XVIII a. pabaigos Lietuvos Didžiosios kunigaikštystės žydų surašymai: jų patikimumas ir duomenų interpretavimo klausimai

LTReikšminiai žodžiai: Gyvenojų skaičius; Istorinė demografija; Istoriografija; Lietuvos Didžioji Kunigaikštija, XVIII a.; Lietuvos Didžioji Kunigaikštystė (LDK; Grand Duchy of Lithuania; GDL); 18 amžius; Statistika; Žydai; Žydų surašymas, 1764–1765 ir 1784 m; Grand Duchy of Lithuania, 18th cent.; Historical demography; Historiography; Jewish population census, 1764–1765 and 1784; Jews; Lithuanian XVIII c. history; Number of inhabitants; Statistics; The Great Duchy of Lithuania.

ENThe article is based on the complex of sources pertaining to the censuses of the Jewish population of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (GDL) of the late 18th century, stored in the GDL Treasury Commission fund (F. 11) of the Lithuanian State Historical Archives. Trends in the research of the GDL Jewish population censuses of the second half of the 18th century which prevail in historiography suggest that knowledge of the said sources is limited and that they have never been subjected to a full-scale analysis. The investigation tackles two interrelated issues: how many censuses of the Jewish population were conducted in the late 18th century, and which surviving data pertaining to these censuses are most reliable and appropriate for the inquiries into historical demography or family demography? The research led to the following conclusions. Firstly, dates of possible censuses of the Jewish population referred to in historiography fail to reflect the actual situation in the GDL where in the second half of the 18th century special censuses of the Jewish population were conducted no more than two times - first in 1764-1765 and the second in 1784, whereas the census of 1775 which is considered as the second in historiography was not carried out at all.The preserved cumulative charts of 1775 indicating the allocation of the poll tax in the Jewish community is a copy of the data pertaining to the first census, produced due to territorial changes and population losses after the First Partition of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and increase of the poll tax rate per capita for the Jews. Secondly, the comparison of data of the first and the second censuses of the Jewish population in the GDL revealed that the census of 1784 is rather inaccurate and the trends reflecting the population dynamics recorded therein are demographically impossible in two decades and thus misleading. Hence, the census of 1784 is not appropriate in the attempt to establish the objective demographic characteristics of the Jewish community. Identification of the said properties of the GDL Jewish population census requires that the conclusions offered in current historiography and based on fragmented inquiries into the census of 1784 are verified. [From the publication]