156 The Imperial Century, 1725-1825
the time they were writing military service was at least limited to a fixed term,
normally 25 years, but until 1793 it had been indefinite-'so long as one's
strength and health allow', as the phrase went. Home leave was all but
unheard of for ordinary soldiers-'no furlough sweetens the long parting', in
Plotho' s wurJs-and they could not even correspond with their families;
indeed, until 1800 their kinsfolk might not be officially notified of a man's
demise.
Fortunately we have one memoir by a Russian soldier, Pamfil Nazarov,
which conveys something of what ..i recruit felt. 'I became exceedingly sorrow-
ful,' he writes, 'that the time would come for me to leave my mother and
brothers, of whom the eldest was married and had a son.' Since his next senior
brother was also married, and the youngest was under age, Painfil was the
obvious choice. His grandfather, as head of the household, was called to the
village assembly to hear its decision; meanwhile 'bitter tears coursed down my
face as I awaited the fateful news'. After bidding farewell to relatives in nearby
villages, 'my brothers and their wives and my aged grandfather fell upon their
knees before me, pleading that I should volunteer instead of my brothers'. He
acceded to their pleas. Several relatives accompanied him to Tver', the provin-
cial capital, where he underwent medical examination. The sight of several
hundred young men as naked as himself 'caused me shame and shyness'. 'The
governor called out "forehead!" and this [shaving] was carried out. I was
dressed in a garment and taken under guard.' After he had attended his first
rollcall parade his relatives were still allowed to see him, but of course they
~ould not accompany him to St. Petersburg, where 'from great sorrow for my
parents and from the severity of military [life) I became ill and collapsed
;everal times a day'.^7 o
Nazarov may be darkening the colours a little for literary effect, but his
lccount certainly brings us closer to reality than those of some high-ranking
~ussians or foreigners. A. Lebedev, who witnessed the 83rd levy in Moscow in
he summer of 1812, later recalled unsympathetically that •according to the
:ustom of the time it was accompanied by the obligatory wailing and weeping,
vhich went on the whole morning in front of the recruiting board [office] itself
:nd along all the streets adjoining it'.^71 Sir Robert Wilson, with bluff English
1eartiness, contended that although 'the day of nomination is passed in general
rief, and each family is in unaffected affliction at the approaching separation,
.. no sooner is the head of the reluctant conscript shaved, according to military
abit ... than the plaints and lamentations cease, and ... revel, with music
nd dance, takes place until the moment when he is to abandon his native
ome'.^72
The recruit's natural sense of alienation was heightened by the shaving of his
)rehead, that is, the front part of his scalp, and beard. This measure was
10 [Nazarov] 'Zapiski', pp. 530-3. 71 Shchukin, Bumagi, iii. 256.
72 Wilson, Sketch, p. 10. He was taken to task for his sanguine view of the matter by a com-
1triot: Lyall, Travels, i. 140.
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(Wang)
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