Transcribe Russian Revision Lists (Revizskie Skazki)

A revision list (ревизская сказка) is a household return from one of the Russian Empire's poll-tax audits. Ten audits were held between 1719 and 1859, and in practice most surviving returns are dated around 1795, 1811, 1816, 1834, 1850 and 1858. Each one lists a community household by household, gives every person two ages, and notes who has left or died since the last audit. For much of Eastern Europe it is the closest thing to a census that follows a family over time.

It is also dense, handwritten Cyrillic in columns, and a single page can hold a dozen households. KleioBase reads it, translates it into English, and turns each household into linked family profiles. Reading the page is the first step; the connected archive is the point.

How KleioBase reads a revision list

You upload a scan or a photo of the page. KleioBase reads the Cyrillic and gives you a transcription in the original alongside an English translation, keeping the layout of household numbers, names and ages. It then extracts each person with their relationship to the head of the household: wife, son, daughter, the son's wife, a grandchild.

Both ages stay on the page. Every person on a revision list has an age at the previous revision and an age at the current one. The transcription keeps both, so you can see when the two do not add up - which happens often, and is itself useful evidence.

What we tested before writing this page

We ran two real revision lists from Orenburg province through the same extraction every upload uses. A page from 1834 came back with thirty-five people grouped into their households, each with a relationship to the head. A page from 1816 came back with twenty-seven people, including the office one head of household held in the village. Both transcriptions kept the two age columns. That is two pages, not an accuracy figure, and we are not claiming one.

One thing to check. These lists often give only a given name and a father's name. Where the extraction grouped a wife or child under a head of household, it sometimes gave them a surname derived from his. That may be right, but the list does not say so, and the review step is where you decide.

From a scan to a connected profile

Reading the page is step one of four:

1. Upload the scan or photo.
2. Process it - KleioBase reads and translates the page and pulls out the people and households.
3. Review the result and fix anything the AI misread. Names spelled phonetically and ages that do not add up are where revision lists get tricky.
4. Confirm it - KleioBase creates or updates person profiles and links the page to them.

Once confirmed, a family that appears in the 1834 list and again in the 1858 list can become one set of profiles, with both lists attached. As the archive grows, KleioBase suggests likely duplicate people to merge and points out where a generation is still missing.

Why revision lists are hard, and how the review step helps

Surnames arrive late and change often on these lists, and family numbers do not carry over from one revision to the next. Linking the same household across two lists is the real research, and it depends on reading ages, names and relationships correctly on both. For how the document works and where the surviving lists are held, see our guide to Russian Empire revision lists.

KleioBase gives you a first reading and then hands you the controls. You confirm what is right and correct what is not, and nothing enters your archive until you do.