‘The Cantonists’

New Book by Yosef Mendelevich

Interview by Tzvi Fishman

A scholarly book on a fascinating yet little known subject in the chronicles of Jewish History has recently been published: “The Cantonists – Jewish Boys in the Russian Military 1827-1856.” No less interesting than the subject itself is the fact that it was written by Rabbi Yosef Mendelevich, the former “Prisoner of Zion” who was incarcerated for eleven years in Soviet prisons for attempting to hijack an airplane to fly to freedom in the Land of Israel. His own dramatic ordeal has been recorded in many articles, interviews, documentary films, and books. He and his comrades in the Jewish Underground helped topple the Iron Curtain and lead to the freedom of countless Jews. To learn more about the book and why he wrote it, I met with him after a day of his teaching at the Machon Meir Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem.

“I wrote the book as part of my thesis for a Master’s Degree at Touro College in Jerusalem. At the time, I also served as the head of the school’s Student Immigrant Department. While I was searching for a subject, Professor Aryeh Morgenstern advised me to investigate the newly available material from Russian military archives. This led me to research the fate of Jewish children who were conscripted into the Russian Imperial Army in the nineteenth century. These boys, aged 13 to 18, and known as Cantonists, were sent to military schools where they received military training. Of course, they were all Orthodox Jews – secularism in Russia was to come later, largely as an outgrowth of this conscription. At the age of 18, these young people continued in regular military service. Unlike the majority of soldiers who were conscripted into the army without formal schooling, these young recruits received a solid education. As a result, these boys advanced quickly in their military careers and obtained officer ranks, including senior officer positions.”

Sounds like a good deal.

“There was a darker side. Children were conscripted even younger than age 13, sometimes as young as 9 or 10. They did not speak Russian; they only spoke Yiddish and could not understand anything. They had no way to observe Torah commandments and had no access to kosher food. In addition, they were forced to participate in Christian rituals because most students were Christian. Gradually, they forgot how to practice Judaism and were pressured into converting to Christianity. Often, attempts were made to forcibly convert them through torture.”

Before getting back to the interview, it is important to note that while the 400-page book is filled with historical research, parts of it read like a suspense-filled novel. For example, the testimony of Chaim Merimzon, who was abducted to serve as a cantonist in 1854, two years before the abolishment of compulsory conscription of minors, and who served for twenty-five years. He writes:

“I remember myself from the age of five. My mother dressed me in tẓiẓit and gave me coins to put in the pushke of the beit midrash, and if I met beggars on the way, I should give to them, too. Of all the children, I was my mother’s favorite because I was called after her father. Her father was the town rabbi, and she dreamt that I too would be a rabbi. . . My eleventh birthday was on a Friday. My father decided to buy maftir and the honor of reading the chapter of the Prophets for me. He tested me in advance to ensure that I wouldn’t embarrass my parents. They planned to arrange refreshments for the honorary members of the community to be served after my being called to the Torah. My mother baked honey cake—lekakh, and my father sent me to the store to buy drinks. I happily ran to the store. I said to myself, ‘What a wonderful Shabbat we’ll have. The guests will sit and help themselves to cake and drink, and I’ll sing zemirot.’ Walking to the store, I turned into Varshavskaia Street. A carriage with a pair of horses came toward me. The driver was a Lithuanian gentile, and two older Jews were sitting in the carriage. One of them asked me, ‘Where does the innkeeper live?’ I said that it’s at the end of the road and that I was going just there.

‘Come on up. We’ll take you.’

As I sat down, they said something in Lithuanian to the driver, and he waved his whip and the horses took off in a gallop… When we reached the inn, I told them to stop, but they continued galloping until they came to the forest. The sun was setting. The men got down from the carriage and started to recite the mincḥa afternoon prayers. Suddenly I realized that these were the kidnappers, ‘khappers,’ who seize children for conscription. I started crying and shouting. I tried to escape, but the gentile held me with all his strength until they finished their prayers. They got back into the carriage and restrained me with great force. The carriage drove along a dirt road until we came to a lone and neglected house….”

How many young Jews are you speaking about?

“From 1827 to 1856, a total of 75,000 Jewish children were conscripted, but only 25,000 of them agreed to convert to Christianity. However, the remaining 50,000 became the first secular Jews in the Russian Empire. After serving in the army, around the age of 40, they were discharged from permanent service, but by then they were already distant from Judaism and Jewish communities did not accept them back into the fold.”

How does your book differ from other studies of the subject?

“Most previous research focuses on the suffering of these Jewish boys and the forced conversion to Christianity. I chose to present a broader picture by exploring questions which hadn’t been covered such as: who was Tsar Nicholas I? Who were his ministers? How were decisions made? What did Jewish communities do to prevent the decree? How did Jewish community leaders behave after the law was enacted? Was there active Jewish resistance to conversion?”

What are some of the things you discovered?

