Metadata: Shavli District Police Department, Kaunas 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-27
- Title:
- Shavli District Police Department, Kaunas Governorate
- Title (official language):
- Kauno gubernijos Šiaulių apskrities policijos valdyba
- Creator/accumulator:
- Shavli District Police Department
- Date(s):
- 1873/1917
- Language:
- Russian
- Extent:
- 831 files
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Physical condition:
- good
- Scope and content:
- The collection contains records of the Shavli District Police Department which refer to a wide range of criminal, judicial, economic, political, cultural and administrative issues. The materials include: papers on search and surveillance of suspects and different societies; records on the enforcement of court sentences; documents on prisons and prisoners; papers on the conscription evaders; records on unemployment, situation on factories and revolutionaries’ agitation; and more. The collection contains valuable Jewish-related records that date back to the beginning of the 20th century. Materials on various Jewish organisations facilitate the study of Jewish life in the Shavli District. The documents attest to the activity of Jewish public organisations and Jewish communities’ institutions in areas such as charity, education and culture. The materials on the societies contain mainly charters and lists of the founders, the officials and the members. There are documents on the Jewish Colonisation Association (JCA) in Shavli, Zhagori and Radzivilishki. The materials from Shavli include a list from 1910 on persons who emigrated from Russia with the assistance of the local JCA committee (inventory 1, file 430). Two of the files in the collection contain documents on the activities of societies for issuing interest-free loans to Jews in Shavli and Zhagori (inventory 1, files 395a, 435). The following organisations assisted the poor: the Shavli Women's Jewish Society for the Assistance of Poor, the Shavli Society for Assistance of a Sick Poor Jews, the Jewish hospital and the Jewish poorhouse in Shavli. The collection also includes papers on Jewish charity societies in other towns in the Shavli district such as Ianishki, Novie Zhagori and Starie Zhagori. For example, the collection contains records from 1913 on the Wolf Wissotzky Society for the assistance of poor Jews in Starie Zhagori (inventory 1, file 503). In addition, the collection contains materials on Jewish organizations operating in the fields of education and culture. For example, the collection contains materials related to the activities of the Jewish Music and Drama Society “Hazamir” in Shavli for 1913 (inventory 1, file 461). The collection contains materials on the sick funds at the tannery of Kh Freinkel and at the chocolate and candy factory of the brothers Kagan in Shavli (inventory 1, files 396, 511). The collection also includes prosecution records and papers regarding Jews under police surveillance for criminal or illegal political activity. For example, the file of 1914 contains materials on charges against Sholom Sandler for belonging to the Bund party (inventory 1, file 97). In addition, the collection includes records on Jews involved in the printing and book trade. While this is not evident in the inventory list, it is reasonable to assume that one would find Jewish names in the records of persons evading military service at the beginning of the 20th century.
- Archival history:
- No information
- Administrative/biographical history:
- The activity of the district police administrations in the Russian Empire was based on the provisional rules of the police arrangement of December 1862. The Shavli District Police Department controlled all cities, small towns, villages and communities on the territory of the district. The district police department was headed by the chief police officer (uezdnii ispravnik) who was subordinate to the Kaunas governor. The district police were entrusted with various functions, including surveillance of the district population, fight against crime, maintenance of public order, suppression of strikes, demonstrations and the revolutionary movement, administrative supervision, registration of the population, and control over the implementation of court verdicts.
- Access points: locations:
- Ianishki
- Novie Zhagori
- Radzivilishki
- Shavli
- Starie Zhagori
- System of arrangement:
- The collection consists of two inventories.
- 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
