Siberian Prisonners of 1800s

Nerchinsk Mining District (Нерченский Горный Округ) was from the 1747 the private property of Russian Royal family, located in Eastern Siberia, current part of Chita region

It was the silver and gold mines for the Royal family.  92000 square miles of harsh Siberian taiga.

Why we are interested in this place? Because it was where many of Russian criminals, as well as Polish szlachta members (and later revolutionaries) were deported for forced labor as a punishment for crimes against the state.

We found two important sources to check if your ancestors were “sent by czar to Siberia”, which could fill missing links in your research.

Published sources:

Russian government issued monthly lists titled Ведомости справок о судимости and annual alphabetical indexes to them (Алфавитный указатель имен и фамилий лиц, помещенных в Ведомости справок о судимости) , from 1870 to 1916. Digital copies of many of those books are available at the rsl.ru (Russian State Library): search the above publication names on this site to get the list.

We have those lists and can check details of your criminal ancestors. Contact us 

What is listed in the typical announcement? See this sample:

Aleksandrov, Gavrila Kirillov [father’s name]

Retired scribe of the 2^nd class, of the Sveaborg military hospital (was an office clerk there), 31 years of age, born in Ekenes, Nuland governorate, resided in Ostrov, Pskov governorate, sentenced by the Ostrov meeting of justices of peace, for the theft from the Justice of Peace office, the uniform of the Justice, for the prison sentence of 7 months. Sentence started December 5, 1870.

Why they published that? It was for the benefit of local investigators, so they can easily check if the person they apprehended was the repeated offender.

Archival sources

Russian State Archive has lists of prisoners before this reference publication. GARF fond 29, Nerchinskaya Katorga, has several hundred files titled «Выписка из статейного списка о летах и преступлениях ссыльнокаторжанина». Some of them are alphabetical lists, some just unsorted lists for the particular year, some have some extra documents on the criminals involved. There was no nationality, all criminals were listed uniformly.

We can search in those documents for you.

Small pessimistic note: In the 1850s-1860s lists we have checked there are many persons with no last names, just first name and father’s name, so identification is somewhat complicated. But in many cases with alpabetized lists it is quite possible.

Have some questions about “persons sent to Siberia”? Let us know by using the contact form or by e-mail [email protected] : we could help in your search.