Metadata: Council of State and Council of Ministers of the Duchy of Warsaw
Collection
- Country:
- Poland
- Holding institution:
- Central Archives of Historical Records in Warsaw
- Holding institution (official language):
- Archiwum Główne Akt Dawnych w Warszawie
- Postal address:
- ul. Długa 7, 00-263 Warszawa
- Phone number:
- (22) 831-54-91
- Email:
- sekretariat@agad.gov.pl
- Reference number:
- 1/175
- Title:
- Council of State and Council of Ministers of the Duchy of Warsaw
- Title (official language):
- Rada Stanu i Rada ministrów Księstwa Warszawskiego
- Creator/accumulator:
- Council of State of the Duchy of Warsaw; Council of Ministers of the Duchy of Warsaw
- Date(s):
- 1807-1813
- Language:
- Polish
- French
- German
- Russian
- Latin
- Extent:
- 12 linear metres (466 files)
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Physical condition:
- good
- Scope and content:
-
Information concerning Jews is scattered throughout many units that can be divided into several categories:
10-year suspension of the active citizenship and political rights by the Jews in the Duchy of Warsaw; decrees of Frederic August from 1808; Essay on the current situation of Jews in Poland and its improvement (Essai sur l'etat actuel des Juifs du Pologne, et leur perfectibilite), Warsaw 1796 (no. 216).
Collection of the tax on kosher meat - projects and decrees issued in 1809 regarding the collection of the tax and the manner in which it was carried out; petitions for an even distribution of the burden on municipalities in the Warsaw department; the abolition of the Austrian tax on kosher items and family behaviour intended to cancel kahal debts in departments attached to the Duchy of Warsaw in 1809 and the decree of 1810 (no. 228).
Introduction of a "candlestick" tax on Shabbat candles (no. 228).
Exemption from the ticket fee of Jews passing through the Duchy in transit 1810; case concerning the application of the decree of March 1809 (no. 217) to Jews coming from abroad.
Decree concerning exemption of fees for Jews from the Duchy going to fairs in Saxony 1810 (no. 217).
Decree of Frederic August of 1808 suspending permission for Jews to acquire inheritable properties; individual requests in this matter (Michał Ettinger-Rawski, Judyta Jakubowiczowa concerning fulfilment of a promise by the Prussian government) (nos. 216, 217).
Records concerning Jews moving out of streets on which they were forbidden to live; petitions from Jews in Warsaw to postpone deadlines for moving; opinions of ministers on this matter and the decree of Frederic August of 1809; draft decrees indicating streets that Jews were forbidden to inhabit and restricting their settlement in groups; Prussian announcement from July 1806 regarding the exclusion of some streets from Jewish residence; requests by Christians (homeowners who stood to lose if Jews were to move) (nos. 216, 217).
Draft decree allowing Krakow Jews to live in Jewish and Catholic Kazimierz in 1811, opinions of ministers; decree by Frederic August of 1812 (no. 217).
Records concerning the 1812 exemption of Jews from military conscription in exchange for paying 700,000 zlotys to the treasury (no. 217).
Provisioning of the army with food and contracts concluded with military contractors, requests for compensation of losses (nos. 173-187, 202).
Applications for reimbursement of sums recorded in the Bayonne loan spreadsheets, and judgments of the Council of State settling disputes (among others, Dawid Markus, Mojżesz Michał Flamm) 1808-1811 (nos. 327-331).
Drafts and decree of Frederic August of 1812 prohibiting Jews from producing or selling alcohol in the entire country as of 1814 (no. 217).
Drafts and decree of Prince Frederic August of 1811 stating that Jews farmers would pay the same taxes as Christian farmers (no. 217).
Information on the number of Jews in each county; lists of men of draft age in 1810; population tables in departments listing Jews and "Mennonites" (no. 235).
Jurisdictional and administrative disputes in which one of the parties were Jews (nos. 16, 18-20, 24 a); the case of the prefect of the Krobski county, acting to the detriment of Jews due to extortion of fees higher than acceptable for commercial and wedding permits (nos. 380 e, 380 f, 383).
