Metadata: Daugavpils War District Court (Vitebsk Province)
Collection
- Country:
- Latvia
- Holding institution:
- Latvian State Historical Archives
- Holding institution (official language):
- Latvijas Valsts vēstures arhīvs
- Postal address:
- 16 Slokas Street, Rīga, 1048
- Phone number:
- +371 20 017 505
- Reference number:
- 4974
- Title:
- Daugavpils War District Court (Vitebsk Province)
- Title (official language):
- Daugavpils kara apgabala tiesa (Vitebskas guberņa)
- Creator/accumulator:
- Daugavpils Military District Court (Vitebsk Province)
- Date(s):
- 1909/1918
- Language:
- Russian
- Extent:
- 460 files
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Scope and content:
-
The collection contains documents of the Daugavpils Military District Court (Vitebsk Province). It includes orders and circulars of military organisations concerning legal proceedings; orders to the troops of the Vitebsk garrison; decisions of the Chief Military Court on cassation cases of persons accused of desertion and espionage; court orders in cases of those accused of unauthorised absence, robbery, extortion; correspondence on the search for defendants who had fled; a list of cases heard by a military court; cases on charges of espionage, agitation and assistance to Austrian and German troops; cases on charges against persons for belonging to the "Polish Military Organisation"; cases on charges of desertion, unauthorised absence, exceeding the terms of leave and business trips; cases on charges of self-mutilation and deception in order to evade military service; cases on charges of bribery for issuing a false certificate of unfitness for military service; cases of murder and theft, embezzlement of state property, forgery of documents, hooliganism, instigation of non-observance of orders from superiors, expressions of displeasure with orders from superiors, evasion of military service on religious grounds, fights, insults, resistance to the police, libel, and abuse of officials. The collection also contains cases about the escape of those arrested from the guardhouse, the disappearance of horses, fires, etc.
Some of these cases concern Jews. For example, in the "Case on the accusation of tradesman Yankelevich for espionage on behalf of Germany and evasion of military service" it is reported that on 22 August 1914 in the city of Ostrov, Warsaw province, Karunas, a gendarme officer, was checking visitors at a teahouse in a hotel owned by Mordko Langleib. There was a young man who held Boruch Rotholz's passport. While leaving the teahouse with the gendarme, he threw a piece of paper to Mordka Langleib's wife, which Mordo gave to the gendarme. This piece of paper turned out to be a certificate of registration for the management of the 4th sector of the city of Warsaw and contained the ID of a soldier of the 93rd Irkutsk regiment, called Private Joseph Yankelevich. The detainee admitted that he had found Rotholtz's passport on the street and that he was Yankelevich. During Yankelevich’s interrogation, it became apparent that he had arrived from the city of Kalisz, occupied by German troops, and although a German patrol during a search found his ID identifying him as a reserve private, the patrol did not detain him as a prisoner of war but released him. Based on the interrogation and Yankelevich's “implausible explanations”, the gendarme office concluded that Yankelevich arrived in the city of Ostrov with the aim of military espionage for the German army.
In another case, "On belonging to the social democratic organisation Bund," it is reported that on the evening of 4 June 1915, in the city of Dvinsk, the gendarme office received a message that members of the Bund party were gathering in the apartment of the shoemaker Gilinov to discuss party issues. The arriving police officers found David Reuben Shapiro, Berko Muskat, Itsko Levin, Nokhum Khatskel Vinokur, Shlema Yuda Goldin, Hillel Katz and Abram Zilberman in the apartment. During the search "manuscripts in the Jewish language containing criminal content were found." They were accused of planning to violently overthrow the Russian government and thus were brought to justice.
The documents of this fonds will be of interest to researchers interested in the participation of Jews in the military history of the Russian Empire, Jews who fought in the First World War and the history of anti-Semitism in Russia.
- Archival history:
- After World War II materials from the interwar period, along with earlier materials, were part of the Central State Archive of the Latvian SSR. In 1962 it was decided to reorganise the archive and it was renamed the Central State Historical Archives of the Latvian SSR. The materials predating the period of Soviet rule were deposited in this archive, predecessor of the current State Historical Archive.
- Administrative/biographical history:
- After the revolution in Russia in 1905, the government of Tsarist Russia waged an active struggle against the revolutionary movement, including the Bund, the Jewish Socialist Party. After the outbreak of the First World War on 28 July 1914, in areas declared to be under martial law, cases of civilians accused of serious crimes were also transferred to the District Military Courts. Such crimes included a meeting of members of the Bund party. The First World War brought a lot of misery and suffering to Latvian Jews - tens of thousands of Jews became refugees or were drafted into the army. By order of the military leadership of Russia in 1915, all the Jews of Courland and Zemgale were exiled deep into Russia, as the Jews were suspected of treason and espionage in favour of the German army. Iosif Yankelevich, whose case is described in this fonds, became one of thousands of Jews who were severely affected by the anti-Semitic campaign of the Russian government.
- Subject terms:
- Antisemitism
- Bund movement
- Crime
- Legal matters
- Military
- World War I
- Yerusha Network member:
- Central Archives for the History of the Jewish People
- Author of the description:
- Jana Makarova