Metadata: Vilnius District Police Administration, Vilnius Governorate
Collection
- Country:
- Lithuania
- Holding institution:
- Lithuanian State Historical Archives
- Holding institution (official language):
- Lietuvos valstybės istorijos archyvas
- Postal address:
- Mindaugo 8, 03107 Vilnius
- Phone number:
- +370 5 219 5320
- Email:
- istorijos.archyvas@lvia.lt
- Reference number:
- 422
- Title:
- Vilnius District Police Administration, Vilnius Governorate
- Title (official language):
- Vilniaus gubernijos Vilniaus apskrities policijos valdyba
- Creator/accumulator:
- Vilnius District Police Administration
- Date(s):
- 1835/1915
- Language:
- Russian
- Extent:
- 589 files
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Physical condition:
- good
- Scope and content:
- The collection contains records of the Vilnius District Police Administration on a wide range of criminal, judicial, political and administrative issues from the 19th century and early 20th century. It includes many Jewish-related records. Many of the materials in the collection include documents on Jews who were sought by the Vilnius District Police and were under police surveillance because they were suspected of various political, criminal or administrative offences. Some of these documents shed light on the participation of Jews in political life and the revolutionary movement while others provide data on Jewish emigration. For instance, a file from 1910 contains materials on the surveillance of Aron Solodovnik, accused of secretly transferring emigrants across the Russian border (inventory 1, file 282). A file of 1908-1910 mentions surveillance of a Jewish student, Feiga Cherno-Shwartz, accused of being a member of the Socialist Revolutionary Party and for revolutionary propaganda (inventory 1, file 277). Records which refer to criminal activity of Jews consist, for example, of documents from 1867 on stealing a horse (inventory 1, file 318), and an order in 1878 on the arrest of a Jewish counterfeiter (inventory 1, file 50). Materials of the late 1860s and early 1870s relate to the economic activities of Jews including documents regarding charges against a Jewish owner of the distillery (inventory 1, file 346), and against a Jewish tavern keeper for the illegal sale of alcoholic beverages (inventory 1, file 348). The collection also includes various records on issues of registration and administrative control over the Jewish population: lists of Vilnius homeowners from 1895; files on the construction of synagogues in the towns of Turgeli and Malaty in 1901-1910 (inventory 1, files 221, 393); instructions of the Vilnius governorate authorities to provide information on synagogues, funeral societies, and rabbis; lists of persons who participated in the elections to the Russian parliament (Duma) (1906-1908); papers on registration and supervision of foreigners; papers on emigrants for 1886-1887; documents on prostitutes from 1887; requests from individuals to issue various kinds of documents such as passports, death certificates, Jewish teachers (melamed) certificates, certificates for receiving insurance money, certificates of marital status and place of residence for registration in connection with military conscription; records on arrears, etc.
- Archival history:
- The records of the Vilnius District Police Administration were handed over to the Central State Archive of the Lithuanian SSR in the late 1940s.
- Administrative/biographical history:
- The Vilnius District Police Administration was established in 1863 in accordance with the police reform of 1862. The single District Police Administration controlled the cities, small towns, villages and communities in Vilnius district, except Vilnius, which was controlled by an independent city police administration. The Police Administration was 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 of the implementation of court verdicts. The Vilnius District Police Administration continued to operate until 1915, when German troops entered the territories of the Vilnius Governorate.
- Access points: locations:
- Bagaslaviškis
- Boguslavishki
- Gedroitsy
- Gel’vany
- Giedraičiai
- Inturke
- Kernave
- Maišiagala
- Malaty
- Meishagola
- Molėtai
- Nemenchin
- Paberže
- Podbereze
- Shirvint
- Sirvintos
- Turgeliai
- Vilnius
- System of arrangement:
- The collection consists of one inventory.
- 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