A potential source of information that is rarely used are chancellery records (series I) containing short registers of cases brought before the authorities (including cases brought by Jews, mainly involving complaints about the conditions of military conscription, unfair tax burdens, unfair distribution of the kosher tax, very short deadlines for Jews to move out of forbidden streets, and requests for permission to remain on forbidden streets.
Requests for exemption from customs duties, possibility of buying property, complaints related to the "Bayonne loan” (nos. 63-65, 74-75, 101-105, 123). A wide variety of material is to be found in the case logs of the Application and Instructions Committee for 1810-1812. They include requests to unblock capital funds included in the Bayonne loan, return of sums incorrectly included in the spreadsheet of this debt and "erasure" of these sums from the spreadsheets (nos. 106, 108, 116-118, 126, 327 b and 368 from series II). Information on Jews is also found in registers of royal decrees 1807-1813 (nos. 32-36, 41, 43) and resolutions of the Council of State and the Council of Ministers (nos. 55-57).
- Archival history:
- After the creation of the Kingdom of Poland in 1815, the records of the Council of State and the Council of Ministers of the Duchy of Warsaw were transferred to the archives of the Administrative Council, and then later transferred in 1871 to the Archives of Historical Records created in 1867. In 1915 they were evacuated to Russia, from where they returned under the Riga Treaty of 1921. There were minimal losses in the collection during World War II as it was deposited in the Sokolnicki Fort in Warsaw's Żoliborz district shortly before the outbreak of the Warsaw Uprising of 1944.
- Administrative/biographical history:
-
The Council of State of the Duchy of Warsaw and the Council of Ministers were appointed under the constitution of the Duchy of Warsaw of July 1807, and were not clearly demarcated. They were made up of a president and five ministers: justice, home and religious affairs, war, treasury and police (regarding the Council of State, there are additionally registers of edited materials).
The Council of State was responsible for drawing up and deliberating draft laws presented by ministers; for jurisprudence in disputes over jurisdiction between administrative and judicial authorities, and for decisions regarding the dismissal of officials. Over time, its competences were extended to oversee projects of the Duchy's income and expenditure, matters related to the management of national property and general distribution of taxes among departments.
Pursuant to the decree of Prince Frederic August of 1808, the Council of State and the Council of Ministers initially had a joint chancellery, that was divided into two by the decree of June 1810. The Council of State (and the Council of Ministers) ceased its activity in 1813, and in its place the Russian emperor Alexander I appointed the Supreme Interim Council.
- Access points: persons/families:
- Ettinger-Rawski, Michał
- Flamm, Mojżesz Michał
- Jakubowiczowa, Judyta
- Markus, Dawid
- System of arrangement:
- The records of the Council of State and the Council of Ministers of the Duchy of Warsaw (still in the archives of the Administrative Council) were divided into two series with separate numeration. The first series consists of registry books (currently 75 units), the second series is made up of case files divided into the following sections (currently 391 units): Section I General; section II Justice; Section III Internal; Section IV Revenue and Treasury; Section V War; Section VI Police; Section VII Foreign; Section VIII Main Accounting Chamber; section IX the Bayonne loan [about 20 million francs that the Duchy of Warsaw owed to Napoleon]; Section X various matters.
- Finding aids:
-
An online inventory (author: Dorota Lewandowska) and scans are available.
W. Rostocki, Rada Stanu i Rada Ministrów Księstwa Warszawskiego [in:] Archiwum Główne Akt Dawnych w Warszawie, Przewodnik po zasobie, vol. 2: Epoka porozbiorowa, ed. F. Ramotowska, Warsaw 1998, pp. 35-38.
M. Rostworowski, Rada Ministrów i Rada Stanu Księstwa Warszawskiego.
- Links to finding aids:
- www.agad.gov.pl/inwentarze/RSKW175.xml
- www.sbc.org.pl/Content/21874/ii482790.pdf
- Yerusha Network member:
- The Taube Department of Jewish Studies of the University of Wrocław
- Author of the description:
- Małgorzata Kośka, Central Archives of Historical Records in Warsaw, 2018