This section refers to the modern Republic of Russia, not the Russian Empire (For details of the Russian Empire follow this link.)

Before the First World War nearly all Jews from Russia lived in the Pale of Settlement, the outer gubernias of the Russian Empire: areas that today are in Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Belarus, Ukraine and Moldova, not Russia.

Please refer to the Russian Empire gallery for record-keeping details.

Rossiiskii gosudarstvennyi arkhiv drevnikh aktov (RGADA)
(Russian State Archive of Early Acts);
Bol'shaia Pirogovskaia 17
119817 Moscow
Russia

It is recommended that genealogical inquiries for the Russian Republic be made through RAGAS (For details of this archival service please follow the link) See www.iisg.nl/~abb for survey.

Filming started in 1992, but only in interior areas where there were very few Jews. Some Jewish records from Tula, Tomsk and Siberia are now available.