Metadata: Gendarme Directorate of the Suwalki, Augustow and Sejny districts of the Suwalki 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:
- 1006
- Title:
- Gendarme Directorate of the Suwalki, Augustow and Sejny districts of the Suwalki Governorate
- Title (official language):
- Suvalkų gubernijos Suvalkų, Augustavo, Seinų apskričių žandarų valdyba
- Creator/accumulator:
- Gendarme Directorate of the Suwalki, Augustow, Sejny districts
- Date(s):
- 1880/1916
- Language:
- Russian
- Extent:
- 407 files
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Physical condition:
- good
- Scope and content:
-
The collection contains records of the Gendarme Directorate of the Suwalki, Augustow and Sejny Districts of the Suwalki Governorate about public, political, and judicial matters. The materials include: the Directorate’s correspondence, circulars and orders of the Head of the Suwalki Governorate Gendarme Directorate; papers on possession and distribution of illegal literature; materials on various revolutionary parties; documents about political reliability and more.
The collection contains important Jewish-related materials on the history of Jews in politics, and the participation of Jews in the Russian revolutionary movement. Some important parts of this collection are papers relating to the activities of Jewish political parties, namely the Bund, Zionist Socialist Labour Party and Poalei-Zion. Specifically, the collection includes correspondence from 1909 and 1911-1912 between the head of the the Suwalki Governorate Gendarme Directorate, the Warsaw Okhrana, and other political police units, about the surveillance of members of the Bund (inventory 1, files 342, 396). The collection also contains a circular from 1914 about the surveillance of the activities of Poalei Zion (inventory 1, file 365), and correspondence from 1910-1911 about surveillance of the Zionist Socialist Labor Party (inventory 1, file 332). In addition, the collection contains correspondence from 1912-1913 regarding the surveillance for the activities of the Jewish Colonisation Association (JCA) (inventory 1, file 351).
Another part of the collection comprises numerous documents accusing Jews of possession and distribution of illegal revolutionary literature and anti-government propaganda, including materials from the Bund, Poalei Zion, Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDRP), and the Socialist Revolutionary Party (SR). For instance, a file from 1906 contains materials on the charges against N Kh Goldblatt in connection with possession of illegal literature and anti-government propaganda (inventory 1, file 97). Another file from 1906 includes allegations against Kh Revel for possession of RSDRP and SR materials (inventory 1, file 87). Within records from 1906 are charges against K Marusevich accused of smuggling Bund and RSDRP materials across the border (inventory 1, files 64-65). The collection also contains papers accusing Jews of spying, organising emigrant transfers, insulting the Tsar, and conscription evasion. The collection contains the Head of the Suwalki Gendarme Directorate order from 1914 on mandatory military censorship examination of the Jewish press (inventory 1, file 385).
- Archival history:
- In 1914, as a result of the outbreak of the First World War, all the records of the Suwalki Gendarme Directorate, including the materials from Suwalki, Augustow and Sejny Districts, were transferred to Moscow. In 1918, the materials were given to the Moscow Historical Revolutionary Archive. In 1922, they were transferred to the October Revolution Archive in Moscow (the current State Archive of the Russian Federation - GARF). In the early 1950s, these materials were separated from the collection of the Suwalki Gendarme Directorate and stored as a different collection under the number 131c /1701. In 1957 these records were handed over to the Central State Historical Archive of the Lithuanian SSR in Vilnius, predecessor of the current State Historical Archive.
- Administrative/biographical history:
- In 1867 new regulations on the Special Corps of Gendarmes (the political police) was approved by the emperor Alexander II. This was dictated by the need to create an extensive network of territorial gendarmerie bodies to fight effectively against the revolutionary movement. Instead of a gendarme districts, which include several governorates of the Empire, gendarme directorates were created in each of the governorates of the Russian Empire. In addition, these gendarme directorates were established in six North-Western Governorates and the Kingdom of Poland. In accordance with this decision, the Gendarme Directorate of the Suvalki District was established 1867. The Gendarme Directorate of the Suwalki District was established in 1867. In 1873 it was reorganised as Gendarme Directorate of the Suwalki, Augustow and Sejny Districts. The main functions of the gendarme directorates were: suppressing unrest; search and arrests; inquiry and investigation of political affairs; secret surveillance of the population; arrest of political dissidents; counterintelligence; etc.
- System of arrangement:
- The collection consists of one inventory which is 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. Edited by Aaron Lasaine, Central Archives for the History of the Jewish People, 2019