“My research revealed that the primary reason for drafting Jewish boys was an attempt to integrate the Jewish population into Russian society. The Russian Empire had annexed large areas from the Polish kingdom which were heavily populated by Jews in the period from 1770–1800 (according to the non-Jewish calendar). Previously, Jews did not live in the Russian Empire, nor did they speak Russian. In Poland they had a degree of autonomy within closed communities, including their own courts – the “Council of Four Lands.” Then suddenly, Russia inherited three million “foreign” people. The Tsar decided to promote integration. However, it was difficult for the authorities to penetrate the Polish Jewish community, so the Tsar believed that educating Jewish children in the European style would be the key to integration. In Russia, there were already military schools for Russian boys from the age of 15, and these were beneficial for the local population, providing good education, free food and boarding. However, for Jews, this was a disaster, as they were not accustomed to the non-Jewish way of life.

“Some of the Tsar’s ministers opposed his initiative, arguing that the Jews were not ready for it. These ministers were educated at universities like the Sorbonne, Oxford, and Heidelberg. The Russian Empire also had a Senat like the British  House of Lords, where there was strong opposition to the Tsar’s plan.”

How did the Jewish community react to the conscription of Jewish children?

“Jewish leaders tried to reach influential figures in Europe to pressure the Tsar to cancel his plan. There were rumors that Jewish leaders had bribed top officials in the Senate. To counteract this resistance, the Tsar issued a royal decree that could not be breached. Once the law was enacted, Jewish communities faced a serious problem. In order to by-pass the conscription of their children, wealthy Jews paid community officials to kidnap other Jewish children in their place. These rich Jews donated money to pay taxes on behalf of poor Jews, so community leaders had an interest in protecting the children of the wealthy. In addition, communities sent “kidnappers” to find Jewish boys from other areas wandering without passports and delivered them to the draft office instead of local youth. I found a report from a royal inspector who visited a conscription office. He reported that local Jewish community leaders controlled the draft office. They bribed the officer in charge with vodka, keeping him constantly drunk, while they decided who would be drafted and who would be exempt.”

When a select group of people decide who goes and who doesn’t go that can easily cross lines of morality and corruption, no?

“In writing a book of research like “The Cantonists” I decided to leave my personal judgments aside. The actions of the members of the Jewish community, including the community leaders and the khappers (kidnappers) must be handled objectively. The community operated within a very complex reality. Its first interest was to uphold Jewish autonomy, but when a body was formed that represented the Jews and interceded with the Russian authorities on their behalf, the latter immediately saw it as an address for exerting pressure, extortion purposes, and demanding cooperation. From the viewpoint of the population of any given town, it was preferable to conscript poor young children in order to allow the exemption of the breadwinners. The community leadership was interested in protecting the wealthy because it was they who funded the deficit in the payment of the community’s taxes. On the other hand, thеrе was the horrific dilemma of sending innocent children straight into the arms of the Church in exchange for saving the breadwinners. Was that moral? And where were those who determine such questions – the Torah sagеs and spiritual leaders in the generation when Hasidism and the Lithuanian yeshivot flourished? Was their voice heard? And what can one expect from a thirtееn-year-old boy, or one even younger, when falling into the hands of Russian gentiles? Strong resistance for the principles on which he had been raised at home, or calculated submission with the intention of returning to Judaism at the first opportunity? Such questions arise automatically when researching this topic. The reader is left to supply any moral judgments by himself.”

How were the Jewish boys forced to convert?

“The government did not officially order the forced conversion of Jewish boys. However, school commanders understood what was expected of them. According to the conversion procedure, school commanders were supposed to invite the boys to their homes, offer them cookies and tea, and persuade them to convert. However, this approach was ineffective so punishments and restrictions were introduced. Boys who agreed to convert received better food and treatment. Those who refused faced harsh restrictions and physical abuse. Among those pressuring the Jewish boys to convert were former Jewish soldiers who had already converted. These converts often mistreated Jewish recruits even more than non-Jewish soldiers did.”

Was there no form of organized resistance to forced conversion?

“Here and there. For example, I document a case in which an entire battalion of young Jewish soldiers, after completing their training and arriving at a naval base, declared that they had been forced to convert and did not truly accept Christianity. They reported that Jewish boys who agreed to convert had been beaten by their Jewish peers. During an investigation, prayer books and Tefillin were found in their possession, which they had received from local Jews.”

Clandestine prayer books and Tefillin – that sounds like a chapter in the story of Yosef Mendelevich in Gulag prisons.  

“Yes, there are similarities. What began as the conscription of a small minority of the Jewish public in Russia some two centuries ago ended, in the Soviet era, in much more extreme regulations that influenced every single Jew who lived under Soviet rule.”

What’s the conclusion?

“Readers are left to decide for themselves. My conclusion is that all of the injustices and atrocities we suffer in the Diaspora are the result of living in Galut. This is why some former Cantonists were among the first “Halutzim” pioneers in the Land of Israel. The solution today is the same as it was when I was in Soviet Russia. Aliyah.

The English translation of the book by Yosef Mendelevich is available at: https://www.amazon.com/Cantonists-Jewish-Russian-Military-1827-1856/dp/B0DP623N7R