Lustracja

(Polish term, from Latin lustrum, a taxation or fiscal period), a periodic inventory of state property to ascertain its potential revenue. Lustracjas were compiled in Poland from 1564 to the late 18th century and by the Russian government in Lithuania, Byelorussia, and the Right-bank Ukraine between 1778 and 1876. The lustracja surveys determined the size, status, and labor obligations of the tax-paying population, the kind of land and its value, and the amount of revenue derived from rents. Lustracja commissions functioned in the western provinces of the Russian empire from 1867, where they were charged with verifying state property inventories and land allotments to state peasants.