Metadata: Chancellery of the Governor of Tbilisi
Collection
- Country:
- Georgia
- Holding institution:
- The Central Historical Archive of Georgia
- Holding institution (official language):
- საისტორიო ცენტრალური არქივი
- Postal address:
- 1, Vazha-Pshavela, Tbilisi, Georgia
- Email:
- info@archives.gov.ge
- Reference number:
- f. 17
- Title:
- Chancellery of the Governor of Tbilisi
- Title (official language):
- თბილისის გუბერნატორის კანცელარია
- Creator/accumulator:
- Chancellery of the Governor of Tbilisi
- Date(s):
- 1862/1917
- Date note:
- start date approximate
- Language:
- Russian
- Extent:
- 10,903(?) files
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Scope and content:
- The collection of the Chancellery of the Governor of Tbilisi includes a variety of material, reflecting administrative, social, economic and social aspects of the life in the Governorate. Several files include Jewish-related information and material. The administrative files include correspondence and other documents discussing the legal status of the Jewish inhabitants of the area: residence permits, issuance of passports to locals and foreigners of Jewish faith, expulsions of Jews lacking residence permits back to the Pale of Settlement (mentioned in a 1904 file) etc. The files also include correspondence and regulations on trading and manufacturing permits granted to Jews: a file from 1883 mentions a permit to sell photographic cards, granted to a Jewish local; files from the 1880s, 1890s and 1900s mention the certification of Jewish rubber-stamp makers in Tbilisi; a file from 1892 includes a complaint of Jewish pedlars from Akhaltsikhe, who were forbidden by the local government to sell their products. The files also mention print houses and newspapers run by Jewish residents of the region; for instance, papers from 1912 include a permit granted to A Lieberman to re-locate his print house, while a file from 1914 includes a request by Abram Levinstein to publish a Russian-language newspaper in Tbilisi. Some records mention criminal investigations involving Jews: a file from 1885 mentions Jews from Akhaltsikhe allegedly involved in a murder, while a file from 1898 mentions Jews expelled from Tbilisi after being involved in a violent quarrel. Other files (from 1878, 1893, 1898 and other years) include correspondence and administrative orders on Jewish suspects wanted by the local police. More than a few files mention Jews suspected in illegal political activities. Records from the 1880s and the 1890s mention police surveillance of suspects in political activities; a 1905 file mentions an investigation against a Jewish pharmacist from Tbilisi suspected of spreading illegal literature, while a file from 1909 mentions a Jewish individual suspected of belonging to the Russian Social-Democratic Party and in keeping illegal literature and weapons. Material from the 1900s also mentions Russian antisemitic activities in the region, including the opening of branch of the nationalist "Union of the Russian People" in Tbilisi in 1906. Jewish communal, educational and cultural activities are also reflected in the records of the Chancellery. These include requests to grant permits for the opening of Jewish schools in Tbilisi (1881, 1891), materials – reports, correspondence, accounts – on Jewish educational and charitable societies (Society of Jewish Literature and Music, The Jewish Charitable Society of Tbilisi and so on, 1894, 1895 and other years). A file from the early 1900s includes a discussion of a request to establish a Zionist society in Tbilisi. Several files mention cases of Jewish apostasy.
- Archival history:
- The collection was evacuated from Tbilisi during World War I. In the 1920s it was returned to Tbilisi and transferred to the newly established Main Historical Archive of Georgia. In 1939 this archive became part of the Central State Historical Archive of Georgia, the predecessor of the contemporary Central Historical Archive.
- Administrative/biographical history:
- The Governorate of Tbilisi was established in 1846, when the Georgia-Imeretia Governorate was separated into two smaller administrative units, centred in Tbilisi and Kutaisi. Roughly corresponding to the eastern parts of modern Georgia, the Governorate existed until the Russian revolutions of 1917.
- Access points: locations:
- Tbilisi
- Subject terms:
- Jewish community
- System of arrangement:
- The inventories are arranged on a chronological-structural basis.
- Access, restrictions:
- The collection is open for reference at the Central Historical Archive of Georgia.
- Finding aids:
- A list of files is available at the Central Historical Archive of Georgia. A list of Jewish-related files is available at the CAHJP in Jerusalem.
- 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), 2016
