Metadata: Board of the Suwałki Police Chief, Suwalki Province
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:
- 1013
- Title:
- Board of the Suwałki Police Chief, Suwalki Province
- Title (official language):
- Suvalkų gubernijos Suvalkų policmeisterio valdyba
- Creator/accumulator:
- Board of the Suwałki Police Chief
- Date(s):
- 1864/1917
- Language:
- Russian
- Extent:
- 3,574 files
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Physical condition:
- good
- Scope and content:
-
The collection contains records of the Board of the Suwałki Police Chief which refer to a wide range of criminal, judicial, economic, political and administrative issues. The materials include orders and circulars of various government institutions, the police board’s correspondence on operational issues, annual reports, permits to open schools and factories, permits to keep weapons, materials on surveillance on individuals, and records about suspected persons in political crime and criminal activities. The collection comprises numerous Jewish-related materials.
Some of these documents relate to Jewish community institutions in Suwałki and the religious life of Jews. For example, files from 1867-1869 (inventory 1, file 34), 1871-1872 (inventory 1, files 215, 356) and from subsequent years include the correspondence of the Suwałki Police Chief Board regarding surveillance over propriety in synagogues, prayer houses and the integrity of Jewish clerics. Files from 1870-1871 and 1872 contain correspondence regarding the establishment of an orphanage for Jewish children (inventory 1, files 144, 393). A file from 1873 deals with the closing of a Talmud-Torah in Suwałki (inventory 1, file 445), and a file from 1888-1903 refers to the establishment and maintenance of a Heder (inventory 1, file 1453). A file from 1888-1907 contains correspondence between the Suwałki Police Chief Board and the Suwałki Province Board relating to the establishment of a Jewish public bath (mikveh) (inventory 1, file 1500). Several files from the 1870s mention a ban on Jewish men having payot (sidelocks), women shaving their heads and wearing modest clothing (for example: inventory 1, files 157, 252).
Some files include correspondence about the supervision of Jewish teachers (melamdim). Another significant part of the materials, which include Jewish related documents, concern records about the police's surveillance on Jews suspected in various criminal activities. For example, a file from 1899-1905 relates to open police surveillance on Shmuil-Iosel Filipovsky (inventory 1, file 2289). A file from 1908 deals with regular surveillance on Eliash Slonimsky (inventory 1, file 2864). Other files from 1907 deal with strict police surveillance on Abram, Simha and Leiba Direktorovich (inventory 1, files 2841-2844). A file from 1905 discusses the need to expel these and other Jews from Suwałki (inventory 1, file 2704). A file from 1890 discusses deportation from the city of Malka Zeldert (inventory 1, file 1659). Some files relate to Jews illegally crossing the Russian border in the 1880s and 1890s.
The collection also includes documents regarding building regulations violations by Jews in the city. The collection includes lists of Jewish residents ages 14-20 from 1889-1892 (inventory 1, file 1561), and information from 1891-1892 about Jews who were born, died and married in Suwałki, but were not permanent residents (inventory 1, file 1769). The collection includes papers from 1888-1893 on a ban on Jews from other countries engaging in commercial activity in Russia (inventory 1, file 1469).
- Archival history:
- After Russia's entry into the WWI in 1914, the records of the Suwałki Police Chief Board were evacuated to Moscow. They were kept at the Central State Historical Archive in Moscow (the current State Archive of the Russian Federation – GARF). In 1957, together with other pre-revolutionary materials, these documents were included in the Central State Historical Archive of the Lithuanian SSR, predecessor of the current Lithuanian State Historical Archives.
- Administrative/biographical history:
-
In December 1866 the Kingdom of Poland was newly divided into ten provinces. Augustów province was transformed into Suwalki and Lomzha provinces. Many state and provincial institutions in Suwalki (former capital of Augustów province and the new capital of Suwalki province) were reorganised. The Board of the Suwałki Police Chief (Politsmeister) was also established. It was entrusted with various functions: surveillance on the population; the fight against crime and conducting preliminary investigations; maintenance of public order; control over taxation, sanitation and health care; and supervision of fire safety. The Board of the Suwałki Police Chief was abolished in 1917.
From the second half of the 19th century Suwalki grew immensely due mainly to the construction of a highway between Suwalki and Minsk, and the construction of the Augustów Canal. In 1897 there were 7,165 Jews in the city, representing 40% of the total population. By 1908 the Jewish population had increased to 13,002 people (56% of the total population).
- Access points: locations:
- Suwalki
- System of arrangement:
- The collection consists of two inventories.
- Finding aids:
- Brief information on the collection as well as a detailed inventory 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; 2020
