Metadata: Ukmerge (Vilkomir) 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-34
- Title:
- Ukmerge (Vilkomir) District Police Department, Kaunas Governorate
- Title (official language):
- Kauno gubernijos Ukmergės (Vilkomiro) apskrities policijos valdyba
- Creator/accumulator:
- Ukmerge (Vilkomir) District Police Department
- Date(s):
- 1865/1917
- Language:
- Russian
- Extent:
- 927 files
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Physical condition:
- good
- Scope and content:
- The collection contains records of the Vilkomir (Ukmerge) 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 suspected individuals and different societies, records on conscription and enforcement of court sentences, on demonstrations and strikes, personal files of the police department’s staff and more. The collection comprises many Jewish-related materials. An important part of the collection contains materials concerning expulsions of Jews from the Vilkomir district. A file from 1914 contains the police proceedings, protocols of interviews and applications concerning Jews living in rural areas, i.e. beyond the Pale of Settlement, and subject to expulsion (inventory 1, file 74). For example, the file contains a petition of Jewish timber manufacturers Meilekh Burshtein and Itsik Berkovich to allow their Jewish clerks to be on the estate of Pelishe to supervise the workers. Records on expulsions of Jews refer also to the policy of the Russian military authorities during the First World War. Materials from 1915 include orders, telegrams, correspondence and police reports related to the expulsion, and the conditions under which the evicted will be able to return. These materials contain a list of Jews evicted from Vilkomir and to whom the Kovno governor allowed a temporary return to the city (inventory 1, file 194). The collection also includes investigation materials from 1915 on charges that a group of Jews celebrated May Day in a forest and shouted “down with Russia, yes to Germany” (investory 1, file 195). Another part of the Jewish-related materials in the collection relates to the history of Jewish community institutions. These are documents on monitoring activities of the Vilkomir charity society "Gmilut-Hesed" in 1908, permission to build a Jewish prayer house in Pivonia, and an inventory of metric books left after death of Onikshty’ (Anykščiai) Rabbi Hillel Arnest in 1914. In addition, the collection contains several dozens of passports of Jews and a few certificates on fulfillment of military service. Jewish names can be found also among files of individuals under police surveillance. While this is not evident in the inventory list, it is reasonable to assume that one would also find Jewish-related materials in records on crimes, complaints of individuals against the actions of police officials, documents on the issuance of residence permits and certificates of family composition for conscripts.
- 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 Vilkomir 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.
- System of arrangement:
- The collection consists of three 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
