202 The Imperial Century, 1725-1825be a relief in levying recruits from the people'.^1 The qualifications here were
important. Men of gentry background were excluded because they were
expected to take a different route: the best of them would enter the Cadet
Corps, set up in St. Petersburg at this time (1732) to train potential officers.
The ban also extended to the 'sing!e-hcmesteaders' and other settl~r~ whn·~11s
tained the Ukrainian land-militia. Boys born to ordinary soldiers before the
latter entered service were excluded because such children belonged to the tax-
paying communities concerned (or, if they were serfs, to private proprietors);
the same applied to those born to men after they had been discharged,
although they could be presented for schooling if their fathers wished.
The remaining 'soldiers' children' (so/datskiye deti) now officially became
the property of the state, and some decrees actually referred to them in these
terms: sobstvennost · voennomu vedomstvu, or 'property of the military
department'. This curious phenomenon was a logical corollary of serf bond-
age. Clad in military uniform from the tender age of seven, these boys spent
their entire brief lives within earshot of the bugle and the drum. The cur-
riculum in a garrison school consisted of reading and writing, singing,
arithmetic, artillery and engineering, crafts such as tailoring and carpentry,
and-last but not least-drill.^2 Fifteen such establishments were functioning
by the mid-l 740s, not counting those in the regiments, with a theoretical total
of 4,000 places.^3 The first 15-year-old 'graduates' were sent off to their units in
1740, where they served mainly as clerks or mechanics; later some of them
became bandsmen, and for this purpose instrumental music was added to the
programme at certain schools.
By 1763 the number of pupils had reached 8,755.^4 Growth was assisted by
the entry of orphans and illegitimate children fathered during the Seven Years
War. The authorities had knowledge of another 752 who were too young to
enter school and who either lived with their father in his regiment or, if they
had been orphaned, were looked after temporarily by other relatives or foster
parents. The first orphanages in Russia date from Catherine's reign. Her
government silently tolerated the presence of many soldiers' children 'outside
the system', so to speak, because it neither wanted nor could afford to main-
tain them from state funds. Figures of 10,300 pupils in 1773 and 12,000 in 1797
have been cited, but the latter certainly includes some boys of privileged
background as well as a number who were actually being looked after by
relatives and were not in school. s
I PSZ viii. 6186 (21 Sept. 1732); Shchepctil'nikov, in SVM iv (I, i, ii). 174-5. On the whole
phenomenon see now Kimerling, 'Soldiers' Children'.
(^2) [Rusinov) Zapiski, p. 143; Shchepetil'nikov (S VM iv) p. 177; PSZ ix. 6767, 6849 (9 July 1735,
6 May 1736); Vladimirsky-Budanov, Gosudarstvo, p. 187.
l PSZ ilii. 9054 (26 Oct. 1744), p. 249.
(^4) PSZ xvi. 11816 (14 May 1763); Shchepeti!'nikov (SVM iv) p. 180.
(^5) [Rusinov) Zapiski, pp. 166-7; Shchepetil'nikov (SVM iv) p. 183. A higher estimate (18,000)
was offered by von Hupel: Storch, Hist.-stat. Gemiilde, i. 459.