How the Russian army was recruited with soldiers in the era of Suvorov and Kutuzov
"Russian Planet" has already written about the creation by Peter I of a system of conscription, which not only made it possible to win the war with Sweden, but also made the Russian army the strongest in Europe. Now a story about how our army was provided by ordinary soldiers in the era of its most glorious victories - during the times of Suvorov and Kutuzov.
Recruits of the heirs of Peter
The death of the reformer tsar somewhat reduced the military tension in the empire. In 1728, to alleviate the situation of the peasants, for the first time in a quarter of a century, no recruitment was carried out, and the following year, for the first time, a third of the soldiers and officers of the army were released on leave for 12 months.
In 1736, a slightly increased recruitment was carried out in connection with the war against Turkey - 1 person from 125 male souls, as a result that that year about 45 thousand recruits were taken into the army (instead of the usual 20-30 thousand recruits per year). In 1737, recruits were first recruited from Muslim peasants.
From 1749 to 1754, during the reign of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna, there were no recruits for five years. And only in 1755, due to the impending war against Prussia, an intensified recruitment was carried out - 1 person per 100 souls, which gave 61,509 recruits.
In 1757, Field Marshal Pyotr Shuvalov introduced the "General Office for the Annual Recruitment", according to which all ten Russian provinces that existed at that time were divided into five recruitment districts in order to recruit recruits from each district once every five years. At the same time, recruits from the Arkhangelsk province were supposed to be taken only to the fleet.
For the entire time of the war with Prussia from 1756 to 1759, 231 thousand recruits were taken into the army, and since 1760 recruitment in the country has not been carried out again. In 1766, already during the reign of Empress Catherine II, they approved the "General institution on the collection of recruits in the state and on the procedures that must be followed when recruiting." This document for more than half a century, until the end of the war with Napoleon, determined the procedure for recruiting.
"Soldiers of Catherine". Artist A. N. Benois
By that time, the traditions and customs of "recruiting" had already been formed - the supreme power put down only a general recruitment plan with the number of recruits, and then peasant communities independently chose candidates for life-long service in accordance with their ideas of justice.
Before each recruitment of recruits, the army officers who came to the county cities formed "recruitment sections", breaking up the rural population of 500 male souls according to the previous "revisions" (that is, censuses). This process was called the "recruiting layout" for the next century. Further, the peasant communities of these areas themselves chose future recruits by lot.
Only certain categories of peasants were exempted from such a drawing of lots, for example, families with a single breadwinner. Families that had many adult sons, on the contrary, were put first “on the recruiting line”, and it was from them that the recruit was chosen by lot in the case of ordinary “numbered” recruitment sets. In the case of extraordinary and extraordinary increased enrollments, everyone was put on the “recruiting line” and the drawing of lots.
On the eve of the Russian-Turkish war of 1768-1774, three recruits were carried out, taking 74 thousand people into the army, including for the first time they began to call up schismatics. The war with the Turks turned out to be difficult, and 226 thousand recruits were collected from enhanced military recruits in 1770-1773. But because of the Pugachev uprising and the unrest of the peasants in the next two years, recruitment was not carried out.
Before the start of the next war, recruits were carried out at the rate of 1 recruit with 500 souls. In 1788, due to a new war, both with Turkey and Sweden, the government decided to increase the army. Now they began to take 5 people from 500 male peasant souls, that is, they increased the recruitment rate by five times, and over the next three years, 260 thousand recruits were taken into the army.
In 1791-1792, there were no recruits, and over the last eight years of the 18th century, 311 thousand people were taken into the army. If in the first half of that century the term of the army service was still for life, then from 1762 it was limited to 25 years. Taking into account the average life expectancy and almost constant wars, this period was actually life, but at least theoretically allowed a small percentage of the most successful soldiers to retire honorably.
It was here that the cruel but extremely successful effect of "recruiting" was hidden - a person who ended up in the army class for life inevitably either died or became a very experienced soldier. In the era of pre-industrial war, it was these lifelong, experienced soldiers who constituted the main strength of the Russian army. It was with them "not by number, but by skill" that Suvorov defeated the enemy!
In total, over 2 million people were taken into the army in the 18th century - namely, 2,231,000 recruits. Every 15th adult male in the country got into lifelong service.
Recruiting rite
Over the century of the existence of recruitment, it has become an integral part of the life of the Russian countryside. Until the middle of the 19th century, there were three main rites in the life of peasants - wedding, funeral and recruiting.
Ethnographers of the late 19th century still managed to write down the details of this custom from the words of old people. After the peasant's son drew the lot for a recruit at a gathering, relatives and guests gathered in his house for what the peasants called "a sad feast." In fact, these were a kind of commemoration for a recruit who was no longer destined to return to his native village.
