Global InformationRevision list information
Revision lists (Russian: Реви́зские ска́зки, romanized: Revizskie skazki), are a series of census lists of the taxable population of the Russian Empire, taken between the early 18th century up until the end of the 19th century. The lists were taken to account and register information to collect tax revenue to fund the Imperial Army.
The revision lists were lists of names (name, patronymic, and surname), ages, and relation to head of the household. Most revision lists contained both men and women, but summary tables did not include women.
In cities, the lists were compiled by representatives of the city government, and depending on if the lists composed included peasants, it would be tallied by landlords to include their serfs.
In periods between revisions taken, which were often irregular and far apart, the register sheets were often updated with supplemental information. The presence or absence of a person would appear in the supplemental registration, and would note status of people who had run off, been born, exiled, conscripted, or had died. Due to the nature of the distance between revisions, a person was still considered legally alive until a revision updated their status, and their registration was changed, marking many deceased as alive "revision souls", which often increased taxes, as well as estate value, on a family. This became the plot of the book Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol.
A total of 10 revisions were completed. Of these, the 1719, 1743, and 1811 excluded women from listings. The revision lists often took many years to finalize due to the size and communicative distance of the Russian Empire.
1858 concluded the final ever revision list, and would be followed up by the first and only All-Russia Census of 1897.
In the current age, the listing of the familial relations and locations on revision lists are considered important resources in Eastern European genealogy.