STATISTICA RUSĂ DIN 1820 CA IZVOR ÎN STUDIEREA ŞLEAHTICILOR POLONEZI DIN ŢINUTUL HOTIN

Abstract

The statistics, dating from 1820, include 145 unpublished documents (in fact, 145 localities from the Hotin land), presented by the Ispravnic of Hotin Land to Regional Government of Bessarabia. The material provides valuable information for the detailed knowledge of the situation of the localities of Hotin Land at that time. Statistics assesses with high accuracy and rigor the number of taxpayers’ families at the time of statistics, the number of nobles and religious faces, and contained detailed information on the total number of males and females in each locality, including males according to category of age. The statistics also contain a special section for females, which included: widows, girls and wives. A diffi cult moment in the analysis of this document is that the statistics contain information only for 145 rural localities. Information is missing for 73 localities, including the town of Hotin and some fairs. More detailed research shows that, in fact, there are missing data for 3 surrounding: Lower Dniester, with 22 localities; Ciuhur, with 25 localities and the Rashkov, with 21 localities. In addition, the statistics from 1820 do not contain information about 5 localities from Soroca land, 3 hamlets from Iasi land and 76 remaining localities from Hotin land, according to the administrativeterritorial division of 1818. The statistics of 1820 are deposited in the Fund of the Regional Bessarabian Government of the National Archives of the Republic of Moldova and have not been published until now. According to data in the statistics of 1820, representatives of Polish szlachta were present in the villages of Sauca and Noua-Suliţa (10 persons), Mărcăuţi (5 persons), Irstov/Otaci (4 persons) and Teleşeu (3 persons). Certainly, some Polish representatives of Polish szlachta lived in the Hotin town and the missing localities, about which, with regret, the statistics from 1820 do not have information. The analysis of the factual material present in the statistics of 1820 allows us to conclude that statistical information exerts a major impact on the understanding the processes occurring in the economic and social life of society, off ers the possibility to know with certain accuracy what happened within a certain period of time and outlines quantifi able assessments on the general development trends of the land and of the region as compared to the previous periods.