Pamyatnaya Knizhka
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Pamyatnaya knizhka Memorial Book Памятная книжка is the title of official reference books of regions and towns in Russian Empire.
The books were annually published by local authorities in 89 gubernias and regions of Russian Empire starting from the mid-1830s till 1917. They provide information on population and businesses in the course of over 60 years. Over two thousand books have been found.
In 1920, Lazar Kaganovich had the Pamyatnaya Knizhka Sovetskogo Stroitelya (Memoir Book of Soviet Construction) written to extoll the accomplishments of Soviet expansion and control in Turkmenistan. It covered the official policies of the Soviet worker force, how their political structure was organized, and the specific methods used within the Soviet system to obtain support from the local population.[1]
Composition of Pamyatnaya knizhka
The books had some peculiarities in some gubernias and not always comprised 4 main sections:
- address-calendar (index of all local official institutions and their staff),
- administrative reference book (information on administrative units in a gubernia, post offices, roads, industrial and commercial enterprises, hospitals and chemists', educational institutions, museums and libraries, bookstores and print shops, periodicals, list of towns, major landowners etc.),
- statistic data (statistic tables on population, farming, education, incomes, fires etc.);
- historical background.