Metadata: Vilnius City Council (Duma)
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:
- 937
- Title:
- Vilnius City Council (Duma)
- Title (official language):
- Vilniaus miesto dūma
- Creator/accumulator:
- Vilnius City Council (Duma)
- Date(s):
- 1800/1915
- Language:
- Russian
- Extent:
- 14,524 files
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Physical condition:
- good
- Scope and content:
-
The collection includes records of the Vilnius city council (Duma). The Duma was responsible for a broad range of municipal issues including: construction, urban infrastructure, health, education, social welfare, transport, economic and financial affairs. As a result, the materials in the collection also reflect the life and activities of Jewish residents in these spheres in Vilnius and in the greater Vilnius region.
The collection contains statistical data on the Vilnius Jewish community, lists of Jewish homeowners, files on the registration of Jews into the urban lower class (meshchanstvo), registration files and lists of members of the Jewish community, and revision lists. The collection include also lists of Jews from towns such as Antokol’, Snipishki, Mihalishki, and revision lists of Gel’vany Jews.
Jewish records in the collection include valuable documents related to activities of the Jewish communities (kahals) in the region: journals of documents of the Vilnius Kahal; reports of the heads of the kahals and correspondence of the Vilnius City Duma with the heads of the Antokol’ Jewish community from 1845 (inventory 1, file 4137); fiscal reports of the kahals; documents of the Jewish communities’ societies such as the Ḥevrah Kadisha’ and the society for Talmud Torah; on the opening and supervision of synagogues; on the election and appointment of officials in the Jewish communities, including the election of the crown rabbis in Vilnius from 1846 and 1856; files on the election of Jewish candidates for the state rabbinical commission in 1847 and 1856. The materials include also documents relating to the collection of korobka tax (kosher meat tax), candles tax, and other taxes from the Jews. Among such documents are: complaints about the wrong format of taxes by the kahal; on electing the tax collectors; reports and petitions of the Jewish tax collectors. Part of the documents provide information not only on the collection of arrears from the Jewish communities, but also on the issue of granting money for charities and the maintenance various Jewish institutions in Vilnius such as Jewish schools, a Jewish hospital, a Jewish almshouse and an orphanage in the 1840s and 50s. In addition, the collection contains records on the conscription of Jews. It includes: conscription lists of Jews; reports on the implementation of the recruitment by the Jewish communities; materials on exemption of Jews from the conscription; complaints about improper recruitment of Jews; materials on the hiding of Jews so that they could not be recruited and on other abuses.
An important part of the collection contains records regarding the contribution of Jews to the commercial, industrial and financial development of Vilnius and its surroundings. Among such materials are for example: lists of merchants and files on the assignment of Jews to the merchants’ estate; books of the merchants’ powers of attorney and certificates; files on the activities of Jewish suppliers; papers on opening taverns and on farming, the state monopoly on the production and sale of distilled spirits by Jews; materials regarding collection of arrears from Jewish entrepreneurs; records on leasing shops, land and property for commercial purposes; and various complaints of the Jewish entrepreneurs. The materials in the collection also make it possible to trace the activities of the most influential Jewish businessmen in Vilnius, such as the Romm family and Judah Opatow. Among these materials are, for example, a file from 1848 on the evaluation of the printing house of the Romm family, Opatows’ complaints to the authorities, and files related to his philanthropic activities (inventory 1, files 5597, 5654, 5906, 6319). Some of the Jewish-related documents in the collection deal with various topics such as: conversion; crime; requests to build houses in the city and evaluation of homes; decrees of the authorities regarding their policy toward Jews; relocations of Jews to other governorates; about Jewish schools and on the election of a teacher of the Vilnius rabbinical school; and lists of persons entitled to participate in elections to the Vilnius Duma from the beginning of the 20th century.
- Archival history:
- Until the First World War many of the Vilnius city records were stored by the municipal administration. During the interwar period the Vilnius City Archive was an independent repository, but was not organised as a formal archive. Its records formed the basis for the City State Archive established in 1944. In 1955 this archive was abolished, and in 1957 its pre-revolutionary materials were transferred to the newly organised Central State Historical Archive of the Lithuanian SSR, predecessor of the current State Historical Archive.
- Administrative/biographical history:
- After the third partition of Poland in 1795, the city authorities in Vilnius had to be brought into line with the laws of the Russian Empire, where city councils (dumas) were established in 1785. The city councils were not independent bodies and any issues, even the council's meetings, required the approval of the governors. In 1870, a reform was carried out. Electoral rights were expanded and the councils became relatively independent. But in the Northwest Region of Russia the 1870 law came into effect only in 1876. The council was elected for a four-year term but only property owners who paid city taxes were eligible to vote. Jews were deprived of this right. In 1892, in the framework of the counter-reforms of Alexander III, the new city regulations came into effect, and the council lost part of its power. The 1905 revolution brought new changes of democratisation and Jews were appointed to the council members by the governor, but could not make up more than 10 per cent of the Duma’ composition. In 1915, after German troops entered the city, the Vilnius Duma ended its official activities.
- Access points: locations:
- Antokol’
- Bagaslaviškis
- Boguslavishki
- Gel’vany
- Malaty
- Mihalishki
- Molėtai
- Nemenchin
- Paberže
- Podbereze
- Shirvint
- Sirvintos
- Snipishki
- Vilnius
- System of arrangement:
- The collection consists of four 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, 2018
