Metadata: The Provincial Board (Gubernskoe Pravlenie) of Kurland
Collection
- Country:
- Latvia
- Holding institution:
- Latvian State Historical Archives
- Holding institution (official language):
- Latvijas Valsts vēstures arhīvs
- Postal address:
- 16 Slokas Street, Rīga, LV-1048
- Phone number:
- +371 67 613 118
- Web address:
- http://www.arhivi.lv/index.php?&16
- Reference number:
- LVVA f. 96
- Title:
- The Provincial Board (Gubernskoe Pravlenie) of Kurland
- Title (official language):
- Kurzemes guberņas valde
- Creator/accumulator:
- Provincial Board of Kurland
- Date(s):
- 1796/1917
- Language:
- German
- Russian
- Hebrew
- Polish
- Yiddish
- Extent:
- 61,996 files
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Physical condition:
- good
- Scope and content:
-
The collection comprises the records of the provincial board of Courland. In 19th century Russia, provincial boards were legally designated as the main administrative bodies of the governorates. In practice, however, they were completely subordinate to the governors and had rather limited authority. The boards addressed various administrative issues and were responsible, among other tasks, for supervising law enforcement throughout the governorates and for arbitration between individuals and institutions. The collection of the provincial board of Courland contains a substantial body of Jewish-related materials.
Some of the files in the collection include data on residence and working permits and on registration of Jewish residents in various localities throughout the governorate. For instance, a record from 1807 mentions the expulsion of a badkhn (a traditional Jewish wedding entertainer or jester) who stayed in the town of Kandava without a passport and records from 1820 discuss the registration of a Jewish man in the community of Jelgava who served as a sailor disguised as a Christian named Peter Johanson. Papers from 1813 mention two Jews from Vilnius who were arrested in Grobina after serving as cattle drivers for French troops during the Napoleonic invasion. Other files mention Jewish colonists heading to the south-western areas of the empire.
Several files include data on how Jewish communities functioned: taxation debts owed to the communities by their members; elections of communal functionaries (including correspondence on the appointment of rabbis in Jelgava, Aizpute and other communities); communal welfare activities (including data on sums allocated for charity in Jelagva and Tukum and correspondence from 1830 on the construction of a Jewish cemetery in Aizpute). A file from 1848 refers to the election of Courland's representatives in the rabbinical commission established in that year in St. Petersburg.
Taxation is also mentioned in many other documents related to communities throughout the governorate and the Jewish population, including the kosher meat tax and the candle tax. Jewish civil records from various communities can be found in several files, including an 1846 marriages list from Jaunjelgava, along with correspondence concerning Jewish military conscription and taxation lists.
Criminal activities, such as smuggling and counterfeiting, are also reflected in the Jewish-related documents. Some papers mention cases of violence, such as the robbery of a tavern near Jekabpils and a violent quarrel between Jewish merchants from Jelgava over a place in a synagogue. The files also include investigations on community functionaries suspected of illicit activities.
Several files reflect claims and appeals brought before the provincial board by the Jewish residents of the governorate. These include appeals both against individuals (as in an appeal by the Jewish community of Libau against a landlord who demanded Jews pay him a bridge crossing toll) and the local authorities in various localities in Courland (as in the case of the appeal by the Jewish burial society of Jaunjelgava against a local magistrate who was collecting an illicit fee for burial permits, with its revenue being transferred to the local Lutheran church).
Other Jewish-related parts of the collection include data on crafts and trades practised by the Jewish population of Courland. In several cases the files include correspondence on the rights of Jews to practise certain trades; other papers mention complaints about competition posed by Jews to Christian guilds and merchants, such as an 1830 petition from the guild of bakers in Bauska. Several files reflect the development of Jewish crafts and entrepreneurship in the region, such as materials from 1818 on the establishment of a Jewish tailors' guild in Jelgava and an 1852 discussion on a request submitted by a Jewish merchant to establish a tobacco factory.
Several files refer to Jewish residents who chose to convert to Christianity or return to Judaism: papers from 1828-29 mention an investigation into a baptised Jewish family that allegedly reconverted to Judaism; papers from 1818-26 include the investigation of a conversion to Judaism by a female resident of Vidzy, in which the rabbi of Grobina was allegedly involved.
- Archival history:
- After World War I and the establishment of an independent Latvia the archival materials of the Tsarist administration were consolidated in the newly established Latvian state archive that existed throughout the interwar period and after the Soviet takeover of Latvia. In 1962 the materials originating from the pre-Soviet period were deposited in the Central State Historical Archive of the Latvian SSR, predecessor of the current State Historical Archive.
- Administrative/biographical history:
- The governorate of Courland was created after the Third Partition of Poland in 1795, when the Duchy of Courland and Semigallia was annexed to the Russian empire. Mitau (now Jelgava), the former capital of the Duchy, served as the administrative centre of the governorate. After World War I the area became part of independent Latvia.
- Access points: locations:
- Courland
- Finding aids:
- For additional data see the website of the Latvian Archives. A description of the Jewish-related materials is available at the Central Archives for the History of the Jewish People in Jerusalem.
- Links to finding aids:
- https://www.arhivi.gov.lv
- 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, 2015
