Metadata: Treasury Chamber of Vilnius 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:
- 515
- Title:
- Treasury Chamber of Vilnius Governorate
- Title (official language):
- Vilniaus gubernijos iždo rūmai
- Creator/accumulator:
- Treasury Chamber of Vilnius Governorate
- Date(s):
- 1765/1918
- Language:
- Russian
- Polish
- Extent:
- 19,190 files
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Physical condition:
- good
- Scope and content:
-
The collection comprises materials of the Treasury Chamber of Vilnius Governorate, including minutes of the Chamber meetings, orders and circulars of various state agencies, the chamber's correspondence, various financial documents, revision lists and data on the employment of government officials.
The collection contains numerous Jewish-related records including documents which deal with economic life and the activity of Jews in trade, tax farming, army supply and more. The collection includes contracts made by the Treasury Chamber with Jewish entrepreneurs and materials relating to the fulfilment of contractual terms by the entrepreneurs. The collection contains information on the leasing of local post offices by Jews, which constitutes one area of economic activity of great importance. For example, a file from 1846 includes materials on granting a loan to Berko Segal, a Jewish merchant, who leased a post office in the Vilnius Governorate (inventory 17, file 893) and a file from e 1847 concerning the request of the nobles Zheligovsky and Mitskevich, to transfer the leases of post offices in Vileika and Dolginov to Mitskevich and Heifets, a Jewish entrepreneur. Thus, this file also illustrates economic cooperation between Jews and nobles of Polish descent. The file from 1845 that deals with contractual changes for the supply of firewood by Judah Opatow, a prominent Jewish merchant in Vilnius, to the army is particularly noteworthy (inventory 17, file 805).
In addition, the collection describes the lucrative state monopoly on the production and sale of distilled spirits. For example, there is a great deal of information about the activities of the Jewish merchant Gerts Gurevitch from the late 1840s to the early 1860s. The collection also includes documents on orders made by the Treasury Chamber in 1862 on behalf of the Romm family printing house in Vilnius (inventory 17, file 3251). Regarding the involvement of Jews in commerce, there are materials about monitoring their selling alcohol, tobacco and more, records on violations of trade and taxation regulations, and papers on approval of the reports of Jewish companies. Some of these materials reflect the transition of Jewish businessmen to corporate activity. For example, the collection includes materials from 1906-1910 regarding the "I.B. Segal" stock company that traded in pharmaceutical and perfumery products (inventory 9, files 293, 406; inventory 10, file 43). A few similar materials refer to Jewish activity in industry. Thus, the collection includes materials from 1909-1910 regarding the Frumkin family factory (inventory 9, file 407).
Jewish-related materials can also be found in revision lists, merchants' lists, files on the korobka tax and collecting taxes from various Jews, documents about inquiries and legal claims in connection with business activities, papers on suspicions of possession of counterfeit money by Jewish merchants, documents on the acceptance of Jews into merchant guilds, and of Jewish settlement in the town of Ev'ie (inventory 21, file 104).
Another important part of the collection relates to the recruitment of Jews into the Russian army during the 1850s. For example, there are documents about Jews hiding from recruitment (inventory 20, file 36), a complaint on the illegal drafting of Itsik Kister (inventory 20, file 15), and records about the recruitment to the army of Iankel Tauber in Vilna (inventory 20, file 30). These documents reveal, among other things, how the authority of Jewish community leaders was undermined by their involvement in the drafting process.
- Archival history:
- The documents of the Treasury Chamber of Vilnius Governorate were kept in the Moscow Central State Historical Archives until 1946, when they were transferred to the Central State Archive of the Lithuanian SSR in Vilnius. In 1957 the archive in Vilnius was reorganised and divided into two separate central state archives. One archive was named the Central State Historical Archive of the Lithuanian SSR and was limited to the pre-1918 period. Thus, the materials of the Treasury Chamber of Vilnius Governorate were included in this archive, which preceded the current Lithuanian Central State Archives.
- Administrative/biographical history:
- The Treasury Chamber of Vilnius Governorate was established in 1797. It supervised the state’s treasuries of Vilnius, Lida, Trakai, Ašmena, Vileika, Dysna and Švenčionys districts. It was in charge of tax and arrears collection, transfer of assets to the treasury, monitored the activities of banks and other financial institutions, activities of industrial and commercial enterprises, and carried out audit censuses. In 1918 the Soviet government abolished the Treasury Chamber of the Vilnius Governorate.
- Access points: locations:
- Vileika
- Access points: persons/families:
- Gurevitch, Gerts
- Kister, Itsik
- Mitskevich
- Segal, Berko
- Tauber, Iankel
- System of arrangement:
- The collection consists of 26 inventories that are arranged in thematic-chronological order.
- 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
