Marking Time 331upon his commander remarked: 'Now there's a Yid for you!q^0 The rnmmenl
suggests an underlying ambivalence towards the victim not unknown among
anti-Semites elsewhere.
During the Crimean War Jews were required to provide recruits at higher
rates than non-Jews, and although their communities resisted the levy more
actively than most nearly 30,000 were taken.^41 A liberal-minded officer who
witnessed their conscription in Bessarabia was distressed at the sight of
mothers desperately clinging to their children as soldiers tried to drag them
away. But two of his men reacted differently: 'They don't ask us when taking
our children. Are the Jews any better than we are? Let there be one line for
everyone. '^42
Recruits from other national minority groups, such as Latvians, also suf-
fered from discriminatory practices, if in a less extreme form. They might for
instance be beaten for disobeying oral commands that were given in Russian,
which they could not understandY Old Believers and religious sectarians,
some of whom held pacifist convictions, were also brought within the scope of
the levy. They were generally assigned to units fighting in the Caucasus, and
were denied leave or discharge unless they converted to the state Church;
otherwise they were left in peace so long as they did not actively propagate
their beliefs.^44 In his memoirs of the 1830s General Murav'yev-Karsky recalls
seeing a party of sectarian recruits (probably Dukhobors) being taken from
Tambov to the Caucasus. One of them, asked about his beliefs, said: 'Why
should I risk my life to kill another man who has done me no harm?' He added
that before being conscripted the members of his group had been severely
punished for their dissident opinions, but had refused to recant.^45
The induction procedure remained basically unchanged under Nicholas I,
although the 1831 statute laid it down in greater detail.^4 i-One minor but sym-
bolic step forward was taken in 1849, when the archaic practice of shaving
each man's scalp, as if he were a convict, was finally done away with.^47 After
1831 those who tried to avoid the levy by maiming themselves or simulating
illness were punished a little less harshly than before.^4 ~ Recruits also received
increased food allowances, longer rest periods on the march, and more
40 Fedorov, 'lgrushechnaya armiya ', pp. 166-7.
41 Bogdanovich, /st. ocherk, i. app. 11-12.
42 Neizvestnyy, 'Za mnogo lei', pp. 141-2.
41 Gribbe, 'Kholernyy bunt', p. 514; also ci1.:d in Cunis" R1m1t111 Antn•, p. 2W.
44 II PSZ v(ii), 4010 (20 Oct. 1830), ~~ 2, 6: vii.^5120 (29 .Ian. 1832); ,·f. i\(i), 67:10 (17 Jan.
1834).
4j Murav·yevt-Karskyl 'Zapiski', RA (1886), 11, p. JJI.
4o 11 PSZ vi(i),^4677 (28 June^1831 ), Ill,~~^214 fl. A graphic· cyc'-\\lllll'" accoun1 of Jim wa\
given by an English dergyman who VJ\ited Ru"ia in the lalc IH.1lk 1he Rc\J K. I. \'enabk,.
Domestic Scenes in Rmsia .... Lo11Jo11. 1109, pp. 189-94 (abo ,·ncJ by Bulo1e11ko, · :\J111ini;.1ra-
tion', pp. 407-10).
47 11 PSL xxv(ii), 2Jl49 (I Apr. 18491.
4K Bolotenko, 'Admini~tralion', p. 429: c:L \Oil ll<l\Jha1hc11. A·,.,,,_~111111,·/J1 R1111/wuls. p. 72:
Tanski, Tableau, p. 158.