Senator A. A. Polovtsov’s Audit

Collection

Country:: Russia

Holding institution:: The National Library of Russia

Holding institution (official language):: Российская национальная библиотека. Отдел рукописей

Postal address:: 91069, Russia, St. Petersburg, ul. Sadovaia, д. 18, main building

Phone number:: (812) 310-28-56

Web address:: http://www.nlr.ru

Email:: office@nlr.ru

Reference number:: F. 600

Title:: Senator A. A. Polovtsov’s Audit

Title (official language):: РЕВИЗИЯ СЕНАТОРА А. А. ПОЛОВЦОВА

Creator/accumulator:: Senator A. A. Polovtsov’s Audit

Date(s):: 1860/1885

Language:: Russian; German; French; Polish

Extent:: 1,897 storage units

Type of material:: Textual material

Scope and content:: [See also the description of Russian State Historical Archive (RGIA) f. 1531, Senator A. A. Polovtsov’s Audit of the Kiev and Chernigov Provinces.] The fonds includes a significant set of documents on Jewish history and culture that may be provisionally grouped according to the following subjects:

1) Materials regarding legislation on Jews in the southwestern provinces of Russia and the Kingdom of Poland, and in particular, documents on Jewish residential and commercial rights in the city of Kiev (1878-81); excerpts from the Journal of Laws and instructions and decrees restricting Jewish property and civil rights in provinces of the Kingdom of Poland (1844-70).

2) Statistical information on the Jewish population of the Kiev and Chernigov provinces; documents regarding the registration of the Jewish population and keeping of Jewish vital records, including a draft of A. A. Polovtsov’s “Most Humble Memorandum on the Jewish Question,” which cites data on the size of the Jewish population of the Kiev province and reports on methods to improve the registration thereof, and on Jewish vital records, whose keeping was entrusted to crown rabbis; and includes proposals on getting the Jewish population of the Kiev province involved in productive labour; etc. (latter half of the 1870s); information on the number of Jews living in the Chernigov province (1871-81); a memorandum on the selection of institutions to preserve Jewish vital records “so as to avoid their alteration by persons interested in avoiding military conscription,” including the Podolia governor’s suggestion that the duty of keeping Jewish vital records be turned over to civilian officials who were Christians (undated); an exchange of telegrams between Starodub District Court permanent member A. Laikevich and A. A. Polovtsov on information pertinent to the audit regarding peasants, Cossacks, and Jews (1881); letters of N. G. Esipov regarding the collection of materials on “the Jewish question” (undated); etc.

3) Materials on the economic state of the Southwestern territory: on the causes of the grave situation in this region; Jewish ownership and rental of land; Jewish agricultural colonies; and the economic activities of Jewish merchants and craftsmen, including two memoranda by A. F. Voronin on Jewish land ownership in the Southwestern territory (1880); a record of the amount of land rented by Jews in the Kiev province (1860-80); craftsmen’s petitions to A. A. Polovtsov, including a petition from Jews of the city of Kiev requesting the right to receive commercial licenses instead of guild certificates (1881); lists of businesses maintained by Jews in cities of the Kiev province, and in particular, in Vasil’kov and Chigirin (1871-80); memoranda by the governor-general of the Southwestern territory to the minister of internal affairs on the fact that Jews were opening taverns on lands they did not own (1880); and on making Jewish agricultural colonists members of the village and city estates (the latter memorandum includes a record of Jewish agricultural colonies in state holdings of the Kiev province) (1880).

4) Data on Jewish participation in municipal government, and in particular, name lists of elected and civilian municipal administrative personnel indicating their religious confession, education, salary, and employment outside of municipal administration (1878-80). Lists of elected and civil officials that mention Jews: Berezino Municipal Administration (the merchant R. Gol’dmershtein); the Kozelets Administration (the townsperson Kh. N. Karaskik); the Konotop Administration (Z. L. Vengerov, merchant’s son of the 2nd guild, and member of the city administration (duma councillor); the Kremenets Administration (the merchant Z. Dubrovskii); the Starodub Administration (the merchant A. Kh. Ber); the Chernigov Administration (the merchants of the 2nd guild B. S. Krasil’shchikov, I. S. Turin, I. S. Balaban, E. I. Kreidin, I. L. Gol’din, M. I. Feigin, and E. G. Freidin); and documents on the election of the rabbi of the town of Makhnovka (Berdichev county, Kiev province) (1878); etc.

5) Documents on Jews’ payment of the candle tax, korobka [kosher meat tax], and other levies, and on how Jewish communities of the southwestern provinces used these proceeds, including a memorandum of the governor-general of the Southwestern territory to the minister of internal affairs on improper recordkeeping and accounting and other abuses in the collection of the kosher meat and candle taxes in the Southwestern territory (1881); a report by the Volhynia governor to the governor-general of the Southwestern territory on leasing the right to collect the korobka [kosher meat tax] for four years (beginning 1882), with a draft of the lease conditions appended, and a cover letter by the Volhynia governor to A. A. Polovtsov (1881); a memorandum by the director of Jewish charitable institutions of the city of Kiev to A. A. Polovtsov on halting the practice of transferring proceeds of the candle tax to general city revenues, and a report on the amount of money received by the municipal duma from the korobka toward public needs for 1879 (1881); draft conditions for leasing the right to collect the korobka (1881); a memo by I. Ia. Rudenko, an official of the chancery of the governor-general of the Southwestern territory, on coordination between municipal administrations and the provincial administration regarding the candle tax and korobka levied on Jews (1881); statistical information on taxes on wages and general arrears exacted from Jewish residents of the cities and towns of the Kiev province (1880-81); etc.

