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For recruits in Prussian cantons, see Cantonist (Prussia)

Cantonists (Russian language: Кантонисты, the term adapted from Prussia for "recruiting district") were sons of Russian conscripts who from 1805 were educated in special "canton schools" (Кантонистские школы) for future military service (the schools were called garrison schools in the 18th century). All male children born to military personnel belonged to the Imperial Department of Military Affairs, and were obligated to be placed in cantonist schools from the age of 12, although there were a few exceptions: for example, decorated veterans could have one child exempted.

After 1827 the term was applied also to Jewish boys, who were drafted to military service at the age of twelve and placed for their six-year military education in cantonist schools of distant provinces. Like all other conscripts, they were required to serve in the Russian army for 25 years, according to the law signed by Tsar Nicholas I of Russia on August 26 (September 7 new style), 1827. A disproportionate number ) of Jewish minors under 18 years of age, and sometimes younger, were placed in such preparatory military training establishments. Even though boys of eight and even younger were frequently taken, the 25-year term officially commenced at the age of 18.

The policy, sometimes described as "the first modern exercise in social engineering", has lasted until 1856 and increased social tensions within Russian Jewish communities.

Historical background

The Cantonist institutions existed before 1827 in order to prepare Christian or Muslim boys whose fathers were serving in the army, for prospective service, but the new law redesigned them to include Jews. One of the goals behind the compulsory military service was to integrate Jewish boys into the Russian society (effectively to the detriment of their religious and national identity). Ukrainian and Polish cantonists were also pressured to assimilate, as part of general policy of Russification.

The vast majority of Jews entered the Russian Empire with the territories acquired as the result of the last Partitions of Poland of the 1790s; their civil rights were severely restricted (see Pale of Settlement). Most lacked knowledge of the official Russian language. Before 1827, Jews were doubly taxed in lieu of being obligated to serve in the army, and their inclusion was supposed to alleviate this burden. However the number of recruits reduced the number of young men that could go into the workforce, and this in combination with political restrictions led to widespread destitution.

Strains within Jewish community

Strict quotas were imposed on kahals and the leaders were given the unpleasant task of implementation of conscription in their own communities. As the merchant-guild members, agricultural colonists, factory mechanics, rabbis, and all Jews with secondary education were exempt and the wealthy bribed their way out of having their children conscripted, the policy deeply sharpened internal Jewish social tensions. The kahal leaders would employ informers and kidnappers (Russian: "ловчики", lovchiki, Yiddish: khappers), as many potential conscripts preferred to run away rather than voluntarily submit. In the case of unfulfilled quotas, younger boys were taken.

Training and pressures to convert

The boys in Cantonist schools were given extensive training in Russian grammar and mathematics, in particular geometry necessary in naval and artillery service. Those who showed aptitude for music were trained in singing and instrumental music, as the Imperial Army had a large demand for military wind bands and choirs. Some cavalry regiments maintained bands of torban players, and cantonist schools supplied these as well. Some cantonist schools also prepared firearms repairmen, veterinarians for cavalry horses, and administrators.

The official policy was to encourage their conversion to the state religion of Orthodox Christianity and Jewish boys were coerced to baptism. As kosher food was unavailable, they were faced with the choice of either abandoning Jewish dietary laws or starvation. Polish Catholic boys were subject to similar pressure to convert and assimilate as the Russian Empire was hostile to Catholicism and Polish nationalism.

All cantonists were institutionally underfed, and encouraged to steal food from local population, as "Spartan" character building training. On one occasion in 1856 a Jewish cantonist Khodulevich managed to steal Tsar's watch during military games at Uman. Not only was he not punished, but he was given a reward of 25 roubles for his prowess.

In the army

Discriminatory legislation ensured that Jews were held back in their army careers. According to Benjamin Nathans,

"... the formal incorporation of Jews into Nicolas I's army was quickly compromised by laws distinguishing Jewish from non-Jewish soldiers. Less than two years after the 1827 decree on conscription, Jews were restricted from certain army units, and beginning in 1832 they were subject to separate, more stringent and subjective criteria for promotion, which required that they "distinguish themselves in combat with the enemy."

Jews who refused to convert were barred from ascending above the rank of "унтер-офицер" i.e. staff sergeant. There were only eight exceptions that were recorded during the 19th century. These restrictions were not lifted until the February Revolution in 1917.

Some Christianized cantonists eventually reached high ranks in the Imperial Army and Navy, among them were generals Grulev, Arnoldi, Zeil, Khanukov; admirals Kaufman, Sapsay, Kefali, et al.

Literary references

The cantonists' fate was sometimes described by Yiddish and Russian literature classics.

Alexander Herzen in his My Past and Thoughts described his somber encounter with Jewish cantonists. While being convoyed to his exile in 1835 at Vyatka, Herzen met a unit of emaciated Jewish cantonists, some 8 years old, who were marched to Kazan. Their (sympathetic) officer complained that a third had already died.

Nikolai Leskov described underage Jewish cantonists in his 1863 story The Musk-Ox (Ovtsebyk). In 1877 Episcopal Justice (Vladychnyi sud) he describes an unusual case of a young man who offered to take the place of a conscript for money, but after being paid underwent conversion. Since a Jew could be replaced only by another Jew, that made him exempt and the original conscript liable again, as well as causing his family's destitution. The conversion was nullified by the horrified bishop.

