Metadata: Board of Meshchanstvo of Salakas, Novoaleksandrovsk (Zarasai) district, Kaunas Governorate
Collection
- Country:
- Lithuania
- Holding institution:
- Kaunas Regional State Archives
- Holding institution (official language):
- Kauno Regioninis Valstybės Archyvas
- Postal address:
- 44248, Maironio g. 28B, Kaunas 44249
- Phone number:
- +370 (837) 323 111
- Web address:
- https://www.archyvai.lt/lt/kaa_naujienos.html
- Email:
- kaunas@archyvai.lt
- Reference number:
- I-211
- Title:
- Board of Meshchanstvo of Salakas, Novoaleksandrovsk (Zarasai) district, Kaunas Governorate
- Title (official language):
- Kauno gubernijos Zarasų (Novoaleksandrovsko) apskrities Salako miestiečių valdyba
- Creator/accumulator:
- Board of Meshchanstvo of Soloki (Salakas)
- Date(s):
- 1876/1915
- Language:
- Russian
- Extent:
- 79 files
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Physical condition:
- good
- Scope and content:
- The collection comprises records of the Soloki (Salakas) Meshchanstvo Board. It contains family lists and personal data of the meshchane in Soloki, on on relocation of the meshchane from other towns to Soloki, records on meshchane who were under trial, documents on conscription and on tax. The collection includes many Jewish-related materials, including vital records of Soloki's Jews and documents on the candle tax revenues and expenditures for 1913-1915. The collection also contains lists of Jewish families in the town in 1876 and 1908, including personal data of Jews. In addition, the it contains papers on Jews who between 1880 and 1892 moved to Sloki from other places and asked to be registered in the local Jewish community and the Sloki meschanstvo society. In this way, based on the example of Sloki, it is possible to learn about the process of internal Jewish migration. While this is not evident in the inventory list, it is reasonable to assume that one would also find Jewish names in records on conscription to the Russian army in 1913.
- Archival history:
- Prior to the 1917 revolution, the records of the Russian administration in the Kaunas Governorate were kept in government depositories. In the interwar period these materials were consolidated at the Central State Archive of Lithuania in Kaunas. Under Soviet rule this archive became a branch of the Vilnius-based Central State Archive of the Lithuanian SSR. In 1956-1957 the archive in Kaunas was transformed into the Kaunas City State Archive, which preceded the modern Kaunas Regional State Archives.
- Administrative/biographical history:
- The meschanstvo was an urban estate in the Russian Empire which did not include the nobility and merchants. In accordance with the decision of 1875 to extend the urban reform of 1870 to the cities of the Western provinces, meschanstvo societies were founded in numerous cities in this region including Soloki. The meschanstvo society was administrated by the meschanstvo board consisting of elected headman and his assistants. All men and widowed women over 24 years of age had the right to participate in the elections, subject to ownership of real estate in the city. The meschanstvo board members were elected for a three year term and their candidacies were approved by the Kaunas governor. The boards were mainly offices that were in charge of keeping records of all the meshchane, issuing passports and accepting applicants to the ranks of the meschanstvo. In 1897 Soloki, located about 120 kilometers (75 miles) east of Panevežys, had a Jewish population of 1,582 (66% of the total population in the town).
- Access points: locations:
- Soloki
- Subject terms:
- Migration
- Military
- Statistics
- Taxation
- Taxation--Candle tax
- Vital records
- System of arrangement:
- The collection consists of one inventory.
- Finding aids:
- Detailed inventories are available 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