Metadata: Šiauliai District Jail, Kaunas 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:
- 1273
- Title:
- Šiauliai District Jail, Kaunas Governorate
- Title (official language):
- Kauno gubernijos Šiaulių apskrities kalėjimas
- Creator/accumulator:
- Shavli (Šiauliai) District Jail
- Date(s):
- 1907/1917
- Language:
- Russian
- Extent:
- 114 files
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Physical condition:
- good
- Scope and content:
- The collection comprises records of the Shavli (Šiauliai) District Jail including: instructions from the Directorate General of Jails about the prison’s operation; sanitation of the prison; prisoner transfers; prisoners’ personal files; and the personal files of guards and prison workers. Materials about some Jewish prisoners are included in this collection. The collection includes the personal files, from 1912-1914, of Jewish prisoners, such as Meir Rogalies, Leizer Kirsh and Iankel Lurie (inventory 2, files 8, 32, 35). The prisoners' files and other materials in the collection provide detail on the offence committed, punishment imposed, and any indictments against them. These documents also include personal information on the Jewish prisoners. While this is not evident in the inventory list, it’s reasonable to assume one would find Jewish names and Jewish-related records in the lists of prisoners who received medical treatment, and in the lists of prisoners who were evacuated to Pskov prison in 1915 when the military front moved closer to Shavli during the First World War. One can also assume that there are Jewish names to be found in the material on the interrogation of Shavli prisoners and in the records on service of the indictments.
- Archival history:
- In 1940, after the imposition of the Soviet rule in Lithuania, the Central State Archive of the Lithuanian SSR was founded in Vilnius. In 1954 materials of the Shavli (Šiauliai) District Jail were transferred from the Central State Historical Archives in Moscow (the current State Archive of the Russian Federation - GARF) to this archive. In 1956-57 the archive 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 Shavli (Šiauliai) District Jail were included in this archive, the predecessor of the current Lithuanian Central State Archives.
- Administrative/biographical history:
- The date when the Shavli District Jail was established is unknown. Both political prisoners and criminals were imprisoned. The new prison was built in 1911. It consisted of cells for 150 inmates, a kitchen, a bakery, a church, a pharmacy, a clinic and other structures. In 1915, the prisoners were evacuated to Pskov. Not long after, the entire prison was evacuated from the city due to the First World War.
- Subject terms:
- Crime
- Personal records
- Prisoners
- System of arrangement:
- The collection consists of two inventories that are 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