Metadata: Taurage (Taurogen) Customs
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:
- 551
- Title:
- Taurage (Taurogen) Customs
- Title (official language):
- Tauragės muitinė
- Creator/accumulator:
- Taurage (Taurogen) Customs
- Date(s):
- 1892/1917
- Language:
- Russian
- Extent:
- 94 files
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Physical condition:
- good
- Scope and content:
- The collection consists of the materials of the Taurage (Taurogen) Customs administration, including circulars, orders and instructions of the Interior Ministry, customs registers and annual reports, correspondence with various state agencies, documentation on transportation and pricing of goods, data on customs dues, and records on smuggling across the Russian-Prussian border. The collection contains documents on the seizure of goods and confiscation of money from Jews that according to the authorities were used to smuggle goods across the border without paying customs duties. Therefore, these records may indicate the extent of Jewish involvement in the smuggling of goods and the types of goods that were smuggled. For example, a file dated 1905 refers to the seizure of various commodities, totalling more than 54 rubles, found in the home of Heihel Kretor in the town of Skaudvilė, located 26 km north-east of Taurage (inventory 1, file 53). Another example is a file concerning the seizure of smuggled tea and sugar worth about 13.50 rubles at Pesach Kogan's home in 1906 (inventory 1, file 55). Some of these documents on smuggling refer to the arrest of smugglers across the border. For example, in 1906 Eli Weitsman and other persons (non-Jews) were caught carrying tea, shirts and more (inventory 1, file 54). Another file dated 1906 mentions Adel Ass and other persons (non-Jews) who were caught by the Taurage Customs guards while illegally transferring money and goods across the border (inventory 1, file 58). Alcohol was often smuggled. For instance, in 1905 customs officers arrested Iankel Kliachko and others in connection with smuggling vodka (inventory 1, file 315).
- Archival history:
- In 1940, after the imposition of Soviet rule in Lithuania, the Central State Archive of the Lithuanian SSR was founded in Vilnius. In 1948 materials of the Taurage Customs administration were transferred to this archive from the Central State Historical Archives of the Russian SSR in Leningrad. In 1956-1957 the archive in Vilnius was reorganised and divided into two separate central state archives. One archive was renamed the Central State Historical Archive of the Lithuanian SSR and was limited to the pre-1918 period. The records of the Taurage Customs were included in this archive, the predecessor of the current Lithuanian Central State Archives.
- Administrative/biographical history:
- In 1833, in order to facilitate the legal transfer of goods across the Russian-Prussian border by local residents and to reduce the phenomenon of smuggling goods, the Taurage Customs administration was established by an order of the Russian Senate. They inspected the cross-border movement of goods and were responsible for the collection of duties and taxes on the transit of goods, export and import. On June 1914 the Taurage Customs administration was moved to Kiev and later to Petrograd, where a temporary customs administration was opened. In 1918 it was handed over to the Financial Commissariat of the Russian Soviet Socialist Republic.
- System of arrangement:
- The collection consists of two inventories arranged in thematic-chronological order.
- 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
