Metadata: Suwalki Magistrate
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:
- 1070
- Title:
- Suwalki Magistrate
- Title (official language):
- Suvalkų miesto magistratas
- Creator/accumulator:
- Suwalki Magistrate
- Date(s):
- 1809/1915
- Language:
- Russian
- Polish
- Extent:
- 1,070 files
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Physical condition:
- good
- Scope and content:
-
The collection comprises the records of the Suwalki Magistrate. They refer to different public and economic aspects of the life in the town, including conscription; taxation; construction of buildings; registration of residents and issue of passports; police surveillance and searches; smuggling; municipal institutions such as hospitals and prisons; brothels; prosecution files against the town’s residents; files on elections to the Russian State Duma in 1905-1907, and more.
The collection contains materials that reflect the life of the Jews in Suwalki. Some of these records relate to special legislation concerning the Jews. For example, correspondence from 1845-1852 between the Suwalki Magistrate and the Augustow Governorate Board on the ban on Jews for wearing traditional Jewish dress (inventory 1, files 22, 28). According to the law, male Jews could choose German dress (short coats) or the dress of Russian merchants, which allowed beards and a somewhat longer coat. Thus, the Russian government attempted to compel Jews to abandon their distinctive attire. Another file deals with granting rights to Jews in the region during the period 1835-1864 (inventory 1, file 1021).
An important part of the records in the collection refer to the conscription of Jews. These materials include papers on imposing a fine on the Suwalki Jewish community for escaped recruits in 1865 (inventory 1, file 179), and on imposing a fine on the Jewish community for the shortage of Jewish recruits in 1873 (inventory 1, file 222). There are also documents on the search for Jews evading military service in 1875 (inventory 1, file 272), and on the imposition of a fine on families of Jews who evaded military conscription at the end of 19th and the beginning of 20th centuries. A file from 1884 deals with the illegal receipt of exemption from military service for the son of Hirsh Khlebovskii (inventory 1, file 393).
Another part of the Jewish-related materials includes prosecution files of illegal border crossings since the 1870s. The files from 1880 mention the property of Abram Rosenthal, Dvora and Sarah Reifovich and Haiye Berzhnitskaya who fled abroad (inventory 1, files 321, 323). Some of the materials in the collection are related to the economic activities of the Jews. The file of 1868 mentions the contract of the Suwalki Magistrate with Shmuilo Bialostotskii for works on heating and lighting of the Suwalki police station. The collection contains information on individuals trading in gold and silver products, as well as cases of imposing fines on Jews who violated the rules on the trade in alcoholic beverages and tobacco products. The collection also contains materials on the conclusion of contracts with Jews on the hiring of premises for use by the Russian military forces.
- Archival history:
- In 1922 the Polish authorities founded the Grodno State Archive, which received records of the Grodno provincial government institutions and of other institutions that were not evacuated during World War I. Materials of the Suwalki Magistrate were also included in this archive. In 1940, after Grodno and other territories of Western Belarus were incorporated into the Belarusian SSR, the Grodno State Archive was reorganised into the branch of the Central Historical Archive of the Belarusian SSR. In 1957 the records of the Suwalki Magistrate were transferred to the Central State Historical Archive of the Lithuanian SSR in Vilnius, predecessor of the current State Historical Archive.
- Administrative/biographical history:
-
The town of Suwalki was founded in 1715, and in 1720 its town rights were approved by the Polish King August II according to the Magdeburg law. After the Congress of Vienna in 1815, Suwalki became part of the Kingdom Poland in the Russian Empire. In 1837 the Augustów Governorate was created with its capital in Suwałki and the town gradually became the fourth most populous place in the Kingdom of Poland. In 1866 the Augustów Governorate was divided, and Suwalki became the centre of the newly formed Suwałki Governorate.
Magistrates (municipal authorities) were police, judicial and administrative elected officials in the cities. They were responsible for the whole range of judicial, administrative, economic and social municipal issues. In the cities of the Kingdom of Poland, such as Suwalki, the magistrates were headed by a president (Burmistr). In 1861, the magistrates and the system of the municipal self-government became more independent and elected city councils were established. However, soon after the Polish uprising of 1863, the Russian authorities significantly curtailed the magistrate's independence. The president as well as the members of the magistrate were appointed by the government. In fact, the magistrate was completely dependent on the imperial authorities because without their approval the decisions of the magistrate could not be enforced.
In 1827, there were 1,209 Jews living in the town, in 1856, the community had grown to 6,407, and in 1897 to 7,165 (representing 40% of the total population). From the 1890s through the first decade of the twentieth century, the Jewish population increased again, reaching 13,002 in 1908 (56%).
- System of arrangement:
- The collection consists of one inventory that 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
