Metadata: Agriculture and State Property board of Vilnius and Kaunas provinces
Collection
- Country:
- Lithuania
- Holding institution:
- Lithuanian State Historical Archives
- Holding institution (official language):
- Lietuvos valstybės istorijos archyvas
- Postal address:
- Mindaugo g. 8, 03107 Vilnius
- Phone number:
- +370 5 219 5320
- Email:
- istorijos.archyvas@lvia.lt
- Reference number:
- 525
- Title:
- Agriculture and State Property board of Vilnius and Kaunas provinces
- Title (official language):
- Vilniaus ir Kauno gubernijų žemdirbystės ir valstybės turtų valdyba
- Creator/accumulator:
- Agriculture and State Property board of Vilna and Kovna provinces
- Date(s):
- 1436/1918
- Language:
- Russian
- Polish
- Extent:
- 40,785 files
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Physical condition:
- good
- Scope and content:
-
The collection contains materials of the Agriculture and State Property Board of Vilna and Kovna provinces. It includes orders of various institutions, requests from individuals, correspondence of the board, its annual reports, minutes of meetings, documents on exploitation of state land, and the leasing and sale of forests.
The collection contains numerous Jewish-related records in the field of economic life and engagement in agriculture. Following physiocratic theories from the west about integrating Jews through agrarianising, the constitution of 1835 supported the agricultural colonisation of Jews and exempted settlers from military service. The collection includes documents on the agricultural settlement of Jews on government estates in Vilna Province in the years 1850-1857 (inventory 10, file 306; inventory 15, files 128, 146). Two files from 1854-1865 includes complaints by Jews from the agricultural colony Leipuny in Trakai district against peasants from a nearby village regarding the theft of straw (inventory 15, file 308), and requests to the state to hire out haymaking (inventory 1, file 3408). A file from 1863-64 includes a request by a member of a Jewish agricultural colony in Trakai district, M. Aronovich, for a permit to live in the village of Strokishki (inventory 15, file 324). Another file from this period deals with the expulsion of Abram and Berka Shekmanov from their agricultural community in Disna district (inventory 15, file 341). Many of the records in the collection mention the leasing and operation by Jews of various properties belonging to the state such as taverns, mills, forests, lands, lakes and rivers. For example, a file from 1872-1876 includes a lawsuit by the Ginzburgs (merchants) against the state regarding a breach of a contract for the lease of a tavern and a mill on the estate of Igumenovo, in Disna district (inventory 13, file 1300). A file from 1859-1869 contains papers on a bidding for taverns in Vilna Province by Levinson and others (inventory 1, file 764). A file from 1864-1891 includes documents about the leasing of the "Avsteria" tavern in the town of Kupishki by Berka Gips (inventory 21, file 21) and a file from 1873 deals with a leasing of a tavern in the village of Polopiavka (Rossieny district) to Borukh Gorfinkel (inventory 14, file 2098). A file from 1867-1891 includes papers on the collection of arrears from Shevel Rabinovich, a mill leaser in Shavli district (inventory 1, file 1220). A file from 1864-1891 contains materials concerning the leasing of fishing rights in lakes in Trakai district to Broide (inventory 1, file 3432).
The collection also includes documents on the lease of shops from the state by Jews. In 1903-1913 Kagan and Zaks rented 28 shops in Siady, Telshi district (inventory 12, file 496). In the second half of the 19th century, Jews contributed greatly to the expansion of trade in timber and several files deal with the purchasing of timber by Jewish entrepreneurs. For instance, two files from 1863-1879 deal with log driving rights issued by the state to Abram Brudny (inventory 9, file 533; inventory 10, file 446). A file from 1831-1838 contains materials on the unauthorised deforestation in Trakai district by a Jew Abel (inventory 9, file 21). The collection also includes documents on the inheritance rights of Jews. A file from 1859, include records on the collection of a fine from a teacher in a Jewish school in Merech (Merkine) for beating a peasant (inventory 13, file 747).
- Archival history:
- Until 1919 the collection was preserved in a museum in commemoration and tribute to Count Mikhail Muravyov – a suppressor of the Polish uprising in 1863. The museum was opened in Vilnius in 1901 and initially was located in the Vilnius Public Library. After the occupation of Vilnius by German troops in 1915 the museum was transferred to the Vilnius Archaeological Commission.
- Administrative/biographical history:
- In 1840 the Vilnius Province Chamber of the State Property was established by the order of Emperor Nicholas I. In 1842 the Kovna Province Chamber of the State Property was established. In 1882 Emperor Alexander III ordered to merge the Vilnius and Kaunas state property boards and it was called the Vilna-Kovna State Property Board. In 1902 the board was renamed as the Agriculture and State Property Board of Vilna and Kovna provinces. The board managed the state's forests, land, waters infrastructure, carried out land and forest measurements, geodetic descriptions, and compiled inventories of estates. The board also leased out forests and other infrastructure. In 1918 the board was abolished by the Bolshevik Government.
- System of arrangement:
- The collection consists of 22 inventories that are arranged in thematical-chronological order.
- Finding aids:
- Detailed inventories are available on the website on the Lithuanian Chief Archivist Service.
- 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; 2021