Recruitment and Service in the Ranks 147
Let us look at these questions in turn a little more closely. In principle every
able-bodied male adult who was tyaglyy-that is, liable to pay the poll tax-
could be summoned to the colours, whether he was a peasant, a townsman, or
::ven a 'non-registered' ccdc:!>ia:sti1:. The system couid thus be called one of
selective conscription, confined to the underprivileged classes; this limitation
distinguishes it from the universal conscription of modern societies, which in a
sense it anticipated. Already Peter I had allowed merchants in the senior grade
to substitute one of their dependants or a payment in kind for a recruit; and
this provision remained in force.^11 In this respect merchants, like priests, were
more privileged than the gentry, who were legally obliged to serve until 1762.
Another group whose status was somewhat anomalous comprised the 'single-
homesteaders' (odnodvortsy). At first they were exempted, on the grounds
that they were already performing military service (in the Ukrainian /and-
milirsiya); but in the late eighteenth century they were gradually assimilated to
the category of state peasants, and therefore had both to pay the poll tax and
to provide recruits.^12 Similar exemptions were granted to certain people in
Siberia who served in local defence forces, artisans in factories producing
armaments or other military-related goods, and the drivers (yamshchiki) who
operated the official postal communications system.
The post-Petrine governments were niggardly in granting such favours. One
cannot really call them privileges, since they could be revoked at any time: thus
'homesteaders' were included in the levy of 1730 and drivers in those of 1732
and 1739.^13 So too were certain ecclesiastical personnel suspected of dissident
tendencies, although they could send substitutes,^14 and the Old Believers, who
in 1738 had to provide more than twice as many recruits as those in other
categories.^15 Exemptions from the levy were also used as a bait to tempt Orien-
tal natives into the Orthodox fold.^16
The state's interest was clearly paramount in all these provisions, and
Catherine changed the policy only slightly. In order to entice back Old Believers
who had fled to Poland, those who returned of their own free will were exempted
from the levy for six years and were also allowed to choose which community
they wished to belong to.^17 Refugees (including army deserters) who were
discovered by the troops that Catherine sent into Poland and were brought
back compulsorily were despatched either to the army or, if unfit, to settle-
ments in Siberia.^18 The latter fate was not so harsh as it might appear, since
11 For example, PSZx. 7973 (18 Dec. 1739), xiv. 10326(21Nov.1754); but cf. vii. 4845 (5 Mar.
1726), § 2, for a breach of it.(^12) Tkacheva, 'lz istorii', p. 139; de Madariaga, Catherine, p. IOI; PSZ xx. 14651 (18 Sept.
1777), § 7, xxi. 15723 (3 May 1783), § 5.
13 PSZ viii. 5605 (18 Aug. 1730), 6010 (29 Mar. 1732), x. 7722 (8 Jan. 1739).
14 PSZ x. 7158 (13 Jan. 1737); cf. 7169, 7364 (6 Feb., 7 Sept. 1737).
15 One recruit per 50 souls as against I per 120. PSZ x. 7702 (I I Dec. 1738); cf. xiii. 9620 (25
May 1749).
16 PSZ xi. 8236 ( 11 Sept. 1740), § 14; but cf. xv. 11099 ( 11 Sept. 1759).
11 PSZ xvi. 11720 (4 Dec. 1762). 18 PSZ xvii. 12507 (10 Nov. 1765).