64 Friday, June 24, 1983
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
The Wikolayevski' Cantonists' Tale of Kidnapping Horror:
How the Russian Jews Resisted the Tyranny of Conscription
Oppressive
Russian
measures that fanned
anti-Semitism covered
many eras in a history
marked by numerous
struggles. The means used
for survival and to resist the
discriminating forces were
numerous and they con-
tinue to this time, with the
Czarist bigotries serving as
legacies for present-day
anti-Semitism.
An era marked by bitter-
ness and strife, which also
contributed toward divi-
siveness in the Jewish
communities, is described
in a most revealing histori-
cal chronicle. In "Tsar
Nicholas I and the Jews"
(Jewish Publication
Society), Columbia Univer-
sity Prof. Michael Stanis-
lawski summarizes the
transformation of the
Jewish communities in
Russia from 1825 to 1855. It
covers the period when
Jewish children were
snatched from their parents
and homes to be enlisted in
the Russian army for a 25-
year period. They were the
victims who became known
as the Cantonists, and
their plight is part of the
story recounted in this im-
portant volume.
Students of Russian
Jewish history also will be-
come better informed on the
Pale of Settlement — the
Cherto Ossiedlosti — in
which Jews were hemmed
in by Czarism and were re-
stricted into the ghetto that
was the making of the
Czars.
Prof. Stanislawski, a
native of Montreal who
was educated at Harvard
University and whose
specialty at Columnbia is
East European history,
gives details of the 70,000
children, the Cantonists,
who were the victims of
the Nicholas I tyranny,
few having returned to
their homes and to the
Jewish faith. Mary
perished, many were
converted to the Russian
state religion.
It was a period of many
shocks. Tried and tested by
the desire to retain and pro-
tect their children, some
parents were willing to pay
for substitutes to suffer the
Cantonist fate. Meanwhile,
there arose an element of
cruelty, the "khappers,"
those who captured children
to fulfill Czarist demands.
_ The unfortunate Can-
tonists were the
"Nikolayevskiye Soldati,"
as the reference to them re-
mained known in history —
"Nicholas' soldiers." The
"khappers" were the cruel
tool of the Czar, thus de-
scribed by Dr. Stanislawski:
"Since the proportion of
the pious Jews to view such truly assuaged for they laws passed in the interim.
underage recruits in the
an edict as a punishment were of an entirely novel or-
The Pale of Settlement
ranks of the conscripts was
from God was reinforced by der. Now it was Jew oppres- was finally clearly de-
so high, and parents fought
the coincidence of the publi- sing Jew.
lineated, its borders re-
the recruitment of their
cation fo the recruitment
"Perhaps the most poig- maining in effect until
children so strenously, the
statute with the beginning nant evocation of the shock World War I, It consisted of
kahal leaders had to hire
of the penitential Selihot that resulted from this new the provinces of Grodno,
special deputies to find and
period of the Jewish year.
predicament was provided Vilna, Volhynia, Podolia,
abduct suitable candidates
"Preachers found ancient by the Hebrew writer Buki Minsk and Ekaterinoslav in
for the draft. These posses,
texts which proved that the ben Yagli (Y.L. Katsenel- their entirety; the Bessara-
called khappers by the Jews
decree would be revoked if son) in his description of his bian and Belostok oblasts;
(from the Yiddish verb
the Jews would repent. grandmother's response to the Kiev Province, except
Khapn, to catch), soon be-
Synagogues were filled day the khappers. At first, the for the city of Kiev; the
came permanent fixtures in
and night, fasts proclaimed old woman believed that the Kherson Province, except
the Pale and earned the
and prolonged, contribu- khappers in her town' must for Nikolaev; the Taurida
hatred and the scorn of the
tions to charity increased, be Philistines or Amale- Province, except for Sebas-
masses of Jews..
all in the belief, as the kites; soon she discovered, topol; the provinces of
"In the early years of
MICHAEL STANISLAWSKI 1 iturgy has it, that (peni- as she told her grandson.,
Mogilev and Vitebsk, ex-
Nicholas' regime, the
ence, prayer and charity
main duties of these
" 'No, my child, to our cept for the rural settle-
would capture a child or annul a severe verdict.'
khappers were to search
adult and hand him over to While the communal lead- great horror, all khappers ments; the Chernigov and
out fugitives and to kid-
the khappers as a substitute e rs called meetings to dis- were in fact Jews, Jews Poltava provinces, exclud-
nap young children from
with beards and ing the Crown and Cossack
for a son or a brother."
uss the crisis, the masses
their mothers' arms. The
* * *
sidelocks.
