Metadata: Vilnius City Board
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:
- 938
- Title:
- Vilnius City Board
- Title (official language):
- Vilniaus miesto valdyba
- Creator/accumulator:
- Vilnius City Board
- Date(s):
- 1794/1935
- Language:
- Russian
- Polish
- Extent:
- 24,024 files
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Graphic material
- Physical condition:
- good
- Scope and content:
-
The collection contains records of the Vilnius City Board that reflect the life of the city in different spheres and include data on its residents. The collection consists of: minutes of the Board meetings and the Board reports; various economic and financial papers; lists of staff and the residents; building plans; documents on the establishment of urban infrastructures and on the lease of the city’s property; draft lists of the residents; data on the election of the Board members; etc.
Many of the files in the collection contain Jewish-related documents. Moreover, inventory 5 contains exclusively documents relating to the history of Vilnius's Jews. One part of the Jewish documents in the collection relates to various issues related to land issues, such as: the division and assignment of land between residents; the sale of land by the city to Jews; contracts for the lease of land by Jews; documents on real estate appraisal for using it as a guarantee in order enter into contracts with the Russian treasury; as well as materials on the initiation of legal proceedings against the seizure of urban land by some Jews. The documents in the collection also contain data on the hiring of premises for Russian troops on real estate owned by Jews. Another part of the Jewish-related records in the collection consist of materials relating to the opening, construction, renovation and completion of different community-run buildings such as synagogues, Talmud Torah (tuition-free elementary school), kosher butcher shops, (inventory 4, file 2523), the poor-house, and the industrial school (inventory 4, file 5434). These documents facilitate study on the process of construction and opening of these buildings and demonstrate the obstacles faced. The materials relating to the construction of buildings include also numerous requests for the construction of private houses by Jews. The materials on the history of the Vilna Jewish community include also: materials of the Vilnius kahal such as metrics and registries; reports of the synagogues boards (inventory 7, file 550); documents on the korobka tax (levied on kosher meat and poultry) and the candle tax; papers on the issuance of the city funds for the Jewish hospital and on the election of members to the hospital’s board; records on elections of rabbis, the synagogues boards, elections of representatives to the board of the Talmud Torah; papers on elections of members to the 1878 and 1909 rabbinical commissions (inventory 7, file 548; inventory 5, file 642); and plans for the Jewish cemetery (inventory 15, file 2). The collection also contains materials on the history of Jewish communities near Vilnius. These are, for example: reports from 1879 of the Jewish community of Snipishki (inventory 7, file 837); revision lists of the Chabishki Jews from 1881 (inventory 7, file 1219); materials from 1892 on the election of a rabbi in Maliaty (inventory 7, file 3478); and registers of receipt and expenditure of the korobka tax in Gel’vany, Podbereze, Mihalishki, Boguslavishki, Shirvinty and more (inventory 14, files 984,986,988, 989, 990).
An important part of the collection are papers that cover the economic and professional activities of the Jewish population providing understanding of the difficulties they encountered, as well as the degree of their integration into urban life. These materials include inter alia: documentation on the issuance of certificates to Jewish artisans; merchants’ applications for the issuance of trade certificates; papers on the issue of permits for the production of wine, for the opening of food shops, taverns and other businesses; files of the eviction of Jewish lessees from the Kupriyanishki estate (inventory 6, files 630, 632, 634, 635, 638); documents from 1911 on the Wissotzky Tea Company (inventory 9, file 1502); and materials on the Ilya Lipsky brewery. Various documents in the collection relate to Jewish charity in Vilnius in such areas as education, medical care, provision of food and shelter. The collection also contains: draft lists of Jews in Vilnius, Antokol’, Snipishki and other; lists of Vilnius Jewish residents and Vilnius house registers; lists of Snipishki Jewish meshchane; and notary books of Jewish notaries.
- 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:
- The 1870 law on cities in Imperial Russia was introduced in the Northwest Region of the Empire in 1876. In that year the Vilnius City Board and the municipal council (the City Duma) were established. The Board was headed by the mayor (gorodskoi golova), and its members were elected by the municipal council. The Board consisted of six members, half of whom had to be re-elected every two years. It was responsible for supervising finance, business, infrastructure, health, education and other issues in the city. The Vilnius City Board continued to operate after the Germans occupied the city in September 1915 during the First World War.
- Access points: locations:
- Antokol’
- Bagaslaviškis
- Boguslavishki
- Chabishki
- Gel’vany
- Malaty
- Mihalishki
- Molėtai
- Paberže
- Podbereze
- Shirvint
- Sirvintos
- Snipishki
- Vilnius
- System of arrangement:
- The collection consists of fifteen 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