Duma Voter Lists — Belarus

This database contains the names of over 35,000 men of Minsk Gubernia who were eligible to vote in the Russian parliamentary elections in 1906 and 1907.

These voter lists were published in the Russian government newspaper Gubernski Vedomosti.  The Gubernskie Vedomosti were Czarist-era government newspapers, published in each gubernia between 1838 and 1917.  These newspapers included official government notices, including these voters lists for the elections for the Russian parliament (Duma) were held (or supposed to be held) in 1906, 1907, and 1912.

Minsk gubernia was a province of the Russian Empire until 1917.  It was comprised of nine districts (uyezds): Bobruisk, Borisov, Igumen, Minsk, Mozyr, Novogrudok, Pinsk, Rechitsa and Slutsk.  Between the two world wars, the western third of former Minsk Gubernia was in Poland (southern Nowogródek and northeastern Polesie provinces); and the eastern two-thirds in the Soviet Union.  Today, the vast majority of former Minsk gubernia is in south-central Belarus; small portions of southern Pinsk and Mozyr uyezds are in modern Ukraine.

For more information on the Russian Duma voters' lists, see the Duma Voter List FAQ.

Database Contents

This database contains the following records:

Notes:

• Igumen uyezd:  This dataset includes Jews as well as non-Jews.  There were two 1907 duma lists for the Igumen uyezd: the 1st Congress, and the 2nd Congress.  This list of 407 names represents the 1st Congress.  The 3,293 names of the 2nd Igumen uyezd duma list has not yet been transliterated.

• Rechitsa uyezd:  More information about the transliteration of the Duma voter lists for Rechitsa uyezd can be found here.

Database Fields:

This database contains all the information that is on the original list itself.  There is no additional information available.

The database contains the following columns of information:

• Name:  Surname (i.e.: last name, family name) + First name(s) (i.e.: given names) of the voter.
• Patronymic:  Father’s given name, usually with the Russian suffix '-ov' or '-ovich', which both mean 'son of'.
• Year:  The year in which this Duma election occurred.  If the list was for the 1st or 2nd Duma then the year is 1906; if it was for the 3rd Duma then it was 1907.
• List #:  The voters on each list were labeled in numerical order.  This is the number of the voter on the list.
• Category / Qualification / Notes:  All other available information for the voter.  "Nationality" was included for Moyzr, Igumen and Slutsk uyezds.  "Qualification Reason" was included for Minsk, Pinsk, Mozyr, Igumen, Borisov and Slutsk uyezds.  This is the reason why the person qualified to be an eligible voter.  A person had to be a male, over 24 years old, and meet at least one other criteria.
• Town:  The name of the town of the voter's residence or property/business.  The town name is present only for some of the lists: for Borisov, Bobruisk, Mozyr, and Slutsk uyezds.
• Uyezd / Gubernia:  The uyezd (district) and gubernia (province) of the source list containing this voter.  Minsk gubernia was comprised of nine districts (uyezds): Bobruisk, Borisov, Igumen, Minsk, Mozyr, Novogrudok, Pinsk, Rechitsa and Slutsk.

Other Duma Voter Lists:

Other databases of Russian Duma voter lists on JewishGen include:

• Belarus: Grodno Gubernia
• Latvia: Courland Gubernia
• Moldova: Bessarabia Gubernia
• Poland: Warsaw Gubernia
• Ukraine: Kiev Gubernia

Acknowledgements

The Project Coordinators are Risa Heywood and Riki Vered.  The JewishGen Belarus SIG would like to thank all those transliterators listed in the table above.

Searching the Database

This database is searchable via the JewishGen Belarus Database.