Metadata: The Radziwill family
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:
- 1280
- Title:
- The Radziwill family
- Title (official language):
- Radvilos
- Creator/accumulator:
- Radziwill family
- Date(s):
- 1416/1939
- Language:
- Polish
- Latin
- Russian
- Hebrew
- German
- French
- Italian
- Dutch; Flemish
- Extent:
- 3,355 files
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Physical condition:
- good
- Scope and content:
-
The collection includes materials from the personal archives of the Radziwill family from the 15th-20th centuries, including genealogical records, papers related to science and culture, correspondence on political and financial issues, extensive materials on the family's estates and property, and documents related to judicial inquiries.
The collection contains numerous valuable Jewish-related records, concerning their economic activities and disputes on the territories of the Radziwill estates including inventories, accounting records, data on grain incomes and expenses, and information on revenues related to their monopoly on the production and sale of alcohol (propinacja). Some of these documents deal with moneylending as the Radziwill family and others on their estates used the services of Jews as sources for both income and credit. For example, records dated 1653 deal with the credit by a Jewish resident of Rozhani, Leib Movshovich to Ian Oginsky (inventory 1, file 1452). A file from 1688-1689 deals with the lending of funds by the Karaite community in Kukizi to King of Poland John Sobieski (inventory 1, file 897). A file from 1798-1804 deals with a complaint by the Radziwill family against Moses Shmul' and other Jews regarding the falsification of a loan supposedly taken by Princes Leronim and Karol Radziwill. The Jewish creditors also issued a complaint against the Radziwill family for being taken into custody in violation of the law (inventory 1, file 605).
Another large part of the documents in the collection relates to Jewish activity as leaseholders. Since Jewish creditors found it increasingly difficult to extend large-scale loans, they gradually commenced the lucrative task of leasing estates or various properties within the estates, such as taverns and mills for fixed periods (arenda). In the Radziwills family's latifundia, which consisted of hundreds of villages, the primary leaseholder usually subleased to secondary leaseholders, who were often also Jewish. A file dated 1793 includes financial calculations by Kontorovich and Movshka Davidovich with the primary leaseholders in the estates in the Slutsk region (inventory 2, file 368). It is important to note that documents on Jewish activity such as leaseholders (including contracts of the arenda, financial calculations, and complaints of the lessees on various damages) relate to different periods in the 18th and early 20th centuries. For example, a file from 1882-1906 deals with the lease of a tavern and a watermill in the village of Pogoreli by Morduh Abramovich (inventory 2, file 552).
The collection also includes documents about the Jews' occupation in trade, and especially in the timber trade. These records also include contracts with the Radziwill family and some quantitative data. For example, a file from 1815-1817 includes data on the amount of timber prepared for sale by Abram Izrailovich, a Jewish merchant (inventory 2, file 648). A file from 1635-1639 includes a complaint by Christian burgers from Mogilev about the obstacles placed by the Jews of Vitebsk on trade between the cities of Vitebsk and Mogilev (inventory 1, file 5).
Another part of the documents in the collection includes judicial materials on civil and criminal cases. A file dated 1703-1714 discusses the judicial interrogation of Haim suspected of conspiracy with Swedish and Russian military commanders in actions to the detriment of the treasury of Prince Karol Stanisław Radziwiłł, the Jewish Kahal and some Jews (inventory 1, 220). A file from 1787 is connected with the investigation of the murder of a woman in the Murovitsa estate. Materials of this case include a complaint against Jewish defendants, questions presented to them and their answers (inventory 2, file 618). Another criminal case deals with the Minsk court decision in 1825 regarding the robbery of a shop belonging to Iankel Ebrov and David Kreines in Slutsk (inventory 2, file 388). The collection also contains a letter from the Kahal in Kletsk to the chief accountant of a Radziwill family estate discussing fundraising for the kahal's needs in 1818 (inventory 2, file 252).
- Archival history:
- In 1940, after the imposition of the Soviet rule in Lithuania, the consolidated Central State Archive of the Lithuanian SSR was founded in Vilnius. In 1956-1957 this archive 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 Radziwill family were included in this archive, which preceded the current Lithuanian Central State Archives.
- Administrative/biographical history:
- The Radziwill family was a distinguished Polish-Lithuanian noble family that played a significant role in Polish-Lithuanian history. Members of the family were chancellors, governors and hetmans of Lithuania, and some of them continued to play important roles in Polish history into the 20th century. Prince Mikołaj I (d. 1509) started a long line of Radziwiłł palatines of Wilno (Vilnius) when he was named to that post in 1492. At that time, he also held the post of Chancellor of Lithuania. His son Mikołaj II (1470–1522) became a prince of the Holy Roman Empire by appointment of the Emperor Maximilian I and Barbara Radziwill (1520–51) became queen to King Sigismund II Augustus of Poland. Prince Karol Stanisław Radziwiłł (1734-1790) owned the largest fortune in Poland, derived from a collection of estates, numerous chartered towns and cities, but was twice exiled from the country for opposing the Polish King Stanisław II Augustus and the Russian Empress Catherine I. During 1815-1831 the politician and musician Prince Antoni Henryk Radziwiłł acted as Duke-Governor of the Grand Duchy of Posen, an autonomous province of the Kingdom of Prussia created out of lands annexed in the partition of Poland. The Radziwiłł family continued to play important roles in Polish history into the 20th century and family members owned extensive estates in the Western provinces of the Russian Empire.
- Access points: persons/families:
- Abramovich, Morduh
- Davidovich, Movshka
- Ebrov, Iankel
- Kontorovich
- Kreines, David
- Movshovich, Leib
- Shmul’, Moses
- System of arrangement:
- The collection consists of two inventories which are arranged in thematic-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, 2019
