Revision Lists

Ревиские сказки, commonly called revision lists in English, are taxation records that were kept following the establishment of a poll or head tax by Peter the Great. The name "revision lists" comes from the way that each record revises the information from the one taken before it. (You may also see the name of these records erroneously translated as "revision tales" or even "revision fairytales," as the modern translation of сказки has shifted from the earlier meaning of "account.")

Revisions usually took years to complete and sometimes required supplemental information to be taken between revision dates. The following are the dates of the ten revisions that were taken, as well as notes about their completion and coverage:

• First revision: 1719-1724.
• Second revision: 1743-1747.
• Third revision: 1761-1767.
  
  • This was the first revision to record females.
  • The format of the lists was also standardized for this revision.
• Fourth revision: 1781-1782.
  
  • This was the first revision to record residents of Belorussia and Ukraine.
• Fifth revision: 1794-1795.
• Sixth revision: 1811.
  
  • This revision was never completed because of the war against Napoleon.
  • Women were not included in this revision.
• Seventh revision: 1815-1817.
  
  • The intention of this revision was to complete the unfinished sixth revision.
  • It also featured new printed and standardized forms.
• Eighth revision: 1833-1835.
• Ninth revision: 1850-1851.
  
  • This revision did not include some provinces in the western part of the Empire, which were recorded in a separate revision between the eighth and ninth revisions.
• Tenth revision: 1857-1858.

Each individual was generally referred to as a душа, or soul, in the revision lists. Given that these records contain detailed information about households and the relationships between household members, they are used like censuses in genealogical research. While these records can be difficult to use because of the lack of consistent access to them (depending on the locality in question), the long time periods it took to take the revisions, and the absence of digital indexes for the record sets, revision lists still fill a vital role in connecting families and identifying relationships where they are available.

Format

See a transcription and translation of this document

To simplify your reading of the documents you find, the following is a transcription and translation of the headings found on records of the tenth revision. While the information kept for each revision varies, this format should give you a good idea of the general format for other revisions as well. Spellings have been standardized to those used in modern Russian.

Use the scroll bar to see the rest of the headings for this document type.

Based on just the headings, a list of information that could be taken from the tenth revision would include the following:

• Family recording numbers from the previous revision (if applicable)
• Family recording numbers for the current revision
• Male household members and their relationship to the head of household and/or other members of the household
• Female household members and their relationship to the head of household and/or other members of the household
• Ages from the previous revision (if applicable)
• Ages for the current revision
• Reasons why someone was not present in the previous revision (for example, they were born after the previous revision)
• Reasons why someone was not present in the current revision (for example, they moved away or died between revisions)

This, of course, is not a guarantee that each revision list will include every item listed or a great deal of detail about each point.