And that is in- Settlements; and and the
flocked to the cemeteries to
existing Jewish com-
work • was lucrative;
lead for the intercession of deed our greatest prob- munities of Kurland, Riga
Jews Attempted
apart from the rewards
lem.
We
Jews
are
accus-
heir deceased parents.
to Evade System
and Shlok, and all villages
paid by the government
"One town solemnly tomed to attacks, libels, and rural settlements
Some
of
the
"khapper"
de-
and the salary from the
and evil decrees from the
watched folk preacher
tails are immensely horrify- p
kahal, the khappers fre-
non-Jews — such have within 50 versts of the west-
lace a letter to God in
ing. The author of this reve-
quently released kid-
happened
from time im- ern frontiers of the empire.
aling book relates this inci- t he hands of a corpse in
napped children for ran-
memorial and such is our
"Within these areas, the
he
hope
that
this
would
dent:
som money and replaced
Jews were permitted to
onvince Him to change lot in exile.
"A poor peasant woman N icholas' mind.
them with others.
move from place to place as
asked a Jewish butcher's
" 'In the past, there were they desired and to acquire
"Specific examples of the
"When
it
became
appar-
wife for some kosher meat to e
Gentiles who held a cross in land and property of any
treachery of the khappers
feed to Jewish boys who w nt that pentitence alone
one hand and a knife in the sort, save estates settled
abound in the memoir liter-
ould not suffice, the Jews
were hiding in her village.
ature of the period. The fol-
with serfs.
did not resign themselves to other, and said: 'Jew, kiss
The butcher's wife, assured
the cross or die,' and the
lowing two accounts are
serving the tsar obediently.
"There was to be no
by her husband that their
Jews preferred death to
paradigmatic.
The methods they used to
more
forced resettle-
own two sons were hiding in
apostasy. But now there
"In Kamenents, despite
town with a Christian evade the draft were similar
come Jews, religious Jews, ment, that is, expulsions
the efforts of his friends and
friend, seized on the oppor- to those employed by the
who capture children and from the villages; this
schoolmates, the khappers
Russian
peasants.
They
hid
tunity of finding replace-
send them off to apostasy. most important provision
caught Yosl, the eight-
ments for her sons and in forests, amputated their
Such a punishment was not was enacted in a separate
year-old son of a rich
fingers or toes, or escaped
even listed in the Bible's list law preceding the full
coachman who had died. asked the naive peasant across the frontiers.
of the most horrible curses. statute. Temporary
Yosl's mother folloWed him where the two boys were
"The governor of Vol-
hiding.
She
then
hurried
to
Jews
spill the blood of their sojourns outside the Pale
to Brest-Litovsk, but she
hynia reported that such
inform
the
local
brothers, and God is silent, were permitted for the
khappers of
was sent back to Kamenets,
evasions were so wide-
acquisition of inheri-
the rabbis are silent . .
where she died a few days - her discovery.
spread among the Jews of
tance, the securing of
"When
the
khappers
re- his jurisdiction that it was
later.
"This shock was soon rights at judicial venues,
"A year passed, and Yosl turned with the boys, the quite common not to find
translated into anger and study at academic in-
returned to Kamenets with butcher's wife was as- even one eligible recruit in bitterness, which could not stitutions, and some
a battalion of soldiers, but tonished to see that these many Jewish communities
be vented through the commercial affairs.
he was now an unresponsive were her own two sons."
during the conscription sea-
time-honored modes of in-
What was the reaction son.
