Source Information
About Russian Empire, Grodno Gubernia Voters List, 1912
Historical Background:
Elections for the Russian parliament (Duma) were held (or supposed to be held) in 1906, 1907, and 1912. These are the years in which voter lists were published. There were several factors that qualified the Jew, who was considered a non-Russian, and other non-Russians to vote. These reasons related to economic status and similar class distinctions. Only men over age 25 were permitted to vote, so the lists only include men.
Grodno Gubernia was one of over 60 gubernias in Czarist Russia at that time. Jewish residency was restricted to the 15 gubernias of the Pale of Settlement, and the 10 gubernias of the Kingdom of Poland. Like other gubernias (roughly the equivalent of a U.S. state), Grodno Gubernia was divided into several uezds (districts). Grodno Gubernia's nine uezds were: Bialystok, Bielsk, Brest, Grodno, Kobrin, Pruzhany, Slonim, Sokolka and Volkovysk. These voter lists were published one district at a time, and for each district, there were usually two published lists. Therefore, in the case of Grodno Gubernia, with its nine districts, there were 18 lists.
About this Database:
This database contains six fields:
- Surname – The voter's surname
- Voter – The voter's given name(s)
- Father – The voter's patronymic, i.e. his father's given name(s)
- District – The district where the voter lived. One of the nine uezds of Grodno Gubernia: Bialystok, Bielsk, Brest, Grodno, Kobrin, Pruzhany, Slonim, Sokolka or Volkovysk
- Town – The town where the voter lived. Only listed in a few of the lists
- Reference number – Used to locate the original entry
The voter lists are not an index to a larger set of data. What you see here is all that there is in the original lists. The only additional data for each voter is the indication of how he qualified to vote. That information was not transferred to the transliterated database because of its lack of usefulness.
