Metadata: The records of the Civil-Military Commission of Order
Collection
- Country:
- Poland
- Holding institution:
- National Archives in Krakow
- Holding institution (official language):
- Archiwum Narodowe w Krakowie
- Postal address:
- ul. Sienna 16, 30–960 Kraków
- Phone number:
- (+48 12) 422 40 94; (+48 12) 4212790; (+48 12) 421 68 81
- Web address:
- http://ank.gov.pl/
- Email:
- sekretariat@ank.gov.pl
- Reference number:
- PL 29/30
- Title:
- The records of the Civil-Military Commission of Order
- Title (official language):
- Akta Komisji Porządkowej Cywilno-Wojskowej Województwa Krakowskiego
- Creator/accumulator:
- Civil-Military Commission of Order for the Voivodeship of Krakow
- Date(s):
- 1790/1794
- Date note:
- Documents date from 1790-1792 and 1794.
- Language:
- Polish
- Extent:
- 4.5 linear metres (52 units)
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Physical condition:
- good
- Scope and content:
-
This collection comprises the records of the Civil-Military Commission of Order. The notes in the collection are quite diverse, referring to conscription, prosecution of deserters, allocation of housing and provisions for the military, resolution of disputes between the army and civilians and collection of overdue taxes from taxpayers. The commission supervised the movement of people by issuing passports, inquiring about suspected persons and eliminated vagrants. It strove to develop the economy, monitored the price of food and animal feed and supervised the maintenance of roads and rivers. It also dealt with effects of natural disasters, cared for the indigent, the condition of education and collected relevant statistical data.
The most important Jewish-related elements in the collection are lists of Jewish residents. The census data have been taken from various files and compiled into one unit (29/30/52, formerly IT 191a). The lists are arranged by district and locality, and record the property name or number, first names, surnames and age of spouses and the number and sex of their children, among other details (for census guidelines, see e.g. 29/30/14, p. 1183).
In other units, notes related to Jews are scattered. The commission’s action logs include a request from the synagogue of Kazimierz to extend the deadline for records of Jewish people and the kahal’s endeavours with respect to a wanted Jew, delivering him and soliciting for his release from the detention unit on bail (29/30/2, pp. 3, 15, 16, 19). Materials received at Krakow contain an application from the kahal of Lelów for refraining from enforcement upon the local Jews of their failed supply of cantonal conscripts (the Jews apparently enjoyed a privilege releasing them from such obligations) (29/30/31) and a request for payment of a bill for goods delivered to the army by a Jewish merchant (29/30/32).
The commission’s resolutions and court verdicts include Jewish items concerning release of the Jewish quarter in Kazimierz from allocation of housing for military purposes and illegal trading in passports by the authorities of the kahal in Olkusz (29/30/4).
- Archival history:
- The office of the commission was a tenement house called Pod Wagą in Krakow’s main market square. Once the body was liquidated, the deputies of the Targowica confederacy assumed responsibility for the archive on 4 October 1792 in Krakow. From Lelów the records were moved to the Pauline monastery at Jasna Góra, Częstochowa for custodial safekeeping. It is possible that around 1794 the former archival resources of the commission were transferred to the municipal archive of Krakow, then under organisation. The collection was restored based on materials kept at the Archive of Historic Records of the City of Krakow, a project started around 1890; the resource was finally re-gathered and ordered in 1928-32.
- Administrative/biographical history:
-
The Civil-Military Commission of Order was an administrative body whose territorial competence extended to the governorate of Krakow, a province which remained part of Poland after the country’s Third Partition), mainly the lands on the left bank of the Vistula: four districts (poviats) and the Duchy of Siewierz. The commission operated in 1790-92 and in 1794.
In Krakow the commission directly supervised the districts of Krakow and Proszowice (and from 1791 the Duchy of Siewierz) as well as another commission, based in Lelów, for the districts of Lelów and Książ.
The commission was set up after a Seym constitution of 15 December 1789; on 8 February 1790 a dietine elected 17 commissioners for Krakow and 19 for Lelów, including three Catholic priests. Four commissioners were on duty each day except feast days, in turns of two and a half months; from 1791 on, three commissioners from the towns joined the body. The competencies of the administration encompassed administrative and judicial activities: supplies and lodgings for troops, military-civilian relations, movement of people, economic affairs and social aid. The commission was dissolved under a universal proclamation of the confederacy of Targowica in May 1792. The Lelów-based organisation ceased to exist on 23 August 1792.
- Access points: locations:
- Kazimierz
- Krakow
- Lelów
- Olkusz
- Proszowice
- Subject terms:
- Census
- Jewish quarters
- Kahal
- Legal records
- Military
- Trade and commerce
- System of arrangement:
- As regards the record generating bodies, the fond in question consists of three series of files, one comprising archival materials of the Krakow Commission (29/30/1-24), another one is for Lelów (29/30/25–39), and the third consists of censuses for Voivodeship of Krakow, related to both Commissions (29/30/40–52). The records are diverse within individual units: those rather homogenous content-wise, such as action logs, decree records, correspondence with the central authorities, and conscription-related files appear alongside various statistical or economic materials.
- Access, restrictions:
- If a copy (microfilm, scan, photocopy) of a document exists, this is what will be made available. Access to the originals requires the consent of the Director.
- Finding aids:
-
Inventory available online.
Also see:
Ludność żydowska powiatów krakowskiego, lelowskiego i proszowskiego z lat 1790-1792.
Ze zbiorów Archiwum państwowego w Krakowie wydała Kamila Follprecht, Kraków 2008.
NB the numbering of this series is expected to change in the near future.
- Yerusha Network member:
- Emanuel Ringelblum Jewish Historical Institute
- Author of the description:
- Janusz S. Dąbrowski; Kraków; 2015