Photographs of Russian Army Conscripts, 1900-1914

Military · Vilna Gubernia, Lithuania

This database, from the Lithuanian Archives of Image and Sound, was given to me as a personal gift from Laima Tautviasaite, Director of the Historical Archive in Vilnius, Lithuania. This database contains a total of 1,222 names of Jewish conscripts from Vilna gubernia (Vilna province), their photographs, the name of the official photographer who took their picture, and the date the photograph was taken.

The name field in this database contains the surname, given name, and usually the father’s given name. The father’s given name follows the abbreviation “s.”

The backsides of the photos contain some information about the person, in Russian. For some conscripts, paper documents exist that contain additional information. The information on the photos and paper documents is very short and varied. In some you can find date of birth and, in others, only religion and social position at that time. The index gives no indication of which army unit the conscript served in.

The archive has no photographs of Russian army conscripts for other parts of Lithuania or for additional years, other than for Vilna Gubernia for the period 1900–1914.

Mr. Dalius Zizys, Director of the Lithuanian Archives of Image and Sound, has given permission for the data to be displayed on JewishGen. For a fee of $30 US, the archive will send a color copy of the original photograph, together with an English translation of the existing information about the conscript. The archive also has information about the photographers who were from Lithuania. (Personal checks equal to $30 US are acceptable.)

Howard Margol
Atlanta, Georgia
July 2001

This database is searchable via the JewishGen Lithuania Database and the JewishGen Unified Search.

These records are provided in partnership with LitvakSIG. For more information, visit the LitvakSIG website.