Metadata: Head of the 4th Police-Administrative Area of Kovno District, Kovno Governorate
Collection
- Country:
- Lithuania
- Holding institution:
- Kaunas Regional State Archives
- Holding institution (official language):
- Kauno Regioninis Valstybės Archyvas
- Postal address:
- Maironio g. 28B, 44249 Kaunas
- Phone number:
- +370 (837) 323 111
- Web address:
- https://www.archyvai.lt/lt/kaa_naujienos.html
- Email:
- kaunas@archyvai.lt
- Reference number:
- I-14
- Title:
- Head of the 4th Police-Administrative Area of Kovno District, Kovno Governorate
- Title (official language):
- Kauno gubernijos Kauno apskrities 4-osios policijos nuovados viršininkas
- Creator/accumulator:
- Head of the 4th Police-Administrative Area of Kovno District
- Date(s):
- 1899/1917
- Language:
- Russian
- Extent:
- 73 files
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Physical condition:
- good
- Scope and content:
- The collection comprises the records of the Head of the 4th Police-Administrative Area of Kovno District (stanovoi pristav) including circulars, instructions and correspondence with the central authorities and the Kovno governor, materials on the search for various suspects, documents on conscription and the search for evaders of military service, materials related to public instability, demonstrations and revolutionary propaganda, notifications on criminal incidents, espionage and more. The collection contain Jewish-related records on these and other issues. A file dated 1913 includes documents relating to the residence rights of Jews in the territories of Kaunas district (inventory 1, file 10). The whole of Kovno district and Kovno Governorate were part of the Pale of Settlement, but Jewish settlement in peasant villages within the Pale were prohibited from the 1880s. Another file from 1913 relates to improvement of living conditions of Jews in Kovno (inventory 1, file 11). Among documents of police surveillance for various suspects there are also records of surveillance in 1914 for Girsha Gandler (inventory 1, file 46). During World War I, Jews were suspected of being unreliable and sympathetic to Germany, and therefore Jews were expelled by the Russian army from the areas near the front line. The collection includes papers on issuing certificates in 1916 regarding the expulsion of Jewish families from different areas in the Kovno district (inventory 1, file 53). In addition, the collection includes a list of suspects facing expulsion in 1915 (inventory 1, file 28). While this is not evident in the inventory list, it is reasonable to assume that one would find Jewish names also in the following records dealing with: conscription; illegal transfers of emigrants across the Russian border; espionage; people in custody and wanted by the police.
- Archival history:
- No information
- Administrative/biographical history:
- The stanovoi pristav (Head of the Police-Administrative Area) was responsible for all the investigations, judicial, police, executive and administrative affairs in the particular area allotted to his control. He was subordinate to the Kovno District Police Department and was appointed to the post by the Kovno Governorate Board. The stanovoi pristav carried out the orders of the Kovno District Police Department and in fact was the guardian of public order, peace and security in the area under his control. His functions included: surveillance of the population; fight against crime; suppression of strikes, demonstrations and the revolutionary movement; surveillance of the press, public organisations and foreign confessions.
- System of arrangement:
- The collection consists of one inventory.
- Finding aids:
- Detailed inventories are available for free online access on the website of the Lithuanian Chief Archivist Service.
- Links to finding aids:
- https://eais-pub.archyvai.lt/eais/faces/pages/forms/search/F3001.jspx
- 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, 2019
