Vilnius were handed over to the Central State Archive of the Lithuanian SSR in the late 1940s. In 1957, together with other pre-revolutionary documentation, these materials were included in the Central State Historical Archive of the Lithuanian SSR, predecessor of the current State Historical Archive.
- Administrative/biographical history:
- The office of Politzmeister was established in Vilnius in 1809. The Politzmeister supervised the police force in Vilnius (from the 1860s called the City Police Administration) and was in charge of implementing laws and regulations throughout the city. His duties included conducting surveillance over the local population, prosecuting criminals and political activists and dealing with administrative functions such as fire and sanitation control. The office of the Politzmeister was closed in 1917.
- Access points: locations:
- Vilnius
- Access points: persons/families:
- Shulman, N H
- System of arrangement:
- The collection consists of four inventories and is arranged in thematic order.
- Access, restrictions:
- The collection is open for reference at LVIA.
- Finding aids:
- A basic inventory is available online in Lithuanian. More detailed inventories in Russian are available at the Lithuanian State Historical Archives. Records and descriptions of the Jewish-related materials of the collection are also available at the Central Archives for the History of the Jewish People in Jerusalem.
- Links to finding aids:
- https://eais-pub.archyvai.lt/eais/faces/pages/forms/search/F3001.jspx?_afPfm=-7dec7f9e.6
- Yerusha Network member:
- Central Archives for the History of the Jewish People
- Author of the description:
- Alex Valdman, Central Archives for the History of the Jewish People, 2014
