Ieškant darbo Rusijos imperijoje: valstiečių iš lietuviškų gubernijų migracija XX a. pradžioje

The article deals with the labour migration of peasants from Vilnius, Kaunas and Suwałki governorates across the Russian Empire before the First World War. Peasant migrants were issued with the necessary identity documents by the local peasant self-government institutions. The social portrait of a peasant migrant from the Lithuanian governorates is presented by processing the data from the passport registers of six districts using descriptive and deductive statistical methods. Data on the distribution of migrants by gender and age is analysed, and their literacy is assessed. The procedure for renewing personal documents posed many problems for the migrants but the surviving documents of their correspondence with the local officials give information about the directions of migration and specific aspects of the migrants' daily life. The Baltic and Byelorussian governorates together with Saint Petersburg dominated among the longterm migration directions. The choice depended not only on geographical distance, but also on personal connections, which encouraged chain migration.