Metadata: The District Court (Окружной суд) 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. 116
- Title:
- The District Court (Окружной суд) of Tbilisi
- Title (official language):
- თბილისის საოლქო სასამართლო
- Creator/accumulator:
- District Court of Tbilisi
- Date(s):
- 1868/1922
- Language:
- Russian
- Extent:
- 13,449(?) files
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Scope and content:
- The collection of the District Court includes materials on the various cases brought before the Court – criminal, financial, social and political. More than a few files – mostly in the first inventory – include Jewish-related sources. They can be divided into the following categories: 1. Files on family issues: adoptions and custody of orphans, recognitions of parenthood, birth certifications, and legal statuses of marriages and of children (1890s to 1910). In certain cases the files mention family disputes involving children that were brought before the court (such as a 1915 appeal of Mordechai Davidovich, who accused Minda Davidovich of illegally taking his child). 2. Files on financial issues: registrations and executions of last wills (dozens of files from the 1900s to 1920); decisions on financial issues: executions of arbitrage courts, selling of property in order to cover debts etc. 3. Personal files of Jewish attorneys and notaries (including the file of Matvey Gruzenberg, brother of the renown St. Petersburg attorney Oscar Gruzenberg), correspondence and other papers on administrative persecutions of Jewish members of the legal profession, accused of illegal conduct (such as in the case of a 1910 investigation against the attorney A Zeitlin, suspected of embezzlement). 4. Several files from the 1910s and from 1920 include papers on the registration of various Jewish organisations: charitable societies (Bikur Kholim, Moshav Zkenim, Poalei Tsedek), a Jewish consumers' society, and the Jewish student association “Ivria”. 5. A few cases are related to publishing and censorship, such as an 1887 file on the persecution of Alexander Frenkel, editor of a local newspaper ("Kavkazskoe obozrenie") in Tbilisi, or a 1912 accusation of Samuel Maskin of slanderous publications.
- 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:
- In the new court system, established in the Russian Empire by the 1864 judicial reform, the District Courts served as a middle instance between the local Courts of Peace and the regional Courts of Appeals (for the latter in Tbilisi see f. 113). Each Judicial District (Судебный округ) included one Court of Appeals and several District Courts. For instance, the Judicial District of Tbilisi was headed by the Court of Appeals in Tbilisi, and included the District Courts in Baku, Erevan, Ganja, Krasnodar, Kutaisi, Stavropol, Tbilisi and Vladikavkaz.
- Access points: locations:
- Tbilisi
- Subject terms:
- Aid and relief
- Aid and relief--Philanthropy and charity
- Bikur holim
- Censorship
- Education
- Education--Student organisations
- Financial matters
- Financial matters--Debt
- Legal matters
- Marriage and divorce
- Orphans
- Professions
- Professions--Journalists
- Professions--Lawyers
- Publishing
- Real estate
- Vital records
- Vital records--Birth records
- Wills
- System of arrangement:
- The collection includes three inventories; the Jewish-related materials are mostly concentrated in the first inventory.
- 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
