Introduction

A Vitebsk Gubernia map shows the geographical boundaries of Vitebsk Uezd and Vitebsk Gubernia. (Page to the bottom and select the Vitebsk Gubernia link.) Kolyshki was to the East of the city of Vitebsk and is very close to the Belarus/Russia border.

Because nationality/religion is indicated for each voter, Jews are explicitly identified as such. I extracted only the Jewish voters. Jews accounted for 122 of 159 Kolyshki voters (77%) in the second Congress. It may appear odd that Jews are the clear majority of registered voters at a time when they lived under repressive and discriminatory laws. However, this list contains only those categories of voters where Jews are likely to be found. There are additional 3rd Duma voter lists for Vitebsk Gubernia, containing landowners, nobility, clergy, pensioners, etc. which have few or no Jews. The votes of these latter voters generally counted far more in a complex, weighted voting scheme. Therefore the influence of the Jewish vote was not as great as this list makes it seem.

I sorted the table below by surname, then by first name, then by voter number. There are several pairs of voters from the same congress who meet this criteria: