Metadata: Białystok municipal records
Collection
- Country:
- Poland
- Holding institution:
- State Archives in Białystok
- Holding institution (official language):
- Archiwum Państwowe w Białymstoku
- Postal address:
- Adama Mickiewicza 101, 15-257 Białystok
- Phone number:
- +48 85 743 56 03
- Web address:
- http://www.bialystok.ap.gov.pl/
- Reference number:
- 4/64
- Title:
- Białystok municipal records
- Title (official language):
- Akta miasta Białegostoku
- Creator/accumulator:
- Municipal administration of Białystok
- Date(s):
- 1838/1944
- Language:
- Polish
- Russian
- Extent:
- 2 linear metres (286 folders)
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Physical condition:
- good
- Scope and content:
-
Materials about Jews have an important place in the collection, of which only fragments have been preserved. The most valuable documents in the collection are the censuses of payers of the recruitment tax from 1847, which were carried out to equip and deploy recruits incorporated into the army as a result of the conscription carried out that year. The census, of course, includes only Jewish men - inhabitants of not only Białystok, but also Choroszcz, Suraż and Zabłudów. The census of Zabłudów inhabitants contains 322 items and in additionally it includes information on the number of other men in the family of the contribution payer. A lot of information on relations within the Jewish community in Białystok is provided by the complaint of Izaak Zabłudowski, merchant of the 1st guild and honorary hereditary citizen, about arrears on the candle tax payment sent to the minister of internal affairs, examined and clarified in the years 1851-1865.
The collection also includes a diploma awarded to Szymon Cytron with the title of honorary citizen of 1915, together with attached documents (birth certificate, trade school graduation certificates). The register of meeting minutes includes, among others, the resolutions of the City Board of 1935, e.g., granting subsidies to the Lins Hacedek association for the maintenance of a 24-hour medical emergency service open to all residents of Białystok. The financial affairs of the Jewish community are reflected to some extent in the annual budget estimates of the city of Białystok and in the reports on the implementation of the budget for the years 1908-1939. The collection includes documentation prepared by the magistrate of the town council for the years 1847-1915, Records of commissions and committees operating at the town council, circulars and correspondence with the governor, military service, education, finances, budgets, taxes, lease and purchase of municipal land, waterworks.
In the sub-collection of the Białystok town board from 1883-1918, there are documentation related to finances, military matters, crafts, building permits and construction insurance, evidence of land buyouts, municipal investments: water supply, sewage system, regulation of the Biała river, the horse tram and slaughterhouse. The sub-collection of the town board in Białystok for the years 1919-1939 includes the board's statute, minutes of meetings from 1935, (plans and financial reports), as well as plans of the town of Białystok from 1887-1942, including general city plans from 1887, 1937, 1942 and blueprints of land purchased for a slaughterhouse from 1911.
- Administrative/biographical history:
-
Magdeburg town rights were granted to Białystok in 1749 thanks to the efforts of its owner, Jan Klemens Branicki. The third partition of the Republic of Poland brought Białystok a change in its nationality and a change in status from a private city to a government city. In 1795, Białystok became the seat of the Prussian departmental authorities, and in 1802 the Prussians bought it from the hands of the Branicki-Potocki successors. The Tylża tractate (1807) subordinated the town and the counties of Białystok, Bielsko, Drohiczyn and Sokołów to Russia. From then on, Białystok was first the seat of Białystok county, and in 1843, due to the liquidation of the county, it became - on the basis of the Decree of 18 December 1842 - one of the county towns of Grodno province.
The Russian army and authorities left Białystok in August 1915 due to the military operations of World War I. Later, the German occupation of Białystok took place, and lasted until 19 February 1919. The Act of Parliament of 2 August 1919 established Białystok province. In Białystok, liberated after more than 120 years, the Temporary City Committee initially constituted the city board. Elections to the town council were scheduled for 7 September 1919; the legal basis being the decree of 4 February 1919 that established the functioning of the municipal self-government. Power in the city belonged to the town council (legislative and controlling body) and the magistrate (managing and executive body). The Act of 23 March 1933 introduced partial changes to the system of local self-government. New guidelines for state supervision of the activities of self-government unions were introduced. Pursuant to this act, the decision making and controlling body in towns became the town council, along with the managing and executive body of the town board.
World War II interrupted the activity of Polish municipal self-government bodies in Białystok. After several days of German occupation in September 1939, the Soviet army entered the town, and from June 1941 the town was again occupied by the Germans. The Germans were driven out of Białystok by the Red Army on 27 July 1944.
- Access points: persons/families:
- Cytron, Szymon
- Zabłudowski, Izaak
- Finding aids:
-
Printed inventory in the State Archives in Białystok. Adam Dobroński, Historia Białegostoku [The History of Białystok], Białystok 2012.
An online finding aid is also available.
- Yerusha Network member:
- The Taube Department of Jewish Studies of the University of Wrocław
- Author of the description:
- Urszula Gierasimiuk, 2018
