Metadata: Estonian Commissioner of the Council of Religious Cults under the Council of Ministers of the USSR
Collection
- Country:
- Estonia
- Holding institution:
- National Archives of Estonia
- Holding institution (official language):
- Rahvusarhiiv
- Postal address:
- Madara 24, 15019 Tallinn
- Phone number:
- (+372) 693 8666
- Web address:
- www.ra.ee
- Email:
- tallinn@ra.ee
- Reference number:
- ERA.R-1989
- Title:
- Estonian Commissioner of the Council of Religious Cults under the Council of Ministers of the USSR
- Title (official language):
- NSVL MN juures Usuasjade Nõukogu volinik ENSV-s
- Creator/accumulator:
- Estonian Commissioner of the Council of the Religious Cults (USSR CM Usuasjade Nõukogu volinik ENSV-s)
- Date(s):
- 1945/1990
- Language:
- Estonian
- Russian
- Extent:
- 1,229 files
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Physical condition:
- good
- Scope and content:
-
The collection includes records of the Estonian SSR Commissioner of the Council of Religious Cults. These materials contain minutes of council meetings, the commissioner's correspondence, applications submitted by different religious communities, reports on the activities of communities and sects, secret instructions and resolutions of the Estonian SSR Council for Religious Cults and of the Council of Ministers of the USSR.
The collection contains a small number of files concerning the religious life of Estonian Jews, such as the establishment of synagogues. Reports of the council from 1945 include information on the request of Tallinn Jews to open a prayer house (inventory 2, file 3). The commissioner's secret report from 1945 includes information on the intention of Tallinn Jews (about 600-700 people) to establish a new synagogue on 5 Makri Str. (inventory 2, file 2). Records from 1947 include a report on the rejection of an appeal by Jews from Pärnu to open a prayer house (inventory 2, file 7). The application was rejected on the grounds that there were only 17 applicants and that they did not submit their request in an appropriate manner. Information in the collection includes data on the number of Jews in Tallinn (around 300 in 1947) and on the arrival in Tallinn of Mr. Rosenzweig, an American Jew, who offered to donate US$5,000 to build a synagogue for the Turetski Jewish community. This offer was rejected. Papers from 1954 include information on the destruction of an old synagogue on 158 Kreizwald str. In Tallinn to make way for a new factory. A room in this new building was given to the Jewish congregation to be used as a prayer house (inventory 1, file 19).
Jewish-related materials in the collection also include reports of the commissioner on the participation of Jews in services celebrating Jewish festivals on Rosh Hashanah, Passover, Shavuot and more. For example, a Commissioner's report for Passover in 1955 indicates that because the holiday occurred on regular workdays, synagogue attendance was relatively poor. However, he found working-age people who should have been at work attending the synagogue including the director of a large shop in Tallinn (inventory 2, file 4).
Materials in the collection also deal with the activity of rabbis. In 1945 Jewish representatives asked that the rabbis would not be required to present certificates of registration. The council's opinion states that this request should be rejected, because its intention is to promote the Jewish community's nationalist character (inventory 2, file 1). The personal file of Rabbi Abram L Gurevich (1907-1983) includes documents which clarify the rabbis' relationship with Soviet authorities. These materials contain photos of Abram Gurevich, information about his religious education in independent Estonia, his fate during WWII, the article he wrote for the Soviet "Izvestia" newspaper on peace, as well as materials prepared for his participation in the 1976 Moscow Peace Conference. The file includes compromising information on him. For example, when the All-Soviet Conference of Rabbis was held in Moscow "to repel the aggressive policy of Israel" Rabbi Gurevich at first agreed to speak at this meeting, but suddenly fell ill. As a result his salary was cut in half, but he was not fired because there was no-one to replace him (inventory 2K, file 130).
In addition, the collection includes statistics on the Jewish population in Estonia, on Jewish prayer houses, materials on the supervision of the Tallinn Jewish community, report of the council's inspector Birman titled "Judaism - A Brief History and Situation in the USSR" (inventory 2, file 1), papers on registration of Jewish communities and on kosher products.
- Archival history:
- Information about the history of the collection is not available.
- Administrative/biographical history:
- The Council for Religious Cults under the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR was established on 19 May 1944 and operated under the Council of Ministers of the USSR from 1946 to regulate and supervise all religious communities and sects throughout the USSR. In order to carry out their activities all religious communities in the USSR had to be registered by the council. From June 1944, it was headed by Ivan Polyansky and from 1957 to 1965 by Alexey Puzin. They appointed commissioners and approved petitions of individual religious communities submitted for registration. In March 1945, Ivan Kivi was appointed Commissioner for Religious Cults in Estonia (he died in 1955). The office was located in the building of the government of the ESSR in Toompea, room 17. The duties of the commissioner included monthly reporting on the state of religious life in the republic, receiving applications for registration, collecting materials, business trips and working with communities and sects. In 1955 A M Veiderpass was appointed. In 1966, the position was renamed the Commissioner for Religious Affairs in the ESSR under the Council for Religious Affairs and the Council of Ministers of the USSR, which was formed in December 1965. The Council was closed down in 1990 following the dissolution of the USSR.
- Access points: persons/families:
- Gurevich, Abram
- System of arrangement:
- The collection is arranged thematically and chronologically.
- Finding aids:
- General data on the collection is available on the web page of the National Archives of Estonia. The collection is also described in the Archives Portal Europe.
- Links to finding aids:
- https://www.archivesportaleurope.net/ead-display/-/ead/pl/aicode/EE-RA/type/fa/id/ERA.R-1989
- Yerusha Network member:
- Central Archives for the History of the Jewish People
- Author of the description:
- Tatjana Shor and Ilya Vovshin, Central Archives for the History of the Jewish People, 2020