Metadata: Augustów Provinicial Commission and Guberniya Government in Augustów
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:
- 4/3
- Title:
- Augustów Provinicial Commission and Guberniya Government in Augustów
- Title (official language):
- Komisja Województwa Augustowskiego i Rząd Gubernialny w Augustowie
- Creator/accumulator:
- Augustów Provinicial Commission and Guberniya Government in Augustów
- Date(s):
- 1816/1879
- Date note:
- 1816/1866 (1879)
- Language:
- Polish
- Russian
- Extent:
- 10.01 linear metres (255 folders)
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Physical condition:
- good
- Scope and content:
-
The collection includes documentation generated by the Provincial Commission of the First Guberniya Government during the existence of Augustów province. The collection, which was divided into series, contains all the matters handled by the committee collegially. The following departments operated within the institution: Religious denominations and public enlightenment, Administrative, Military, Treasury, Police. The Department of Government Property and Forests was established later. The individual departments were chaired by sitting commissioners; delegated commissioners mediated between the inhabitants of the region and the commission and supervised the local administration. The commission’s collection of records includes various numerical data relating to Jews, inhabitants of the cities of Kolno, Rajgród and Wąsosz from the early 1820s, such as:
4/3/0 / 3.5 / 233 – Landed estate of Rajgród, matters regarding peasants - property matters, agricultural settlements.
4/3/0 / 1.1 / 50 – state of the town of Wąsosz, Augustów region / a historical and topographical-statistical review.
4/3/0 / 1.1 / 27 - historical and topographical-statistical review of the town of Kolno.
In addition, the following records are relevant:
4/3/0/1/644 - The case of the arrest of Srulj and Mordko Zygaria and Józef Chojnowski, inhabitants of the Łomża gubernia Przasnysz and Makowiecki county suspected of espionage.
4/3/0/1/645 - A case regarding the arrest of the inhabitants of Łomża guberni, suspected of espionage, Józef Kurkowski, Lejba Strikowski and Kelman Kelmanowicz.
Until the Jews were granted equal rights in 1862, the most common form in which they could hold landed estates in the Kingdom of Poland was on the basis of a lease, and to a lesser extent a pledge [in the meaning of a security]. Prior to 1862 Jews were renting a large part of the landed estates in Augustów itself. After the Act of 5 June 1862 on equal rights became law, some land estates - hitherto leased or held as pledges - became the property of Jews. Information on Jews as owners-tenants can be found in the Peasants section, where there are records related to the duties and obligations of owners and tenants. For example:
4/3/0 / 1.4 / 132 Supplementary tabulated chart added to the tabulated tax charts from 1846, villages of the Romany commune, Łomża province: Romany - property of Kornelia Dobrzycka, Glinka - property of Dawid Fisch. Similar documentation can be found in the series landed estates of individual towns: Łomża, Mały Płock, Nowogród, Rajgród, Suraż, Wizna where there are files related to matters of the peasants tied to individual estates, introducing the ownership of agricultural-rent settlements, e.g., records with the following reference numbers:
4/3/0 / 3.4 / 211- Landed estates of Nowogród, records regarding the lease of a square in the town of Novgorod to Jankiel Dawidowicz Rosenbaum.
4/3/0 / 3.7 / 253 landed estates of Wizna, Ruś village – demands by peasants to give them the lease for the production of alcohol [propination] and for the land on which inns were situated.
- Archival history:
- The records of the Augustów Provincial Commission and the Augustów Guberniate were transferred to the Archives of Historical Records in Warsaw probably during the interwar period during the liquidation of the State Archives in Łomża, together with a large collection of records from the Łomża guberniya comprising tens of thousands of archival units. Due to the fact that AGAD was burnt down during World War II, the records of this collection were not included on the list of surviving records. At that time, they were most likely part of the Łomża guberniya and county records of the Łomża guberniya collection. The records of the Commission constitute a fragmentary set. The gaps in the materials mainly concern the areas incorporated into the later Suwałki guberniya, which suggests that these materials may either still be in the Soviet archives, or they were lost during the war.
- Administrative/biographical history:
- In 1815, the country was divided into provinces, thus reducing the number of administrative districts. Pursuant to the constitution of the Kingdom of Poland, the lower-order administrative units were named districts [obwody], while the term county remained for the electoral constituencies. In place of the former Łomża department, the Augustów province was created with its seat in Suwałki, and it was divided into 5 districts and 7 counties. The Provincial Committees were composed of a president, five so-called “sitting” commissioners, one “delegated” commissioner for each district, a secretary general to run the office, a legal assessor and several other assessors in training. The organisational structure of the Augustów Provincial Commission was gradually changed over time. In 1837, the term “province” [województwo] was changed to “guberniya,” and “presidents” became “civil governors”. The Augustów Provincial Commission was renamed the Augustów Guberniya Government; apart from the name changes, there were no fundamental changes in the organisation and competences of the office. In 1842, districts [obwody] were changed to counties [powiaty], and counties were changed to wards [okręgi]. In 1867, the administrative system of the Kingdom of Poland was unified with that of the Russian Empire. By virtue of the decree of December 1866, the organisation of the territorial administration was changed. The Augustów Guberniya was divided into the Łomża Guberniya and the Suwałki Guberniya, two administratively equivalent units.
- Subject terms:
- Agriculture
- Crime
- Real estate
- Statistics
- Finding aids:
- A printed inventory is available at the State Archives in Białystok.
- Yerusha Network member:
- The Taube Department of Jewish Studies of the University of Wrocław
- Author of the description:
- Urszula Gierasimiuk; December 2020
