Surazh gorod, Vitebsk Gubernia, Duma Voter Lists, 3rd Duma, 1907

Introduction

The city of Surazh was located roughly 40 km northeast of the city of Vitebsk. A Vitebsk Gubernia map shows the geographical boundaries of each uezd, the city of Vitebsk, and if you look carefully, the location of Surazh as well (a hollow dot with lettering Cyp...).

Because nationality/religion is indicated for each voter on the lists, Jews are explicitly identified as such. Other nationalities on the lists are: Russian Orthodox, Belarussian Catholic, Lutheran, Old Believers, Poles, and Germans. I extracted only the Jewish voters. Jews accounted for 109 of 268 voters (41%) in the Surazh lists. It may appear odd that Jews are a significant portion of registered voters on these lists at a time when they lived under repressive and discriminatory laws. However, these lists contain only those categories of voters where Jews are likely to be found. There are additional 3rd Duma voter lists 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 these lists make it seem.

I sorted the table below by surname, then by congress (1 or 2), then by voter number within the congress. There are several pairs of voters from the same congress who meet this criteria: