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Cantonists (Russian language: Кантонисты) were Jewish conscripts forced to serve in the Russian army for 25 years or more, according to the law signed by Tsar Nicholas I of Russia on August 26, 1827. A disproportionate number of Jewish minors under 18 years of age, and sometimes much younger, were placed in preparatory military training establishments. Even though boys as young as eight were frequently taken, the 25-year term officially commenced at the age of 18.
The vast majority of Jews came along to the Russian Empire as an unwelcome "side effect" of the territories acquired as a result of the Partitions of Poland of the 1790s; their civil rights were severely restricted (see Pale of Settlement) and most lacked knowledge of the official Russian language. Before 1827, Jews were doubly taxed in lieu of being obligated to serve in the army, but the Cantonist law did not alleviate this burden.
The Cantonist institutions existed before the 1827 in order to help Christian boys whose fathers were serving in the army, to prepare them for prospective service, but the new law redesigned them to affect Jews. One of the goals behind the compulsory military service was to strip Jewish boys of their religious and national identity. An official policy was to encourage their conversion to the state religion of Orthodox Christianity and Jewish boys were frequently forcefully baptized. As kosher food was unavailable, the boys were faced with the choice of going against the halakha or starving. Since the traditional Jewish society of the time was patriarchal, removing a family backbone was designed to hit both families and communities.
Strict quotas were imposed on kahals and the leaders were forced to turn against their own communities. As the wealthy and the guild members were not obligated or bribed their way out, the policy deeply sharpened social tensions. The practice of informers and kidnappers (Russian: "ловчики", lovchiki, Yiddish: "khapers") proliferated, as many potential conscripts preferred to run away rather than voluntarily submit to the virtual death sentence to which the long conscription period sometimes amounted. In the case of unfulfilled quotas, younger boys were taken. Their fate was described by Yiddish and Russian literature classics.
While at Vyatka, on his way to exile in Siberia, Alexander Herzen met a unit of emaciated Jewish Cantonists, some 8-years old, who were marching to Perm and then to Kazan. Their officer complained that a third had already died ("Былое и думы", The Past and the Thoughts).
The policy was abolished in 1855, with the death of Nicholas I. It is estimated that between 30,000 and 40,000 Jewish boys served as the Cantonists; most never returned to their homes.
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