Metadata: Central Board of Žagarė and Gruzdžiai Estates, Šiauliai District in Kovno Province
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:
- 717
- Title:
- Central Board of Žagarė and Gruzdžiai Estates, Šiauliai District in Kovno Province
- Title (official language):
- Kauno gubernijos Šiaulių apskrities Žagarės ir Gruzdžių dvarų vyriausioji valdyba
- Creator/accumulator:
- Central Board of Zhagory (Žagarė) and Gruzdi (Gruzdžiai) Estates
- Date(s):
- 1601/1920
- Language:
- Polish
- Russian
- Extent:
- 11,863 files
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Physical condition:
- good
- Scope and content:
-
The collection includes materials from the Zhagory (Žagarė) and Gruzdi (Gruzdžiai) estates including correspondence and financial documents, inventories of the estates, instructions and reports of the managers of Žagarė and Gruzdžiai manors, decisions of the Žagarė manor court, various documentation on lands, forests, taverns, mills, factories, post offices, hospitals, pharmacies, peasants, taxes on the local population, epidemics, and buildings and their renovation. Accordingly, the collection contains numerous Jewish-related records.
A file dated 1815-1816 deals with monetary claims by Kogan against the estate owner Prince Zubov (inventory 1, file 1804). A file from 1828-1829 contains materials related to the complaint of representatives of the Zhagory Jewish kahal against administrators and other persons in the management of the estate regarding suppression and illegal collection of taxes (inventory 1, file 11748). Many of the Jewish related documents deal with Jews’ business activity as leaseholders and tavern keepers. Materials about leasing the taverns include details regarding income from the sale of beer, vodka, etc. For example, a file from 1847-1848 includes monthly statements on the income and consumption of grain, vodka, etc. at the Girshovich distillery (inventory 1, file 5699). A file from 1862-1863 contains records about monetary claims by the estates’ owner Naryshkin against windmill leaseholder Katsenelenbogen (inventory 1, file 8664), and a file from 1866-1867 contains monetary claims against the leaseholder M Sher (inventory 1, file 9080). A file from 1868-1874 contains materials about the confiscation of the property of the leaseholder Margulis for payment of his debts (inventory 1, file 9286), and there are similar papers from 1868-1870 regarding the Jewish leaseholder Rubin (inventory 1, file 9287). A file from 1863-1865 contains materials about the confiscation of Shapiro’s home as payment of his debts (inventory 1, file 8700). Important quantitative data about the economic activity of Jewish entrepreneurs is contained in statements and settlements with them. For example, two files for 1866 and 1867 contain cost accounting documents belonging to the contractor Shender (inventory 1, files 9075 and 9203). A file dated 1890-1891 includes statements about the amount of timber sold to the merchant Efrat for the production of matches (inventory 1, file 10414). One undated file contains statements regarding the Jewish merchant Azar for the preparation of firewood (inventory 1, file 11516). The collection includes many contracts about leases and the implementation of labour. For example, a file from 1844 includes a contract for construction of buildings in Gruzdy which was signed with the management of the Gruzdi estate by stonemasons Freimanovsky (inventory 1, file 5059).
- Archival history:
- Information about the archival history of the collection is unavailable.
- Administrative/biographical history:
- In 1589 special administration of manors were formed in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The income from these manors was intended for the maintenance of the Grand Duke and his court. The manors of Žagarė and Gruzdžiai belonged to the royal economy of Šiauliai. After the second partition of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1793, Empress of Russia Catherine II gave the Zhagory (Žagarė) and Gruzdi (Gruzdžiai) estates to Prince Platon Zubov. In 1858 they were sold by Zubov’s heirs to Colonel Dmitry I Naryshkin. The General Board of Manors was located in Gruzdi and operated until the beginning of the First World War in 1914.
- Access points: persons/families:
- Freimanovsky
- Rubin
- System of arrangement:
- The collection consists of one inventory that is arranged in chronological order.
- 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:
- Ilya Vovshin, Central Archives for the History of the Jewish People, 2020