The 1897 All-Empire Russian Census was the first and only census conducted in the Russian Empire prior to World War II. Its major interest and value both for personal genealogy and for the history of Jewish communities is that the census was taken in every town in the Russian Empire. This presentation will focus on how to use this source, and where and for what towns and other geographical areas the questionnaires have survived. The 1897 Census undoubtedly has major genealogical and historical importance since the census offers researchers more information than any other vital statistic document from the Imperial Russian Empire.

The idea that Russia needed to revise its census procedures began to appear in the Russian Empire in the 1850s. Up to that time, the only enumeration of the population was done through the revizkiye skazki (revision lists), the last of which was done in 1858. The primary purpose of the revizkiye skazki was registration of taxpayers and compilation of military recruitment lists. People were aware of the revizkiye skazki’s purpose, and many Russian subjects tried by any and all means to avoid being registered. The lists, therefore, frequently were incomplete. At times, military troops were even used in order to try to force the population to register.

The first detailed proposal for a census was presented in 1877, almost 20 years after the final revision, by the chairman of the Central Statistics Committee, the famous Russian geographer, traveler and ethnographer, P.P. Semenov-Tyanshanskiy. He proposed to perform a simultaneous (one-day) census of all the population of the Empire (except Finland), regardless of age, citizenship, gender, nationality and status. Unlike the old revizkiye skazki, the census was not supposed to have any fiscal purposes; the census was connected neither with the establishment of new taxes nor the revision of old ones.

Twenty years after Semenov-Tyanshanskiy’s presenta­tion, the project, with minor changes, was approved by Emperor Nicholas II. According to the “Regulation on the First General Census of the Population of Russian Empire,” issued in 1895, the census was to be taken on January 28, 1897. The winter month was chosen because the majority of the population did not move around in the winter, and seasonal workers were expected to have returned home.

To counter false rumors among the populace who feared new taxes and duties, explanations of the goals and tasks of the First All-Russian Census appeared in the press and in an announcement by the minister of internal affairs, head of gendarmes, Goremykin. Everybody was encouraged to participate actively and honestly in the census. Authorities emphasized that participation in the census would not cause any complications, problems or responsibilities.

The census structure primarily concerned the people who were present at home at the moment regardless of whether they lived there permanently and were registered there or not. The so-called “Hollerith’s machines” processed the survey data. Three different census questionnaire forms were prepared: Form A for the peasant households in agricultural communities; Form B for landlords’ households, private homes and households in the villages; and Form C for city dwellers. A household was the basic unit of study. In the cities, an apartment was considered a household, and each household received a separate questionnaire. Every individual interviewed was asked to answer a set of 14 questions:

1. Last name, first name, patronymic name or nickname. In this item, notes were made about people with certain handicaps (e.g., blind in both eyes, dumb, deaf, mute or mentally sick).
2. Gender
3. Relationship to the head of the family and head of the household. In completing the questionnaire, the name of the head of the household was to be listed first. After him, everyone else according to their relationship to the head of the household: wife, sons, daughters (or children in age order beginning with the eldest), children’s spouses, grandchildren, father and mother, siblings, nephews and nieces, uncles, aunts and any others. For grandchildren, nephews and daughters-in-law, there were special indications in the family relationship.
4. Age
5. Family status, e.g., married, widowed, single
6. Social group, status or rank (for example, a town-dweller, a merchant, a demobilized soldier or peasant)
7. Place of birth
8. Place of registration. In the Russian Empire, people could live in one town but be registered on tax revision lists in some other town, where they were originally registered by Russian officials at the end of the 18th century after the division of the Polish kingdom.

This item is especially important for genealogical research. If one learns from the All-Russia Census that the family was registered in a certain town (e.g., Pavoloch), then the family should be traced in the revizkiye skazki of Pavoloch despite the fact that they physically resided in another town (e.g., Belaya Tserkov). This provides the clue to finding the earlier generations and other branches of the family through the tax revision lists.

9. Regular place of residence
10. Note about absence. In this item, notes were made about individuals who normally resided in that household, but who were away temporarily—with an indication of where they were.
11. Religion
12. Native language. For all Jews, the native language was listed as “Jewish,” which probably meant Yiddish.
13. Whether individuals can read or write and type of education
14. Occupation, craft or trade. If more than one, then the main occupation should be specified and any additional ones listed separately.

Notes also were made about military status. Of additional genealogical importance is the home address, which appeared on the cover page of the questionnaire, along with a description of the house.

How the Census Was Taken

The survey was made in two phases. The first or preliminary phase lasted from December 1896 to January 1897. During this time, clerks visited households and filled out questionnaires that later were checked by census department heads. During the second or primary phase, intended to be finished not later than January 28, 1897, the clerks visited the households for a second time to check and made corrections to the results of the first questionnaire. The famous Russian writer Chekhov noted his impressions about the survey:

January 11,1897, village of Melikhovo. We have a census being taken. The clerks obtained awful ink-pots, disgusting coarse badges looking like beer labels and briefcases that the questionnaires cannot fit in. [A.P.Chekhov. Correspondence. # 1866 Letter to A.S.Suvorin. January 11, 1897, town Melikhovo.]