6) Materials on the fulfilment of military conscription duties by Jews of the Southwestern territory, and in particular, a report by the governor-general of the Southwestern territory to the minister of internal affairs on Jews of the Suvalki province who were evading conscription (1879); appeals to A. A. Polovtsov from merchants of Starodub county (Chernigov province) requesting that abuses by the Starodub Jewish community in the conduct of military conscription be halted (1881-82); a circular of the Kiev governor to county police chiefs [ispravniki] and other police officials regarding Jews wanted for evading conscription (1880); etc.

7) Information on synagogues and Jewish houses of worship, as well as on the activities of Jewish communities of cities and towns of the Southwestern territory, including petitions to A. A. Polovtsov submitted by Kiev merchants requesting permission to organise Jewish houses of worship; etc. (1881); a memo by the Volhynia governor to the governor-general of the Southwestern territory on Jewish institutions (1876-80); appended are a confidential letter from the office of the Volhynia governor regarding the organisation of Jewish houses of worship in cities and towns of the Volhynia province (1876); a memorandum by the governor-general of the Southwestern territory titled “On synagogues and houses of worship in general,” including a list of houses of worship in the city of Kiev as of 1880 and a report by titular councillor G. Barats to the director of the office of the governor-general of the Southwestern territory on this issue (1880); an excerpt from a file of the office of the governor-general of the Southwestern territory regarding the possible merger of Jewish communities with Christian ones in the cities of Zhitomir, Berdichev, Kamenets-Podol’skii, Mogilev, and Balta, signed by G. Barats, with a list of synagogues and Jewish houses of worship of the city of Berdichev appended (1867-68).

8) Materials on Jewish state schools, and in particular, information on the state of the Berdichev two-grade elementary Jewish school (Kiev province) as of July 1881, including a budget, list of teachers, information on pupils and the curriculum, correspondence on the organisation of a craftsmanship class, etc.

9) Documents on pogroms against Jews in cities of the Southwestern territory; materials of the office of Senator A. A. Polovtsov regarding the audit of the Kiev and Chernigov provinces include letters and telegrams to the senator from E. F. De Rossi, assistant chief prosecutor of the Senate’s Criminal Appellate Department, regarding pogroms against Jews in the city of Kiev, and a secret letter of acting Khar’kov Governor-General D. I. Sviatopolk-Mirskii to A. A. Polovtsov regarding pogroms against Jews; and also a logbook of telegrams on pogroms in the Chernigov province (1881).

Administrative/biographical history:: This was carried out in 1880-82 as part of Minister of Internal Affairs Count M. T. Loris-Melikov’s audit of provincial institutions (early 1880s). Its main purpose was to assemble and prepare materials toward the reorganisation of Russia’s system of administration and peasant governance. It analysed issues pertaining to the adoption of local-level judicial and administrative reforms, the peasant situation, education, the tax system, etc. Senators involved in the audit were also charged with “taking note of the nature of the influence of the Jewish element, and of the practical enforcement of applicable laws on Jews.” Results of the audits were reviewed by the Special Commission to Draft Local Administrative Projects (1881-85) chaired by M. S. Kakhanov (the Kakhanov Commission), which also included Aleksandr Aleksandrovich Polovtsov (Polovtsev; 1832-1909), a statesman, public figure, and senator (beginning 1873), state secretary (1883-92), and member of the State Council (from 1892 on).

Access points: locations:: Balta; Berdichev; Berezino; Chernigov; Chernigov province; Chigirin; Kamenets-Podol’skii; Kiev; Kiev province; Konotop; Kozelets; Kremenets; Makhnovka; Mogilev; Poland; Russia; Starodub; Suvalki province; Vasil’kov; Volhynia; Zhitomir

Subject terms:: Agriculture; Aid and relief; Civil rights; Education; Education--Schools and universities; Education--Students; Education--Teachers and professors; Financial records; Hospitality industry; Hospitality industry--Inns; Jewish colonies; Jewish community; Jewish Question; Jewish-Christian relations; Land; Law enforcement; Law enforcement--Police; Legal status of Jews; Military; Pogroms; Rabbis; Residency issues of Jews; Statistics; Synagogues; Taxation; Taxation--Candle tax; Taxation--Korobka; Trade and commerce; Vital records

System of arrangement:: The fonds includes a single inventory (catalogue) systematised according to the thematic-chronological principle, and in part alphabetically.

Finding aids:: An inventory is available.

Yerusha Network member:: Jewish Theological Seminary

European Jewish Archives Portal

Metadata: Senator A. A. Polovtsov’s Audit

Collection

Note to user