Metadata: Shavli District Court, 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-75
- Title:
- Shavli District Court, Kaunas Governorate
- Title (official language):
- Kauno gubernijos Šiaulių apskrities teismas
- Creator/accumulator:
- Shavli District Court
- Date(s):
- 1815/1872
- Language:
- Russian
- Polish
- Extent:
- 2,098 files
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Physical condition:
- good
- Scope and content:
- The collection comprises various civil cases and criminal prosecution files that were considered in the Shavli District Court. It includes minutes of the court’s sessions, materials on the recognition of noble origin, metrical records, wills, bills of sale and certificates of property ownership. The collection contains a few Jewish-related files. One part of these files consists of civil claims and proceedings between Jews and Christians. A file started in 1846 contains records of Baroness Rosen's material claims against Jews in Ianishki. The collection also includes materials of the proceedings of the mutual material claims of the Ianishki Christian and Jewish communities in 1850 (inventory 2, file 105). The collection also contains a file from 1862-1866 regarding inheritance left by Kaplan (inventory 2, file 194). Another part of the Jewish-related files is materials that dealt with crimes committed against Jews or with accusations against Jews. These documents include records on violence, murders and arsons. For example, the collection contains a file on the robbing of Izrailovich by a gang in 1832 (inventory 1, file 231), the prosecution materials against the peasant Velikus in inflicting mortal wounds to Leibovich in 1836 (inventory 1, file 248), and the case of the Jewish resident Blanc accused in 1834 for arson and intention to hang himself (inventory 1, file 239).
- Archival history:
- No information
- Administrative/biographical history:
- District courts were first-instance judicial institutions in the Russian Empire, which consisted of elected members. In the Empire’s Western governorates, including Kovno Governorate, the judges were elected only amongst nobles. At the same time, all members of the courts had to be approved by the governorate administration. Since the 1840s, in order to prevent the spread of the Polish influence in Western governorates, the Russian central authorities began to substantially restrict the rights of nobles to elect judges.
- Subject terms:
- Crime
- Jewish-Christian relations
- Legal matters
- Nobility
- 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