"First-guild merchants
idiot, doomed to die within a
ternalized protest. As a re- were permitted to travel to
to
this
cruel
dictate
of
short time.
"When the Jews could not
sult, an entirely unprece- both capitals and to sea-
"The Hebrew writer 1827? The Kahal, the escape the draft by such
dented breaking of the ports and to reside in Mos-
community
organization
Y.L. Levin was walking
means,
they
found
refuge
in
ranks
occurred in Jewish cow for periods of up to six
along the streets of Minsk already in the throes of their traditional channels of
society; numerous riots and months at a time — a sub- ,
when he saw six men collapes resulting from resistance to external
attacks against the khap- stantial extension from the
emerge from a coach and the state of horror, is thus threat, an adamant consoli- pers
and their kahal em- one-month period prev-
enter a Jewish house. A recorded:
dation and intensification of ployers erupted throughout iously allowed.
few moments later the
"Before such acts of desp- their religious armor. Con- the Pale, cases of informing
"For the first time,
men came out, dragging a eration became common, sequently, the number of to the government mounted
Jewish merchants were of-
child whom they had the Russian Jews reacted to students in the traditional
both in frequency and in ficially permitted to travel
gagged. The child's the conscription policy Jewish schools, the
scope, and several groups of to both capitals and to sea-
mother soon followed, within their traditional hadarim and yeshivot, rose
Jews even took the radical ports and to reside in Mos-
screaming and sobbing, world view. Their initial re- significantly during
step of applying for legal cow for periods of up to six
but the khappers threw sponse to the 1827 decree, Nicholas' rule.
separation from the rest of months at a time — a sub-
her to the ground and therefore, was a mixture of
"Many parents who prev- the Jewish community.
stantial extension from the
rode off with the child.
gloom, fear and mystical iously could not afford to
"The institution of the speculation. 'All artisans' send their children to school
"These actions seriously one-month period prev
khappers flourished, how- shops were abandoned,' re- for long periods of time now
debilitated the autonomous iously allowed (no. 51).
ever, after the introduction ported the Yiddish writer realized that they could not
communal structure, whose
"For the first time,
of a law in July 1853 which A.M. Dik in Vilna, 'no afford not to keep them in
powers were steadily being Jewish merchants were of-
allowed the Jewish commu- matches were made, and school, fearing that they
diminished by the govern- ficially permitted to travel
nity to present any Jew many were broken off. would be conscripted with-
ment."
to the important commer-
found traveling without a Many Jews prepared to go to out a sufficient knowledge
cial fairs outside the Pale, at
"Tsar Nicholas I and Nizhnii-Novgorod, Irtbits,
passport as a substitute for Palestine, others rushed to of Judaism to resist conver-
the Jews" has the added Koren, Kharkov and
a recruit required from the join the merchant guilds. A sion and calculating that
value of recording Sumsk."
community. Groups of cripple was considered a the kahal leaders were re-
numerous other major
khappers
would roam saved man, an only son a luctant to draft good Tal-
Dr.
Stanislawski's
Jewish experiences in
through the streets abduct- joy, a hunchback an aristo- mud students."
commendably-researched
Russia.
It
provides
an
ac-
ing anyone who passed by. crat.'
* * *
count of the establish- study of a tragic Russian
Often, an ordinary Jew
"The natural tendency of
Jews Turned
ment of the Pale of Set- Jewish experience, together
Against Each Other
tlement and a brief por- with additional cumulative
tion of that descriptive material, is among the most
It was a state of horror
informative works on the
analysis explains:
and its effects were disastr-
subject. It enriches the
ous. The "state of mind" of
"The resulting Statute on Jewish Publication
many Jews is indicated in
the Jews, published on Society's creative Jewish
this portrayal in the
April 13, 1835, did contain historical library. It is a
deeply-moving Stanis-
some important innova- work of vital importance as
lawski volume:
tions, along with a restate- a guide to understanding all
"The antagonisms that
ment of most of the pro- of the elements in the Rus-
resulted from the conscrip-
visions of Alexander's 1804 sian anti-Semitism.
tion system were never
statute collated with the
—P.S.