LEGAL STATUS AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE GREEK COMMUNITY OF AGRICULTURE OF THE NORTHERN PRYAZOVIA (1779–1875): ANALYSIS OF THE RECORD-KEEPING MATERIALS

Abstract

Using the analysis of materials of record-keeping stored in Ukrainian and Russian archives, the article describes the legal status and development of the economy of the Greek community of the NorthernPryazovia: reports, directives, notifications of the Azov and Novorossiysk governor-general. The same group includes the documents that arose in the process of operation of the Mariupol Greek court. The elements that constituted the form of these documents in the 18th — 19th centuries are analysed, the purpose of these documents is formulated. Among the local record-keeping, the documents of the Mariupol Greek Court (was created in accordance with the charter of 1779) occupy a significant place due to the wealth of statistical information. The court performed administrative, police and judicial functions. The cases of district (powiat) administration, district and zemsky court, orphan and verbal courts, city council (magistrat), district police and volost administrations were concentrated here. According to the origin and informative possibilities, the materials of the Mariupol Greek Court can be divided into the following groups: 1) incoming court documentation from the higher authorities; 3) notebooks and documents submitted to the court by subordinate institutions (accounts, journals,
reports, public sentences, etc.); 4) documents submitted to the institution by private individuals (reports, complaints, IOUs); 2) accounting court documentation; 5) papers sent to private individuals by court (notifications, directives), etc. The record-keeping materials of the central institutions allow us to reproduce the following questions on the history of the Greeks of the North Pryazovia: the assignment of land (F. 379 and 383 of the Russian State Historical Archive), the liquidation of the Mariupol Greek Court of the Order of the Mariupol Greeks after the reforms of the 60s and 70s of the 19th century. (f. 1286, 1287, 1291, 1405 of the Russian State Historical Archive).