Metadata: Government War Commission of the Kingdom of Poland
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:
- 1/193
- Title:
- Government War Commission of the Kingdom of Poland
- Title (official language):
- Komisja Rządowa Wojny
- Creator/accumulator:
- Authorities of the Kingdom of Poland
- Date(s):
- 1814/1848
- Language:
- Polish
- French
- German
- Russian
- Latin
- Extent:
- 20 linear metres (660 files)
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Physical condition:
- good
- Scope and content:
-
Records regarding Jews in the Government War Commission archival collection mainly concern the acquisition or occupation of houses and squares belonging to Jews for the army. These were primarily properties in Zamość: Szlomo Gersten Dawidsohn, Jura König, Lejb Weltzer, Fajga Londeryn, Dawid Gertler, Izrael Sztro, Schaul Wahel and Szulim Ehrlich owned property that was required for the needs of fortification works of the Zamość Fortress, expansion of the fortress and manoeuvring square, construction of the prison, establishing a kitchen for the army, creating a square in front of the barracks and a civil prison (no. 216, 224, 225, 227, 229, 230, 233, 396). The collection also includes records on the purchase and demolition of a house in Modlin (Lesser Zeydel and Haskiel Gerszonowicz) for the needs of the army (no. 237) and the acquisition of property in Warsaw at Czerniakowska and Długa Streets (Aleksander Herszkowicz and Icyk Durtsman) (No. 173, 144). The records contain house and plot valuations, detailed descriptions of buildings, copies of documents regarding property rights, taxation of buildings for the needs of the Fire Association, information on building fires, decisions on expropriation (private properties).
There are also documents on the case of the Government War Committee against Abel Lewensohn, from the Vitebsk Governorate, regarding a breach of contract for the supply of 1500 horses for the army (No. 24).
Among the records regarding the situation in Warsaw in 1831 during and after the November Uprising are: a letter from the Governor General to the National Government regarding Jews who, having lost their homes in the suburbs of Prague, would like to live in Warsaw, but are detained on the bridge and not admitted; request of the synagogue supervisory council [dozór bóżniczy] of Warsaw to suspend the collection of kosher tax as long as consumption tax from February 1831 was still being collected (signed by Leopold Bereksohn, Szaja Markus Posner, Leiser Kohen and Izrael Herzfeld); complaints regarding an assault on Hercyk Ringenblum on Freta Street and the harassment of Jews by insurgents armed with scythes [kosynierzy] on Furmańska Street; letter of synagogue supervisory council to the National Government on attacks on Jews in March 1831 (No. 601). Archival unit 601 is devoted to Jewish matters; archival unit 600 relates to the restoring of order after the riots of 15/16 August 1831, i.e., during the November Uprising 1830-1831.
- Archival history:
- After the dissolution of the Government War Committee in January 1832, its records were taken over by the Central Board of Military Census and Enlistment, and after the latter was dissolved in 1860, the Government Committee of the Internal Affairs took over the records. As a result of segregation and loss, approximately 85% (nearly 63,000 volumes) was destroyed. About 2,700 volumes remained in the National Court Register [KRSW], about 5,000 were transferred to the Warsaw Staff of the Warsaw District, and nearly 2,000 volumes of records from the period of the Duchy of Warsaw and army vital records were sent to the Central Archives of Historical Records (AGAD) in 1867. The records remaining at the National Court Register after the liquidation of the Commission in 1868 were transferred to the Central Archives of Historical Records being created. The volumes that were taken to the archives of the Warsaw War District in 1915 were taken to Russia, from where they did not return. During World War II, the records stored in the AAD were destroyed, and only a part of the files from the Central Archives of Historical Records in the Sokolnicki Fort in the Warsaw neighbourhood of Żolibórz survived.
- Administrative/biographical history:
- The Government War Commission (KRW) was created in December 1815 to manage military affairs. It was divided into three directorates, which were divided into departments and offices. In practice, the Commission dealt with financial and budgetary matters, such as distribution of soldiers’ wages, provisioning funds, keeping records of the army and only indirectly the recruitment of soldiers. It supervised military health service and the formal side of the military judiciary. The duties of the Commission included the administration and maintenance of military structures (Fortresses Modlin, Zamość and the Citadel in Warsaw), creation of annual military budgets and supervising their implementation. The KRW also supervised military education - the School of Artillery and Engineers in Warsaw (after 1820 the Application School [Szkoła Aplikacyjna]), the Cadet Academy in Kalisz, and mounted and artillery cadet schools. At the beginning of 1832, the management of military affairs was taken over by the Ministry of War of Russia, which resulted the dissolution of the KRW.
- System of arrangement:
- In the records collection of the Government War Commission, the organisational system according to the units of the KRW was restored; primarily they are documents from organisational units called directorates - Materiel Directorate (with departments of Artillery, Engineers and Health), Directorate of People (with departments of Movement and Levies, and the General Audit Office and the Accounting Directorate (with departments of Funds, Wages and Provisions, Remuneration and Accounting). The Receiving Commission, the General Control Department, the Wages Office and the General Secretariat (a detailed structure of the Commission is given in the inventory) also functioned within the framework of the Commission.
- Finding aids:
-
An online inventory (author: Alicja Nowak) is available.
M. Osiecka, Komisja Rządowa Wojny 1815-1832 [in:] Archiwum Główne Akt Dawnych w Warszawie, Przewodnik po zasobie, vol. 2: Epoka porozbiorowa, ed. F. Ramotowska, Warszawa 1998, p. 329-333;
A. Stebelski, Akta Ministerium Wojny Księstwa Warszawskiego oraz Komisji Rządowej Wojny Królestwa Polskiego [In:] Straty archiwów i bibliotek warszawskich w zakresie rękopiśmiennych źródeł historycznych, T. 1, Warszawa 1957, p. 265-275.
- 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, 2019
