Metadata: Magistrat of Ludza (Vitebsk Governorate)
Collection
- Country:
- Latvia
- Holding institution:
- Latvian State Historical Archives
- Holding institution (official language):
- Latvijas Valsts vēstures arhīvs
- Postal address:
- Slokas iela 16, Rīga, LV-1048
- Phone number:
- +371 20 017 505
- Reference number:
- 755
- Title:
- Magistrat of Ludza (Vitebsk Governorate)
- Title (official language):
- Ludzas pilsētas maģistrāts (Vitebskas guberņa)
- Creator/accumulator:
- Magistrat of Ludza
- Date(s):
- 1779/1866
- Language:
- Russian
- Hebrew
- Extent:
- 468 files
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Physical condition:
- good
- Scope and content:
- The Magistrate (municipal authority) of Lucin (Ludza), the chief local self-government body, was responsible for all judicial, administrative, economic and social municipal issues. Accordingly, the papers of the Lucin Magistrate’s collection reflect various aspects of the city's life between 1779 and 1866. Part of the Magistrate records includes Jewish-related materials including documents evidencing the integration of Jews in regular economic and daily life in Lucin. The majority of these files contain claims of debts from Jews from the end of 18th century, passport applications for temporary absences from Lucin, and papers relating to the acquisition and ownership of houses in the city from 1860-1863. Data on the Jewish residents of Lucin can be found in the city population records from 1786. Revision lists from 1795 and 1800, from a population census conducted for the purpose of accounting for payers of poll tax, and papers recording Lucin burghers (mieszczanie) from the early 19th century, provide information about the Jews who lived in the city and on the character of the Lucin Jewish population. These records contain, for example, information on the official numbers of Jewish merchants and Jewish burghers who lived in the city in 1801-1802. Jewish-related documents can be also found in the judicial documents of the Magistrate, such as the case from 1795 of the illegal detention and beating of Abram Leibovich with the involvement of a kahal (inventory 2, file 35), and the case from 1844 in which the Russian Orthodox Alexander Bulanov is accused of converting to Judaism (inventory 1, file 391).
- Archival history:
- Many of the records originating in the Latgalian area of Vitebsk governorate were originally consolidated in Vitebsk and Vilnius, and later in Mogilev and Minsk. But over time, during the interwar and Soviet periods, many local records from Latgalia, including Lucyn (Ludza), were brought to Riga.
- Administrative/biographical history:
- Lucyn (Ludza) received town rights in 1777 from Catherine II the Empress of Russia. The Magistrate of Lucin (Ludza) existed until 1866. Then it was abolished as part of the reorganization of local self-government in the Russian Empire. During the Tsarist period magistrates (municipal authorities) were a judicial and administrative elected institutions in the cities. Their jurisdiction extended only to merchants and burghers (mieszczanie). After the abolition of the magistrates in 1866 their administrative and economic functions were transferred to municipal dumas, and judicial functions were assigned to the district courts.
- Access points: locations:
- Ludza
- Yerusha Network member:
- Central Archives for the History of the Jewish People
- Author of the description:
- Ilya Vovshin, Central Archives for the History of the Jewish People, 2018