Underground opposition

In 1949 Yosef Yitzchok Schneerson made an undocumented assertion that Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneersohn organized a special committee of three divisions. One was to devote itself to the communities, to assist them in lowering their quotas of conscripts. The second was to ransom conscripted children, by organizing a "society of the Resurrected." The third division sent men to the assembly points for Jewish contingents, to comfort the children and encourage them to be loyal to Judaism. This work entailed heavy expenses and the danger of charges of sedition. This assertion however is unsupported by any primary source

Abolition and results of cantonist policy

The Cantonist policy was abolished by Tsar Alexander II's decree on the 26th of August 1856, in the aftermath of the Russian defeat in the Crimean war, which made evident the dire necessity for the modernisation of the Russian military forces. All unconverted cantonists and recruits under the age of 20 were returned to their families. The underage converted cantonists were given to their godparents.

It is estimated that between 30,000 to 70,000 Jewish boys served as cantonists, their numbers were disproportionately high in relation to the total number of cantonists. Jewish boys comprised about 20% of cantonists at the scools in Riga and Vitebsk, and as much as 50% at Kazan and Kiev schools. A general estimate for the years 1840-1850 seems to have been about 15%. In general Jews comprised a disproportionate number of recruits (ten for every thousand of male population, the number was tripled during the Crimean War (1853-1856).

After the 25-year conscription term, former cantonists were allowed to live and own land anywhere outside the Pale of Settlement. The rate of conversion was generally high, as was eventual intermarriage. Most never returned to their homes.

See also

• Dazdie tax
• Jizya tax
• Useful Jew
• Leibzoll tax
• Pale of Settlement
• More Judaico
• Devşirme system
• Janissary
• Tallage

Notes

1. ^ Template:Ru icon Кантонисты (Cantonists] (Electronic Jewish Encyclopedia, based on the Shorter Jewish Encyclopedia. Jerusalem, 1976-2005: the Society for Research on Jewish Communities in cooperation with the Hebrew University, Jerusalem
2. Cantonists: Jewish Children as Soldiers in Tsar Nicholas's Army by Adina Ofek. Modern Judaism, Vol. 13, No. 3 (Oct., 1993), pp. 277-308
3. Zvi Y. Gitelman (2001): A Century of Ambivalence: The Jews of Russia and the Soviet Union, 1881 to the Present. Indiana University Press. ISBN 0253338115. p.5
4. Herzl Yankl Tsam (Beyond the Pale)
5. Benjamin Nathans (2002). Beyond the Pale: The Jewish Encounter with Late Imperial Russia University of California Press. p.29
6. Template:Ru icon Alexander Herzen. "Былое и думы" (My Past and Thoughts), end of Chapter 13: "Беда да и только, треть осталась на дороге."
7. Gabriella Safran (2000): Rewriting the Jew: Assimilation Narratives in the Russian Empire p.118
8. The Tzemach Tzedek and the Haskala Movement, Yosef Yitzchok Schneerson, Kehot, 1949, p. 19
9. Yohanan Petrovsky-Stern "Евреи в руссой армии (1827-1917)" pp.92-96
10. Yohanan Petrovsky-Stern "Drafted into Modernity: Jews in the Russian Army (1827-1917)" pp.111-172

References

• Simon Dubnow, The Newest History of the Jewish People, 1789-1914 Vol. 2 (Russian ed. ISBN 5-93273-105-2) pp. 141-149, 306-308
• CANTONISTS, by Herman Rosenthal at Jewish Encyclopedia, 1901-1906
• Benjamin Nathans, Beyond the Pale: The Jewish encounter with late imperial Russia (University of California Press, Berkeley, CA. 2002). pp.26-38
• Yohanan Petrovsky-Stern, Drafted into Modernity: Jews in the Russian Army (1827-1917) (Stanford University Press, to be published in 2007-8)
• Larry Domnitch, The Cantonists: The Jewish Children's Army of the Tsar (Devora Publishing, 2004). ISBN 1930143850

External links

• Life in the Pale of Settlement. Cantonists (Beyond the Pale exhibition)
• Military conscription in 19th century Russia by Dan Leeson (JewishGen)
• The Cantonists (Jewish History on the Web)
• Template:Ru icon Фронтовой соловей, by Eduard Flink
• Template:Ru icon Кантонистские школы
• Template:Ru icon Кантонисты
• Template:Ru icon Былое и думы. Часть вторая (Alexander Herzen, My Past and Thoughts, Part Two)
• Template:Ru icon Э. Шкурко. Еврейские мальчики в солдатских шинелях, или «жизнь за царя». (E. Shkurko. Jewish Boys in the Army Overcoats, or "Life for the Tsar")
• Template:Ru icon В. В. Энгель. Курс лекций по истории евреев в России, тема 6: «Политика самодержавия в отношении евреев во второй четверти XIX века». (V.V.Engel. Lectures on the history of Jews in Russia. Part 6: Tsarist Politics Concerning the Jews in the Second Quarter of the 19th century)
• Template:Ru icon Феликс Кандель Очерки времен и событий. Очерк седьмой (Felix Kandel. Jewish history. Essay 7) (chassidus.ru)

• Jewish Russian and Soviet history
• Imperial Russia
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