"Seeing off the recruits." Artist N. K. Pimonenko
At the “sad feast”, the relatives and the invited mourners-“screams” sang recruit lamentations - special folk lament songs. Such cries were not so much sung, they were rather chanted, with a special anguish. One of them was recorded in the 19th century on the territory of the Novgorod province. Here's a short excerpt, keeping the spelling of the original:
And the sovereign's service was formidable, And the enemy of the Russian land was agitated, And the Emperor's decrees began to be sent, And they began to collect daring good fellows
As for a gathering, after all, now yes to an honorable one!
And then they began to write daring good fellows
Yes, on this stamped sheet of paper
And the unjust judges began to call
And all to these oak to the lot!
And they took those oaky lots:
And it is necessary to go here to the service of the Tsar!
After the "sad feast" for the future recruit, "revelry" began - for several days he drank, walked freely and rode in a dressed-up cart with his girlfriends and friends around the village. As the ethnographer of the century before last wrote: "To get drunk was not only considered reprehensible, but even obligatory."
Then the farewell to the family began - the future recruit traveled to all close and distant relatives, where a "feasible treat" was always displayed for him and the guests. After that, accompanied by the whole village, the recruit went to the church for a solemn prayer service, candles were lit for his good luck and health. From here the recruit was escorted to the county town, where his life as a soldier began.
In a huge country with undeveloped means of communication, the soldier was considered a "government man", that is, completely lost to the former peasant and bourgeois world. There was a number of sayings that reflected the situation when the recruit, in fact, disappeared forever from the life of his family and friends: “To recruitment - what to the grave”, “Soldier - a cut off hunk” and others.
But let us note another social role of "recruiting". Until the middle of the 19th century, only it gave the serf peasant at least a theoretical opportunity to sharply increase his social status: becoming a soldier of the empire from a serf, he received the opportunity to rise to the rank of officer and noble rank. Let luck smiled only on a few of the many tens of thousands, but Russian history knows examples of such "careers" - according to statistics, on the eve of 1812, every hundredth officer of the Russian army was one of the peasant recruits who had won the favor.
Until the beginning of the 19th century, the state did not interfere in the "practical layout" of recruitment, that is, in the election of candidates for recruits by the peasant community. And the peasantry actively took advantage of this, first of all recruiting negligent fellow villagers who were distinguished by "all riot" and "fragility in the economy." Only on April 28, 1808, a decree was issued regulating the return of "secular society" to the recruits of its members for "bad behavior." From now on, the "public sentences" of the peasants were to be checked and approved by the governor's offices.
At the very end of the 18th century, permanent "five hundred plots" were introduced to replace the previous temporary ones, which were formed anew before each new recruitment of recruits. These plots consisted of 500 "revision male souls", that is, five hundred peasants taken into account by the previous "revision". In the counties, "recruiting presences" were established - in fact, real military registration and enlistment offices.
It was in this state that the recruiting system of the Russian army met the era of the war with Napoleon.
Recruits of the Napoleonic Wars
On the eve of the Napoleonic wars, almost 20% of the male population of Russia was exempted from recruitment for one reason or another by law. In addition to the nobility, the clergy, merchants and a number of other estates and groups of the population were completely freed from "recruitment".
In 1800-1801 there were no recruits in the country. In 1802, the first in the 19th century and the 73rd regular recruitment was carried out from the layout of 2 recruits with 500 souls and gave 46,491 recruits. However, in 1805, due to the war with Napoleon, the recruitment was increased to 5 people from 500 souls; that year there were 168 thousand recruits.
In 1806-1807, the ongoing war with Napoleon and the outbreak of the war with Turkey forced to convene a militia numbering 612 thousand warriors (although in reality they collected only 200 thousand people). Most of these temporary militias - 177 thousand, despite their resistance, were left in the army as recruits.
In 1809-1811, there were reinforced recruits due to the threat of war with France - 314 thousand recruits were recruited. In the fateful 1812, as many as three sets took place - 82nd, 83rd and 84th. The first recruitment of that year was announced by an imperial decree even before the start of the war on March 23, the second on August 4, and the third on November 30. At the same time, emergency recruits in August and November were at an increased rate - 8 recruits with 500 souls.
"Militias on the Smolensk road" 1812 Artist V. Kelerman
A severe bloody war with almost all of Europe mobilized by Napoleon's marshals demanded constant replenishment of the army, and recruitment in August and November 1812 was distinguished by a sharp decrease in the requirements for recruits. Earlier, in accordance with the “General Institution on the Collection of Recruits in the State” of 1766, the army took “healthy, strong and fit for military service, from 17 to 35 years old, 2 arshins 4 vershok tall” (that is, from 160 centimeters). In 1812, the recruits began to accept everyone not older than 40 years old and not less than 2 arshins 2 vershoks (151 cm). At the same time, they were allowed to recruit people with bodily disabilities, with whom they had not previously been taken into the army.
