Metadata: Collection of documents of the Ministry of the Interior of the Russian Empire
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:
- 699
- Title:
- Collection of documents of the Ministry of the Interior of the Russian Empire
- Title (official language):
- Rusijos imperijos Vidaus reikalų ministerijos dokumentų kolekcija
- Creator/accumulator:
- Ministry of the Interior of the Russian Empire
- Date(s):
- 1843/1918
- Language:
- Russian
- Extent:
- 294 files
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Physical condition:
- good
- Scope and content:
-
The documents of the Ministry of the Interior of the Russian Empire contain diverse records on Jews and the restrictions imposed on them in various fields such as residence rights, business activity, personal and ownership rights. Some of these materials include numerous government orders, circulars, regulations and notes on the restrictions' policy.
The collection contains government materials on the right of Jews to settle in different cities in Russia and in rural areas. Among these areas are Siberia, Moscow, and Saint Petersburg. For example, a file of 1899 contains regulations regarding conditions under which Jews belonging to the First Merchant Guild were allowed to obtain residence rights in Moscow (inventory 1, file 180). A file dated 1903-1906 includes Russian Senate orders regarding the rights of Jewish artisans to live beyond the Pale of Settlement (inventory 1, file 185). A file of 1904 contains documents on government policy regarding the rights of Jews who graduated from agricultural schools (inventory 1, file 21).
The collection also includes records on the government's policy of changing the boundaries of the Pale of Settlement in special cases. For example, a file of 1907 deals with the government's discussions about income in the village of Koralino and the estate of Linevka in the Pale of Settlement (inventory 1, file 28). Materials in the collection deals with expulsions of Jews from their places of residence outside the Pale of Settlement. For example, documents dated 1908-1909 refer to the expulsion of Jews from Kursk, including lists of the deportees (inventory 1, files 196, 200).
The collection contains government notes on the restrictions imposed on Jews in conducting their entrepreneurial activities, including the right to be appointed to managerial positions in corporations. The collection also includes government protocols. Among these records are journals of the Pahlen Commission (1883-1887), which the Tsarist regime established to review legislation on the Jews of Russia (inventory 1, file 2). There are minutes of meetings of the Emperor Nicholas II and his ministers in 1898 regarding the prohibition of Jews from registering as merchants in Moscow (inventory 1, file 178) and minutes of the government commission that convened in 1893 to discuss the rights of Jews to settle in Nikolaev (inventory 1, file 175).
The collection also includes papers from 1896-1909 on the arrangement for granting government permits to open Jewish schools (inventory 1, file 176) and petitions, applications and complaints submitted by Jews to the Ministry of the Interior on various issues, and especially concerning their rights to settle. Among these papers, a 1905 petition on the abolition of restrictions on the residence of Jews throughout the Empire is particularly noteworthy (inventory 1, file 25). Materials from 1916 include a request by Jewish students at the Warsaw Veterinary Institute to allow them to settle in Novocherkask (inventory 1, file 112). During WWI the Institute was at first evacuated to Moscow, and later was transferred to Novocherkassk. However, Jews were not permitted to live there. Requests for exchange of surnames, registration in merchants' guilds, granting permissions to live beyond the Pale of Settlement or visit there for a while are also included in the collection.
Part of the materials in the collection refer to the activities of Jewish organisations. The collection contains a great deal of information about the activities of the Jewish Colonisation Association (JCA) from 1899-1911. These are minutes of JCA meetings in Russia, reviews of its activities and records on the organisation supporting the Jewish population. The collection also includes lists of members of the Moscow Union of Jewish Soldiers and their personal questionnaires from 1915-1918 (inventory 1, file 91). Personal questionnaires of Jewish captives dated 1918 are also included in the collection (inventory 1, file 163). Records on the participation of Jews in the revolutionary labour movement are an additional part of the collection. A file dated 1911 notes the participation of Jews in strikes (inventory 1, file 39), and a file dated 1915 contains a report by the Police Department on the 9th Conference of the Socialist Jewish Workers Party, held in Cincinnati, USA (inventory 1, file 241). In addition, the collection includes data on different categories of Jews in Petersburg in 1902-1904, on emigration of Jews outside the Russian Empire, and on the purchase and rent by Jews of land and factories.
- Archival history:
- In the 1940s records of various government institutions of the Russian Empire were consolidated in the Central State Archive of the Lithuanian SSR. In 1957, together with other pre-revolutionary materials, the documents of the Ministry of the Interior of the Russian Empire were included in the Central State Historical Archive of the Lithuanian SSR, predecessor of the current State Historical Archive.
- Administrative/biographical history:
- As part of Emperor Alexander I's government reforms in March 1802 to replace the collegium system of Peter the Great, a new Ministry of the Interior was established. The ministry became one of the most powerful governmental bodies in the Russian Empire, responsible for the police forces and the supervision of the governorates' administrations. Its responsibilities also included penitentiaries, firefighting, state enterprises, the state postal system, roads, medicine, clergy, natural resources and more. By the mid-19th century, many of these additional functions were transferred to other ministries and government bodies. Throughout this period, the Ministry of the Interior was responsible for policy regarding the Jewish population in Russia, particularly for the determination of Jewish residence rights and for the supervision and implementation of these laws and regulations.
- Access points: locations:
- Moscow
- Novocherkask
- Siberia
- St Petersburg
- System of arrangement:
- The collection consists of one inventory that is arranged chronologically.
- 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
