General Lida community kahal information:
The Lida Jewish community was subject to the Grodno kahal (a self-governing institution of Jewish communities) starting in
1623. Under the Polish-Lithanian State (1569-1795), Lida was part of Vilno woewodstvo, an administrative unit of that era.  After Partition in 1795, Lida was governed by Russia. In 1796, Lida was the main district city, part of Slonim guberniya. In 1797, Lida was part of Vilna guberniya, a Lithuanian province.  In 1802, it was part of Grodno guberniya. In 1842, Lida was again part of Vilna province. After 1882, much of the population of the following settlements of Lida district was primarily Jewish:  Belitsa, Dvorsovaia Sloboda(1), Krasne, Novy Dvor, Orlia, Ostrino, Radun, Rozanka, Shchuchin, Vasilishki, Vilmonty(2), Voronovo, Zarechie(3), and Zaludok. After 1917, Lida was in Grodno Oblast.

Russian language newspaper resources available about Lida uezd from the Russian National Library in St. Petersburg (and probably in libraries in the US) for Jewish research in Lida uezd and Vilna guberniya:

• Grodnenskie guberniya vedomosti (Grodno Provincial Records):    published twice per week. Issues 1838-1841 available
• Vilenskie guberniya vedomosti (Vilno Provincial Records)    published twice per week. Issues 1842-1917 available.  Contents:
• courts affairs and actions;
• lists of people elected  to public city government and public positions in the Jewish communities;
• lists of recruits;
• lists of  electors to the State Duma with property qualificiations;
• advertisements of auctions and sucessful bidders;
• cultural events including Jewish charitable organizations;
•  trade advertisements
• Lidskoe Slovo [Lida Word]. Published weekly. (1912-1913 available  in St. Petersburg)  contents: lists of lower ranks of Vilna province killed, missing, or wounded during WWI
• Vilenskii Vestnik [The Vilno Herald] (St. Petersburg has 1842-1915  except 1895, 1896, 1897)
• Severo-zapadnaia torgovo-promyshlennaia zhizn [Northwest Trade Industrial Life] published by the Vilno       Trade-Industrial Society.  (St. Petersburg has 1913-1915)
• Vilenskii Listok ob'iavlenii [Vilno Leaflet of Announcements] published  in 1902.
• Golos Kozhevnika [The Voice of the Tanner] published 1908 in Vilno
• Remeslenno-tekhnicheskii vestnik [Handicraft-Technical Herald]  published in 1910
• Selskokhoziaistvennyi I torgovo-promyshlennyi posrednik [Agricultural and Trade-Industrial Intermediary] published in Vilna in 1910.
• Pamiatnue knizhki Vilenskoi gubernii [Memorandum Books of  Vilna province]. Published annually. Issue available: 1851-1855,     1860-1863, 1868, 1871-1915. Reference book for the following:
• Elected public position including public rabbis, leaders of  Jewish public organizations and other elected positions in the Jewish community
• owners of trade-industrial institutions
• teachers of Jewish schools
• Vsia Rossiiaa [All Russia]. Annual directories of owners of small  trade and idustrial organizations, stores, etc. St. Petersburg has 1895, 1897, 1899-1903, 1912 but more are available in US libraries. see Vilna province for town references
• Trade-Industrial reference books such as "List of Factories of European Russia" (1903); "List of Factory and Works Institutions of Russian Empire" (1909 and 1914)
• 'Address-Calendar' Vilenskogo general-gubernatorstva [Address-Calendar of the Administration of Vilno Province] compiled by A. Sementovski, St. Petersburg, 1868.
• Rassvet (Sion). [Dawn (Zion)]. Periodical of Russian Jews published in Odessa and St. Petersburg since 1860.
• Evreiskii Vestnik [Jewish Herald]. Monthly. dates unknown.
• Soviet era publications (1917-1960) also are available. Among them are the following:
• Vpered! [Forward!]: Lida City Committee of the Communist Partu of Belorussia, city and regional councils. Published Lida 1939-1941    then 1943-1960. 1940 on available in St. Petersburg.

Fond 1284 (Department of General Affirs in the Ministry of Internal Affairs), Inventory 224 (1893-1917): Jews residing outside the Jewish Pale and their emigration. Files contain information about certificates issued to Jews moving to Argentina (Files of the Central Committee of the Jewish Colonization Society). Other files: replacement of positions in local Jewish Colonization Society committees. Also, information about rent and purchase of land by Jews.

Fond 1284 (Department of General Affirs in the Ministry of Internal Affairs), Inventory189-90: Files converning real estate property owners, including land plots, of Jews and Polies in the western provinces of the Russian Empire (including Vilna province.)
    examples:
      -Fond 1284, Inventory 189, files 127, 129 (1901):
        purchase of land plots in Lida uezd of Vilna guberniya according  to Emperor's Decree of 4 March 1899
      -Fond 1284, Inventory 189, files 125 A, B, V, G (1902-1905):  purchase of land plots in Lida uezd,
       Vilna guberniya according  to Emperor's Decree of 4 March 1899
      -Fond 1284, Inventory 189, files 50 (1902):  register of certificates of the right to purchase land plots in Vilna
       guberniya.

Fond 821 (Department of Sacred Affairs for Foreign Religions in the Ministry of Interior Affairs), Inventory 8-11, 13, 133, 138, 150 (1853-1914): files with documents of Judaism and person of this faith including lists of synagogues, prayer houses, rabbis and other affiliated clergy from various Russian gubernii including Vilna gub.     Some files concern claims of various Vilna gub. residents about refusal to open synagogues, prayer houses, and cemeteries or the closing of those that previously existed. Claims about rabbinical or religious administration abuse. Election documents and confirmation of positions. Petitions of members of Jewish communities including signatures. Permission given to Jewish religious and charitable insitutions to receive properties (including real estate) donated or bequeathed by individuals.

Fond 821 (Department of Sacred Affairs for Foreign Religions in the Ministry of Interior Affairs), Inventory9 (1881-1883) has Vilna provincial commission work.

Fond 1565 (Central Committee of the Association for Approaching Equal Rights for Jews in Russia), Inventory 1, file 261 (1906):  correspondence with the Lida division of the Association concerning acitivies of the divison and the election in the State Duma. May contain lists of Jewish residents or other information.

Fond 1546 (Jewish Committee of Assistance to War Victims)

Fond 1292 (Compulsory Military service Administration in the Ministry of Interior Affairs) contains files concerning military
conscription in Vilna guberniya from 1860's to 1917. List of draftees and those who avoided conscription. Compiled annually. Inventory 4, File 12,  has 1882 Vilna guberniya information. Inventory 4, File 864 has 1891. Inventory 5, File 16 has 1898.

Fonds (Ministry of Finance) 573, 574, 575 have taxation information.

Fond 733 (Public Education), Inventories 97, 98, 189, 190 have information about the education of Jews in state colleges including Vilna educational district.

Further searching is possible in the Russian State Historical Archives in sections: Peoples (Jews); Industry; Joint Stock Companies; Revolutionary, Public and National Movements; and Personalities.