Cantonist Topics

• tsar nicholas i
• lord and peasant in russia
• joseph solomon
• military surgeons
• russian army
• ablest
• military education
• conscription
• conscript
• cartographers
• battalions
• orphanage
• military service
• 26 september
• new style
• aptitude
• blum
• military personnel
• arithmetic
• peasant

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Cantonist, Cantonist

Their enrollment was increased in 1732, and the term was set from the age of 7 to 15. The curriculum included grammar and arithmetic, and those with a corresponding aptitude were taught artillery, fortification, music and singing, scrivenery, equine veterinary, or mechanics. Those lacking in any talent were taught carpentry, blacksmithery, shoemaking and other trades useful to the military. The ablest ones were taught for additional 3 years, until the age of 18. All entered military service at the completion of their studies. The decree of 1758 required all male children of the military personnel to be taught in the cantonist schools. In 1798 a military "asylum-orphanage" was established in St. Petersburg, and all regimental schools were renamed after it, the total enrollment reaching 16 400.

In 1824 all cantonist schools were made answerable to the Director of Military Settlements Count Aleksey Arakcheyev, and in 1826 they were organized into cantonist battalions. During the reign of the Nicholas I of Russia the number of cantonists reached 36,000. Several cantonist battalions became specialized: they prepared auditors, artillerists, engineers, military surgeons, cartographers.

Mille Joseph Solomon Lutski, Russian Review, Vol. 54, No. 4 (Oct., 1995), pp. 628-630 , who were drafted to military service at the age of twelve and placed for their six-year military education in cantonist schools. Like all other conscript, they were required to serve in the Russian army for 25 years after the completion of their studies. In 1834 the term was reduced to 20 years plus 5 years in reserve and in 1855 to 12 years plus 3 years of reserve. Jerome Blum (1971) "Lord and Peasant in Russia: From the Ninth to the Nineteenth Century", ISBN 0691007640, pp. 465,466 According to the "Statute on Conscription Duty" signed by Tsar Nicholas I of Russia on August 26 (September 7 new style) 1827 Jews were made liable to personal military service and were subject to the same conscription quota as all other tax-paying estates ("sosloviya") in the Russian Empire. The total number of conscrips was uniform for all populations (four conscripts per each thousand subjects), however the actual recruitment was implemented by the local kahals and so a disproportionate number of Jewish conscripts were underage (Cantonists) article in the 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 of Jerusalem.

Ukrainian and Polish cantonists were also pressured to assimilate, as part of general policy of Russification. However, in the case of Jews, unlike similar measures implemented earlier by the Austro-Hungarian Emperor Joseph II the Russian policy failed to provide greater civil and economic rights.

The Pale of Jewish settlement was outside conscription in the fallow years, so the conscription in general and of cantonists in particular occurred once every four years. The first 1827 draft involved some 1,800 Jewish conscripts, by the Kahal's decision half of them were children. In 1843 the conscription system was extended to the Kingdom of Poland that was previously exempt from it.

This system created disproportionate number of Jewish cantonists, and betrayed the utilitarian agenda of the statute: to draft those more likely to be susceptible to external influence, and thus to assimilation.

On one occasion in 1856 a Jewish cantonist Khodulevich managed to steal the 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.

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 equestrian bands of torban players, and cantonist schools supplied these as well. Some cantonist schools also prepared firearms mechanics, veterinarians for cavalry, and administrators ("auditors").

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. Initially conversions were few, but after the escalation of missionary activities in the cantonist schools in 1844 about 1/3 of all Jewish cantonists would have undergone conversion.

The distribution patterns of the 18-year-old cantonists show that Jews were not discriminated against: they demonstrated similar average literacy, physical ability, and training accomplishments and were sent in the same army and navy regiments as Christian graduating cantonists. A comparison between baptized and unbaptized Jewish cantonists indicates relatively insignificant advantages that the former enjoyed over the latter.

All unconverted cantonists and recruits under the age of 20 were returned to their families. The underage converted cantonists were given to their godparents. However the implementation of the abolition took nearly 3 years.

Jewish boys comprised about 20% of cantonists at the schools in Riga and Vitebsk, and as much as 50% at Kazan and Kiev schools. A general estimate for the years 18401850 seems to have been about 15%. In general Jews comprised a disproportionate number of recruits (ten for every thousand of the male population, Yohanan Petrovsky-Stern "Drafted into Modernity: Jews in the Russian Army (1827-1917)" pp.111-172 the number was tripled during the Crimean War (1853-1856).

The earliest Jewish communities in Finland were Jewish cantonists who had completed their service. The rate of conversion was generally high, as was eventual intermarriage. Most never returned to their homes.

Source: Wikipedia > Cantonist