''Vsya Rossiya'' (literally translated "''All Russia''" or "''The whole Russia''") was the title of a series of directories of the
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...
published by
Aleksei Sergeevich Suvorin (and his heirs; Suvorin died in 1912) on a yearly basis from 1895 to 1923 and was continued under the name ''Ves SSSR'' (Literally translated ''All of the USSR'' or ''The whole USSR'') from 1924 to 1931. Each volume was anywhere between 500 and 1500 pages long. The directories contained detailed lists of government offices, public services and medium and large businesses present in major cities across the Russian Empire.
These directories are often used by
genealogists
Genealogy () is the study of families, family history, and the tracing of their lineages. Genealogists use oral interviews, historical records, genetic analysis, and other records to obtain information about a family and to demonstrate kins ...
today to trace family members who were living in pre-revolutionary Russia and the early
Soviet
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
period when
vital records
Vital records are records of life events kept under governmental authority, including birth certificates, marriage licenses (or marriage certificates), separation agreements, divorce certificates or divorce party and death certificates. In some j ...
are missing or prove difficult to find.
Historians
A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human species; as well as the ...
use them to research the
social histories of late 19th century and early 20th century Russia.
Contents
The following information can be found in most editions:
*a surname index of over 100,000 names and thousands of companies
*a directory of prominent landowners
*lists members of the
Imperial House of Russia
The House of Romanov (also transliterated as Romanoff; , ) was the reigning imperial house of Russia from 1613 to 1917. They achieved prominence after Anastasia Romanovna married Ivan the Terrible, the first crowned tsar of all Russia. Nich ...
and government officials
*statistical information about the Russian Empire
*population figures
*information and guidelines about trade and industry in Russia
*lists of joint-stock companies
*sub-sections detailing a directory of each district of each province, listing administrative officials, merchants, industrial and commercial manufacturers
*original advertising
Availability
Many original directories in the series (or
microfiche
A microform is a scaled-down reproduction of a document, typically either photographic film or paper, made for the purposes of transmission, storage, reading, and printing. Microform images are commonly reduced to about 4% or of the original d ...
copies thereof) can be found in libraries across the U.S., Europe (including the
Baltic countries
The Baltic states or the Baltic countries is a geopolitical term encompassing Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. All three countries are members of NATO, the European Union, the Eurozone, and the OECD. The three sovereign states on the eastern co ...
, Finland the United Kingdom and Germany) however most only have an incomplete collection.
Other city directories in Russia
Suvorin also published city directories for
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...
under the title ''
Ves Petersburg'' (Literally translated ''All Petersburg'' or ''The Whole Saint Petersburg'') for the years 1894 to 1940 and for
Moscow
Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...
under the title ''
Vsia Moskva'' (Literally translated ''All Moscow'' or ''The Whole Moscow'') for the years 1875 to 1936.
References
{{Reflist
External links
A Russian website offering a search engine in Cyrillic for some city directories.
Directories
Russian non-fiction books
1895 non-fiction books