Statistical reports of Polish-Lithuanian communes Karaim in the collection of the State Archives Autonomous Republic of Crimea in Simferopol

Abstract

The article is a contribution to the study of the demographic and economic situation of the Polish-Lithuanian Karaite communities in the 19th century. It includes Polish editions of three important source texts from the collection of the State Archive of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea in Simferopol, dating from the period immediately preceding the establishment in 1863 of the Karaite Spiritual Consistory in Troki (“Караимское Духовное Правленiе въ Трокахъ”). Tese documents, written in Hebrew and Russian and dated 1860, provide not only detailed data on the size of the Karaite population in Lithuania and Volhynia, but also unique information on its material condition. Copies of the discussed documents were acquired by the author during a search at the State Archive of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea in Simferopol in 2012. Te article also cites other documents from the same archive, dated 1857−1864, containing statistical data on Polish-Lithuanian Karaite communities.