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Cantonists (Russian language: Кантонисты, the term adapted from Prussia for "recruiting district") were sons of Russian conscripts who from 1721 were educated in special "canton schools" (Кантонистские школы) for future military service (the schools were called garrison schools in the 18th century).
After 1827 the term was applied also to Jewish and Karaite boys, who were drafted to military service at the age of twelve and placed for their six-year military education in cantonist schools. They were required to serve in the Imperial 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. According to the "Statute on Conscription Duty" signed by Tsar Nicholas I of Russia on August 26 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 conscripts was uniform for all populations (four conscripts per each thousand subjects), however the actual recruitment was implemented by the local qahals and so a disproportionate number of Jewish conscripts were underage.
The main goal behind the compulsory military service was the integration of Jews and other non-Russian minorities into Russian society (effectively to the detriment of their religious and national identities). 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 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 (communities had to pay 500 roubles per each exempted potential Jewish recruit (the tax was 360 roubles for non-Jews)), 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.
Russia was divided into northern, southern, eastern, and western “conscription zones” and the levy was announced annually for only one of them. 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 qahal'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.
There were some significant differences in treatment of Jews and non-Jews: Jews were required to provide conscripts between the ages of 12 and 25, but all others between 18 and 35. 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.
The 25-year conscription term, former cantonists were allowed to live and own land anywhere outside the Pale of Settlement. The earliest Jewish communities in Finland were Jewish cantonists who had completed their service.
The gravestone pictured above pays tribute to a legion of cantonists who remained loyal to their Jewish faith throughout their compulsory military service under the rule of Tsar Nikolai.
Submitted by: admin
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