Metadata: The Court of Appeals (Судебная палата, Chamber of Justice) 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. 113
- Title:
- The Court of Appeals (Судебная палата, Chamber of Justice) of Tbilisi
- Title (official language):
- თბილისის სამოსამართლო პალატა
- Creator/accumulator:
- Court of Appeals of Tbilisi
- Date(s):
- 1868/1921
- Language:
- Russian
- Extent:
- ca. 16,180 files
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Scope and content:
- The collection of the Court of Appeals includes materials on the functioning of the Tsarist Judiciary system in the Caucasus, records on lawyers and notaries, and material related to various cases brought before the Court – criminal, financial and political (including cases related to the enforcement of the censorship laws). Some parts of the collection – mostly in the inventories 1 and 2 – include few Jewish-related files. Along with some records on criminal activity (such as a 1886 file mentioning Jewish men from the Governorate of Kutaisi, accused of murdering a Jewish girl), the majority of Jewish-related files refer to political offences or disputes over land owning and financial issues. The files relating to illegal political activity include accusations from 1904 against Jewish soldiers stationed in Gyumri in belonging to the RSDRP (Russian Social Democratic Workers' Party); another file from the same year mentions a retired Jewish soldier, accused of offensive speech against religion. Files from the period of the 1905-1907 revolution mention accusations of Jewish residents of Sukhumi, Baku and other localities in keeping and dispersing illegal literature and leaflets in the 1900s. A 1914 file mentions a persecution of a local newspaper for publishing an anti-governmental article related to the Beilis Affair, while a 1916 file mentions the persecution of Zionist activists from Tbilisi (including M L Streicher), accused of publishing Jewish nationalist propaganda. The documents on civil judicial processes include a 1910 file on a dispute over land ownership involving a synagogue in Kutaisi, while a 1913 file includes a complaint by a Jewish peasant from the town of Kaspi (Governorate of Tbilisi) on an allegedly incorrect demarcation of land and other similar files. Individual files also include proceedings on family disputes, slander accusations and other similar issues involving Jews. Several personal files and professional records of Jewish lawyers and notaries from the Caucasian region are also found in the collection.
- Archival history:
- In the 1920s the materials of the Russian administration in Tbilisi were 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 Courts of Appeals were the highest regional judiciary instance in the court system introduced in Russia as part of the 1864 Judicial reform. The Court of Appeals of Tbilisi, serving the Judicial Region District of Tbilisi, was established in 1868, as part of the introduction of the new court system in the Caucasian region, and functioned until after the end of the Tsarist rule. The Judicial District of Tbilisi included the District Courts (Okruzhnoi sud) in Baku, Erevan, Ganja, Krasnodar, Kutaisi, Stavropol, Tbilisi and Vladikavkaz
- System of arrangement:
- The collection includes ca 20 inventories; the Jewish-related materials are mostly concentrated in inventories #1 and #2.
- 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), 2017