History of the Jews in Russia and Poland. Volume II | Page 6

that the volunteer must also be a Jew.

The "Instructions" to the civil authorities, appended to the statute,
specify the formalities to be followed both at the recruiting stations and
in administering the oath of allegiance to the conscripts in the
synagogues. The latter ceremony was to be marked by gloomy
solemnity. The recruit was to be arrayed in his prayer-shawl (Tallith)
and shroud (Kittel). With his philacteries wound around his arm, he
should be placed before the Ark and, amidst burning candles and to the
accompaniment of shofar blasts, made to recite a lengthy awe-inspiring
oath. The "Instructions" to the military authorities accompanying the
statute prescribe that every batch of Jewish conscripts "shall be
entrusted to a special officer to be watched over, prior to their departure
for their places of destination, and shall be kept apart from the other
recruits." Both in the places of conscription and on the journey the
Jewish recruits were to be quartered exclusively in the homes of
Christian residents.
The promulgated "military constitution" surpassed the very worst
apprehension of the Jews. All were staggered by this sudden blow,
which descended crushingly upon the mode of life, the time-honored
traditions, and the religious ideals of the Jewish people. The Jewish
family nests became astir, trembling for their fledglings. Barely a
month after the publication of the military statute, the central
Government in St. Petersburg was startled by the report that the
Volhynian town of Old-Constantine had been the scene of "mutiny and
disorders among the Jews" on the occasion of the promulgation of the
ukase. Benckendorff, the Chief of the Gendarmerie, [1] conveyed this
information to the Tzar, who thereupon gave orders that "in all similar
cases the culprits be court-martialed". Evidently, the St. Petersburg
authorities apprehended a whole series of Jewish mutinies, as a result
of the dreadful ukase, and they were ready with extraordinary measures
for the emergency.
[Footnote 1: Since 1827 the Gendarmerie served as the executive organ
of the political police, or of the so-called Third Section, dreaded
throughout Russia on account of its relentless cruelty in suppressing the
slightest manifestation of liberal thought. The Third Section was
nominally abolished in 1880.]

However, their apprehensions were unfounded. Apart from the incident
referred to, there were no cases of open rebellion against the authorities.
As a matter of fact, even in Old-Constantine, the "mutiny" was of a
nature little calculated to be dealt with by a court-martial. According to
the local tradition, the Jewish residents, Hasidim almost to a man, were
so profoundly stirred by the imperial ukase that they assembled in the
synagogues, fasting and praying, and finally resolved to adopt
"energetic" measures. A petition reciting their grievances against the
Tzar was framed in due form and placed in the hands of a member of
the community who had just died, with the request that the deceased
present it to the Almighty, the God of Israel. This childlike appeal to
the heavenly King from the action of an earthly sovereign and the
emotional scenes accompanying it were interpreted by the Russian
authorities as "mutiny." Under the patriarchal conditions of Jewish life
prevailing at that time a political protest was a matter of impossibility.
The only medium through which the Jews could give vent to their
burning national sorrow was a religious demonstration within the walls
of the synagogue.
3. MILITARY MARTYRDOM
The ways and means by which the provisions of the military statute
were carried into effect during the reign of Nicholas I. we do not learn
from official documents, which seem to have drawn a veil over this
dismal strip of the past. Our information is derived from sources far
more communicative and nearer to truth--the traditions current among
the people. Owing to the fact that every Jewish community, at the
mutual responsibility of all its members, was compelled by law to
supply a definite number of recruits, and that no one was willing to
become a soldier of his own volition, the Kahal administration and the
recruiting "trustees," who had to answer to the authorities for any
shortage in recruits, were practically forced to become a sort of police
agents, whose function it was to "capture" the necessary quota of
recruits. Prior to every military conscription, the victims marked for
prey, the young men and boys of the burgher class, [1] very generally
took to flight, hiding in distant cities, outside the zone of their Kahals,
or in forests and ravines. A popular song in Yiddish refers to these

conditions in the following words;
[Footnote 1: Compare on the status of the burgher in Russian law Vol. I,
p. 308, n. 2. Nearly all the higher estates were exempt.]
_Der Ukas is arobgekumen auf judische Selner, Seinen mir sich zulofen
in die puste Wälder..... In alle puste Wälder seinen mir zulofen,