286 The Military Settlementshoped to derive from the fact that the local people, as he thought, 'still retained
tht:ir martial spirit'.^45
The same mistake was committed in the south-western settlements, where
the militia tradition had never been interrupted. These were scattered across
tlic steppe in a great semicircle, from the Yelizavetgrad area wcstwa1d to the
river Bug and then downstream almost to Nikolayev; the administrative centre
was located at Voznesensk (see map). They were set up in 'old military
viilagesq^6 whose inhabitants (especially the ex-Cossacks) knew their rights and
resented the enforced change of status. Trouble broke out as soon as the pro-
ject was initiated in 1817, and morale was not improved when, four years later,
General Vitt decided to force the pace of development. Aware of the area's
rich agricultural potential, he offered handsome incentive payments to any
regimental commander who managed to make his unit self-sufficient in food
and fodder grains within three years-an unreasonably brief term.47
Alexander I was planning other settlement areas in Yaroslavl' province and
in Volhynia when he died. At that time Arakcheyev's organization, the
Separate Corps of Military Settlements, reportedly controlled 160,000 soldiers
(including nearly 4,000 officers).^48 Two military writers state that this was
almost one-third of the Russian army's entire strength, which if so implies that
this was only about half as large as it should have been according to the
establishment tables (approx. 900,000).^49 The settlers comprised 20 regiments
each of infantry and cavalry, located respectively in the forest and steppe
zones, plus sundry artillery, engineering, and transportation units.^50 Arak-
cheyev claimed that there were also nearly as many ( 154,000) children, termed
'canconists', and 8,000 invalids; if one accepts these figures, and adds in the
3i4,000 peasants who had by then been brought within the system,^51 the
reform encompassed about^3 1'4 million persons.
They were divided into several categories. In each settled regiment only a
quarter of the men became farmers (khozyayeva) with a homestead of their
-'5 Shchepetil'nikov (SV.\1 iv) p. 118; Petrov, 'Ustroystvo', pp. 111, 138-44, 232-7:
\'eresh.:hagin. ':'\faterialy', p. 1~9: Kartsov, 'O voyennykh poseleniyakh', 3, pp. 88-90.
-'^6 PSZ xxxiv. 26800, 27195 ( 16 Apr., 24 Dec. 1817); Kabuzan, Zaseleniye l'iovorossii, pp. 66-7;
d. pp. 209, 226 For population tables which, however, evidently exclude the farmers (kho:.yayeva)
and ocher dependants who also lived under military rule. For a vivid description (1822): Lyall,
Tra\·e/s, i. l.W-52.
,-Dubrovin, Sbornik, v. 60-1, 69: Shchepetil'nikov (SV,-fiv) p. 117; Kartsov, 'O voyennykh
pl1>.:leniyakh', 3, p. 95: Yevstafyev, Vosstaniye, pp. 76-7.
-'8 Shchepetil'nikov (SVM iv) p. 114; Fabritsius (S VM vii) p. 591 and app. p. 103.
·~ Petrov, Russkaya voyennaya sila, ii. 339; Kartsov, 'O voyennykh poseleniyakh', 3, p. 112.
For lower contemporary estimates: Pontcarre, 'Rapport sur les colonies militaires' [ 1824) and La
Ferronays to de Damas, 22 Apr. 1827, in tv1AE, Met D, Russie 27 (1819-27), ff. 6iL, 217:
6~-10.000. (Excerpts from this despatch are in Schiemann, Nikolaus/, ii. 415-22). Tanski
( Tubleau, p. 120) estimates the number (in the south alone) at 47,000.
"' Lykoshin, 'Voyennye poseleniya', p. 88; Kartsov, 'O \Oyennykh poseleniyakh', 3, p. 112;
Fabrit~ius (SVMvii) pp. 269ff.
'i The latter Figure (both sexes) was given by Chernyshev in an official report or 1850: '!st.
oboueniye', SIRJO xcviii. 420. Arakcheyev's would deserve closer scrutiny: the number or
.:hildren seems too high and may refer to all Family members, since soldiers' wives are not listed
;eparately.