1901 Klyachkin All-Russia Business Directory:

This database contains 544 records of Jews listed in the “1901 Klyachkin All-Russia Business Directory”, for Bessarabia and portions of Transnistria (in the jurisdiction of the JewishGen Bessarabia Special Interest Group).

This database contains records of grocers, haberdashers, manufacturers, bankers, and notaries who worked in the early 1900s in Bessarabia and Transnistria, and who were apparently Jewish.

This information was published in the 1901 edition of the Klyachkin handbook (Клячкина, Справочная книга), published in Warsaw by S. Klyachkin.  The handbook includes information on more than 40,000 companies from 2,170 cities throughout the Russian Empire.

Database Contents

This database contains 544 Jewish entries from 31 towns. 

We extracted “Jewish-sounding” names listed for the following cities and towns, all in Bessarabia or the portions of Transnistria which are in the jurisdiction of the JewishGen Bessarabia SIG.  No Jewish names appeared in the listings for many towns and villages.

Uezd & Gubernia / Cities (current name in parentheses)	# of Records Jewish | Total		Jewish Pop. in 1897
Akkerman, Bessarabia:   •   Akkerman (Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyy)   •   Likhental (Svetlodolinskoe)   •   Tarutino (Tarutyne)   •   Volontirovka	16 1 23 1	37 1 28 3	5,625 ? 1,873 ?
Balta, Podolia:   •   Rybnitsa (Rîbniţa)	4	4	1,574
Beltsy, Bessarabia:   •   Ryshkanovka (Rîşcani)	13	13	2,247
Bendery, Bessarabia:   •   Bendery (Bender)   •   Kaushany (Căuşeni)   •   Manzyr (Lisne)   •   Romanovka (Basarabeasca)	32 21 6 4	50 10 6 4	10,654 1,675 310 1,142
Izmail, Bessarabia:   •   Izmail (Izmayil)   •   Leovo (Leova)   •   Kiliya   •   Vilkovo	29 4 21 16	35 6 22 20	2,775 2,773 2,153 ?
Khotin, Bessarabia:   •   Brichany (Briceni)   •   Edintsy/Edinets (Edineţ)   •   Lipkany (Lipcani)   •   Novoselitsa (Novoselytsya)	25 22 1 12	25 22 1 15	7,184 7,379 4,410 3,898
Kishinev, Bessarabia:   •   Gancheshty/Hyncheshty (Hînceşti)   •   Kishinev (Chişinău)	10 134	12 141	2,278 50,237
Olgopol, Podolia:   •   Kamenka (Camenca)   •   Rashkov (Raşcov)	7 4	9 4	2,902 3,201
Orgeev, Bessarabia:   •   Kalarash (Călăraşi)   •   Orgeev (Orhei)   •   Rezina   •   Teleneshty (Teleneşti)	4 27 19 6	4 30 19 7	4,593 7,149 3,182 3,876
Soroki, Bessarabia:   •   Ataki (Otaci)   •   Soroki (Soroca)   •   Vad Rashkov (Vadul-Raşcov)	8 30 8	8 34 8	4,690 8,783 3,237
Tiraspol, Kherson:   •   Dubossary (Dubăsari)   •   Tiraspol	10 27	13 35	5,219 8,659

Geo-Political History:

• Before WWI — Bessarabia and Transnistria were part of the Russian Empire (Bessarabia was its own guberniya, while Transnistria was part of Podolia and Kherson guberniyas).
• Between World War I and World War II — Bessarabia was part of Romania, while Transnistria was part of the Soviet Union.
• After World War II — both Bessarabia and Transnistria were part of the Soviet Union.
• After the breakup of the Soviet Union — the independent Republic of Moldova was formed from most of Bessarabia, while significant portions came under Ukrainian rule.
• In 1990 — a portion of Transnistria (including the towns of Kamenka, Rybnitsa, Dubossary, Grigoriopol, and Tiraspol) and Bendery (which is on the west bank of the Dniester river and therefore is technically not in Transnistria i.e.: "across the Dniester river") declared independence from Moldova; The "Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic" has not been recognized by any member of the United Nations.

Place-names have changed since 1901 for many towns and villages, sometimes on several occasions.  The database shows the present name, county or province, and nation — "Moldova" or "Ukraine" — for each 1901 locality.  Information about the names for each town during various periods, and other information, may be found by using the JewishGen Communities Database.

Database Fields

Each record in this database contains the following information:

• Name — Last Name + First Name (most often, just an initial, if given).
• Father — Father's Given Name (just an initial), if given.
• Occupation - Russian — type of business, in Russian (Cyrillic alphabet).
• Occupation - English — type of business, translated into in English —
  either “Banker”, “Grocer”, “Haberdasher”, “Manufacturer” or “Notary”.
• Size of Business, if given — “Small”, “Medium” or “Large”.
• Merchant’s Guild, if given — “I”, “II” or “III”.
• Town (1901) — name of town, in Russian.
  One of the 31 towns in the table above.
• Uyezd — The district, as of in 1901.
  One of: “Akkerman”, “Balta”, “Bieltsy”, “Bendery”, “Izmail”, “Khotin”, “Kishinev”, “Olgopol”, “Orgeev”, “Soroki”, or “Tiraspol”.
• Gubernia — The Russian province, as of 1901.
  One of: “Bessarabia”, “Podolia” or “Kherson”.
• Modern Country — Country that the town is located in today.  Either: “Moldova” or “Ukraine”.
• Pages — Page number in the original directory.
• Comments — e.g:, who in business with; or other information.

For Further Research

Images of the Klyachkin handbook, in .pdf format, were accessible from various Russian-language websites, as of February 2016, and may be accessed by searching for “Клячкина, Справочная книга”.

The PDF file is 1,090 pages long.  Starting at page 459 of the PDF (page 882 of the handbook), the images are in thumbnail and must be enlarged to be read — but the enlarged images are not particularly legible.

Acknowledgements

Researchers for this project were:

• Ala Gamulka — Toronto, Ontario, Canada
• Genny Imas — New York, NY, USA
• Inna Vayner — Fair Lawn, NJ, USA
• Jeff Wexler — Los Angeles, CA, USA — Project manager

Thanks to Alexey Perminov for providing the JewishGen Bessarabia SIG with a copy of the Klyachkin directory.

Search the Database

The “1901 Klyachkin Business Directory” database can be searched via either the JewishGen Romania Database or the JewishGen Ukraine Database.