1873 m. Alovės valsčiaus aprašymas

ENThere is the description of Alovė municipality (Aleksandrovskas) in the Department of Manuscripts of Vilnius University Library. It is stored in the collections of the Western Division of the Russian Geographical Society. It was created in the Russian language in 1873 by Makaras Osipovičius who was a teacher of a public school in Alovė. This description is of great value and the object of interest not only for historians but also for sightseers and ethnographers. It depicts the farm of the 19lh century. In 1866 Alytus County was liquidated and peasants from state manors of the Alytus and Nemunaitis area were assigned to the newly created Alovė municipality. The stale and private manors located in the territory of Alytus (including the part of the city on the right bank of the Nemunas), Daugai and Nemunaitis were also assigned to the municipality. The territory of Alovė municipality was very extensive and there were 13 mral counties in Alytus, Domantonys, Nemunaitis, Galintėnai, Gečialaukis, Daugai, Doškonys, Mieliūnai, Čižiūnai, Žvirgždėnai, Ilgininkai, Švabiškės, Potaronys which consisted of 75 villages. Alovė municipality had 3274 residents in 1865.On January 1,1868, after the suppression of the January Uprising, the implementation of the universal program of Russification started and the name of Alovė municipality as well as Alovė town were changed to the municipality Aleksandrovsk (after Tsar Alexander II) and the town of Aleksandrovsk respectively. The headquarters of Aleksandrovsk municipality were located in a small village Alovė. Russians built a storehouse of grain and primary school there. The recruitment of residents to the Tsarist Army from the surrounding villages was also carried out in Alovė. The description of Alovė by Makaras Osipovičius shows the economic situation of the residents. It is noted that in the three-field system dominated agriculture, the most often used animals were oxen and the basic tools were plows, wooden harrows and wooden wheels. The crops were very poor, as a result of crop failure two years in a row in 1867 and 1868. A terrible famine struck Alytus areas. The population consumed cereals supplied from other Russian provinces.