Metadata: Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Lithuanian SSR
Collection
- Country:
- Lithuania
- Holding institution:
- Lithuanian Central State Archives
- Holding institution (official language):
- Lietuvos centrinis valstybės archyvas
- Postal address:
- O. Milošiaus g. 21, 10102, Vilnius
- Phone number:
- +370 5 247 7830
- Web address:
- https://www.archyvai.lt/lt/lcva.html
- Email:
- lcva@archyvai.it
- Reference number:
- R-1019
- Title:
- Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Lithuanian SSR
- Title (official language):
- Lietuvos TSR užsienio reikalų ministerija
- Creator/accumulator:
- LCVA
- Date(s):
- 1938/1990
- Language:
- English
- French
- German
- Lithuanian
- Latvian
- Polish
- Russian
- Extent:
- 1,152 files
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Physical condition:
- good
- Scope and content:
-
This collection contains documents produced by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Lithuanian SSR between 1938-1990 including those related to the activities of the Ministry, correspondence related to various official dealings, documents of trade union committee activities, files pertaining to the issue of foreign passports and visas, as well as citizenship recognition and inheritance files. In addition, the collection contains general orders and legislations related to the operations of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, financial documents, diplomatic documents, reports on foreign politics of other countries, notes on migrant organisations, correspondence with citizens relating to official matters such as issuing of documents, reviews and more.
In terms of content related to Jews, a number of files are relevant. Inventory 2, containing 372 files, comprises personal files of citizens who were issued foreign passports or visas, needed citizenship confirmation or who had inheritance issues regarding someone who lived abroad. A number of Jewish names can be found in this inventory list, for example, file 2 contains the documents of Gershon Aizikovich; file 5 contains the documents of Sara Altenberg; file 15 contains the documents of Edith Bauer; file 17 contains the documents of Lilli Baum; and many more. Inventory 4, file 23, contains a novel by Teper-Meyerovich, called “The Hills of Aleksotas”, from 1948. Inventory 4, file 84, contains reports of the Soviet embassy in Israel, from 1959. Other political reports related to Israel can be found in this collection, e.g. inventory 4, file 229, contains documents from 1979-1980, pertaining to the Egyptian-Israeli peace negotiations. Inventory 4, file 163, contains documents from 1971, pertaining to correspondence with the SSRS Foreign Ministry about Jewish citizens who had emigrated to Israel.
- Archival history:
- It is unclear when and from where the documents were acquired. The fonds was reorganised in 1974 and added to in 1976-1979, 1988 and 2000.
- Administrative/biographical history:
- The Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic was one of the constituent republics of the USSR between 1940-1941 and 1944-1990. In 1940-1941, on the one hand, Jews suffered when the Soviets nationalised private businesses. The new authorities also abolished the Hebrew educational system and religious institutions, closed all Jewish public organisations and curtailed the Yiddish daily press. On the other hand, Jews could and did serve in the state and party apparatus, and institutions of higher learning, which had previously imposed a quota on Jewish students, were now opened to them. Out of the approximately 220,000 Jews who remained in Lithuania under Nazi rule in June 1941, about 4 percent survived and out of 22,000 Lithuanian Jews who were in the USSR during that period, at least half survived; however, only a few returned to Lithuania. In 1959, 24,672 residents of the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic identified themselves as Jews, 69 percent of them citing Yiddish as their mother tongue. A substantial number migrated to Israel in the 1970s and 1980s. By 1989, there were 12,312 Jews in Lithuania. The overall number of Jews in Lithuania declined continuously in the last decades of the twentieth century. By 2003, fewer than 4,000 Jews remained in Lithuania.
- Access points: persons/families:
- Aizikovich, Gershon
- Altenberg, Sara
- Bauer, Edith
- Teper-Meyerovich
- System of arrangement:
- There are five inventories.
- Access, restrictions:
- Some documents are restricted.
- Finding aids:
- Brief information on the collection and 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:
- Julija Levin, 2020