The following method of self-calculation was used in the cities. In the manors and city houses, as well as in factories, a clerk simply brought and then collected and checked the questionnaires completed by the landlords, owners and leaseholders. In the rural areas, the questionnaires were completed by a clerk while interviewing inhabitants in each household. The completed and checked primary questionnaires were delivered to the survey departments and, after some adjustments, were sent to the provinces and the Central Statistics Committees.

Surviving Questionaires for 1897 Census
Uezd ( county)	Number of Volumes	Towns and Villages
Berdychev	County of Berdychev, 487Town of Berdychev, 111	156 towns and villages including: Radziwilovka, Brusilov, Belopole, Pyatigorka, Kashperovka, Kazatin, Belilovka, Samgorodok, Novaya & Staraya Priluka, Bakhnovka, Pogrebishche
Cherkassy	33
Chigirin	100
Kanev	256
Kiev	County of Kiev, 25City of Kiev, 38	Only villages in Kiev county
Lipovets	185	60 towns and villages, including: Lipovets, Ilyintsy, Dashev, Kitaygorod, Tsibulev, Monastirishche, Yustingrad, Sarny, Balabanovka, Lukashevka
Radomysl	634	175 towns, including: Radomyshl, Dymarka, Chernobyl, Khabno, Gornostaipol, Malin, Annopol, Ivanov
Skvira	394	101 towns, including: Pavoloch, Skvira (41 files), Volodarka, Novofastovka, Ruzhin, Vcheraisheye, Romanovka, Borshchagovka, Kornin, Khodorkov
Tarashcha	103	41 towns, including: Tarashcha, Stavishcha, Zhashkov, Tetiev
Uman	529	134 towns, including: Talnoye, Uman, Torgovitsa
Vasilkov	426	Towns of Vasilkov and Belaya Tserkov (49 files)
Zvenigorodka	31

The process lasted nearly eight years, until July 1, 1905. Major results were published from 1899 until 1905 in 89 separate volumes (119 books) for guberniyas (provinces) of the Russian Empire under the title “First General Census of the Population of Russian Empire 1897.” The data obtained is considered to be relatively trustworthy, and data from the census is still being used by researchers today in historical and similar investigations.

The greatest value in terms of primary interest and value for personal genealogy and for the history of Jewish communities lies not in the published summarized results of the census summaries that present general quantitative and qualitative description of the population of the empire in general, but in the individual questionnaires.

Fate of Individual Questionaires

What happened to the individual questionnaires after their data was compiled? As a rule, the original questionnaires were sent to the Chief Census Commission. Duplicate copies were stored with the guberniya authorities, while yet a third copy was stored in county offices.

Upon completion of the censuses, the emperor decreed that the paper questionnaires be destroyed. In many cases, however, officials did not hurry to fulfill this edict; for that reason, questionnaires for some areas have survived. Some may be found in regional archives, in the repositories of statistic committees or disseminated in various repositories of local governments. Unfortunately, the original questionnaires are poorly preserved, which makes it more complicated and difficult to use them in genealogical investigations.

In Odessa, for example, the documents are stored in the Odessa regional archive, the repository called Odessa Mayor’s Office. Census questionnaires for 3,000 addresses in the city of Odessa still exist. These are addresses of anybody, not just Jews, but since the percentage of Jews was so high, there are many Jews listed. In 1897, the number of Odessa inhabitants who acknowledged Yiddish as a native language was 124,511.

Documents for Podolia guberniya are located in two archives, Vinnitsa and Khmelnitski, but only the questionnaires for the city of Kamenets-Podolski and its suburbs have survived, along with some pages for Bratslav and Vinnitsa counties. The total of 44 files, each with 50 to 100 questionnaires, are stored in the State Archive of Khmelnitski province, in the repository of Podolia Gubernia Statistics Committee (repository #244). The archives of Vinnitsa do not hold census materials. Documents from the former Volhynia guberniya are stored in the archives of Lutsk, Rovno and Zhytomir, but the author has not found a single questionnaire in any of them.

Extensive census records for Kiev guberniya have survived and are stored in the State Archives of Kiev oblast. This archive has documents of the Kiev guberniya census commission for 1896–97 (repository 384), which consists

of 16 inventories and includes 3,371 volumes of questionnaires for all 12 counties of Kiev guberniya. In addition to the questionnaires, the archives also has lists of the households with names of the owners and their addresses.

On the previous page is a table containing the names of counties and towns of Kiev guberniya covered by the census and on which census questionnaires exist. There is also listed the number of volumes of census records.