Census records contain materials on the census of households (revisions), which were carried out in the Russian Empire with the aim of registering poll-taxpayers. The first census of this kind in the Belarusian territory was carried out in 1782 (it was carried out only in the eastern part of Belarus - in Vitebsk and Mogilev provinces). Later, such censuses were carried out in 1795-96, 1811, 1815-16, 1833-34, 1850, 1857-58. Moreover, censuses of the particular categories of the population were held. There were censuses of the gentry, who had not been confirmed as representatives of the nobility of the Russian Empire and were transferred to the lower estates (burghers, town-dwellers, small-holders). During the periods between censuses and then after 1858, the additional listings were compiled to register all the people who were missing in the last census. Starting in 1811, the census records were written separately for each estate. Census records of the peasant householders were written in alphabetical order of the names of those to whom they belonged. After 1816, the nobility and clergymen were not registered in the census records.
Our index will help you define the file codes of the materials which contain census records for a specific year and for a specific estate. The data is organized according to the administrative division of the Russian Empire in the second half of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries (the records are grouped according to the relevant districts and provinces).
At present our website offers information relating to the former Vilno (Vilnius), Minsk and Grodno provinces (gubernia). Information on census records for the Vitebsk and Mogilev provinces will be included in the index as soon as these records are anew systematized by the staff of the National Historical Archives of Belarus; the work is now in progress.