In the midst of the struggle with Napoleon, the Ministry of War allowed admitting to recruitment: “Rare-haired, odd-eyed and oblique, if only their sight allows them to aim with a gun; having thorns or spots on the left eye, if only the right eye is completely healthy; stutterer and tongue-tied, could explain in some way; without up to six lateral teeth, if only the front ones were intact, necessary for biting rounds; with a lack of one toe, just to walk freely; having on their left hand one finger that does not interfere with loading and operating with a gun …”.
In total, in 1812, about 320 thousand people were recruited into the army. In 1813, the next, 85th recruitment was announced. He also walked at the increased military rate of 8 recruits with 500 souls. Then for the army, which went on an overseas campaign to the Rhine, almost 200 thousand recruits were collected.
"Recruitment" after the Napoleonic wars
At the end of the Napoleonic wars, recruitment was reduced, but still remained significant. From 1815 to 1820, 248 thousand people were taken into the army. But in the next three years they did not recruit recruits. In 1824 alone, 2 people with 500 souls were recruited - a total of 54,639 people.
Thus, in the first quarter of the 19th century, almost 1.5 million recruits were taken into the army (8% of the total male population). Among them, over 500 thousand recruits were drafted into the army during the war of 1812-1813.
After 1824, there were no recruits again for several years, and the next one took place only three years later. In connection with the new war against Turkey and the uprising in Poland in 1827-1831, 618 thousand recruits were taken into the army.
Emperor Nicholas I was inclined to regulate all aspects of life, and on June 28, 1831, the most detailed "Recruiting Charter" appeared. In the imperial decree, the necessity of adopting such a charter was motivated by “complaints that have repeatedly reached” about riots and disputes during recruiting calls. From now on, 497 articles of this document carefully regulated all aspects of recruitment. The whole country was divided into "recruitment sections" for a thousand "revision souls".
In 1832, they were waiting for the introduction of this new charter, therefore, no recruits were carried out, only 15,639 people were recruited from the Jews who were not previously subject to recruitment in the western provinces of the empire. In 1834, a tsarist decree was issued on the reduction of the terms of soldier's service from 25 to 20 years.
By the decision of Emperor Nicholas I, the whole country was also divided into Northern and Southern halves, in which from now on they began to alternate annual recruitment sets. All the Baltic, Byelorussian, Central, Ural and Siberian provinces were included in the Northern half. In the South - all the provinces of Ukraine, Novorossia, as well as the Astrakhan, Orenburg, Oryol, Tula, Voronezh, Kursk, Saratov, Tambov, Penza and Simbirsk provinces. 20 years before the start of the Crimean War in 1833-1853, more than a million recruits were taken into the army - 1,345,000 people.
The Crimean war with the coalition of the West raised the recruitment rates again. In 1853, 128 thousand people were taken into the army, in 1854, as many as three recruits were carried out - 483 thousand recruits. In 1855 they recruited 188 thousand more. They recruited 50–70 people from every thousand "revision souls", that is, the proportion of recruitment was three times heavier than in 1812 (when, recall, a maximum of 16 people were taken from a thousand souls).
Thus, during the Crimean War, 799 thousand people were taken into the army in three years.
From "recruitment" to universal appeal
After the Crimean War, for the next seven years, from 1856 to 1862, there were no recruits in Russia at all - this privilege for the common people was announced by the coronation manifesto of Emperor Alexander II.
Alexander II went down in history as a reformer and Liberator. Engraving. Early 1880s
During this time, in 1861, serfdom was abolished, which actually eliminated the social foundations of "recruitment". At the same time, more and more opinions appeared among the Russian military for the introduction of any alternative to the conscription. First, the "recruitment" forced the state to maintain a huge professional army in peacetime, which was extremely expensive even for the large Russian Empire. Secondly, the system of recruiting, allowing the regular army to be successfully recruited in the course of "ordinary" wars, due to the lack of a trained reserve, did not make it possible to quickly increase the number of troops in the course of a major war such as the Napoleonic or the Crimean.
All this forced the generals of Alexander II for a decade after the abolition of serfdom to develop numerous projects of changes and alternatives to the recruiting system. So, back in 1859, the term of soldier's service in several stages was reduced to 12 years.
However, the momentum of the huge system was great, and recruitment continued. In 1863, due to the uprising in Poland and the anticipated intervention of the Western powers, two extraordinary recruits were made, 5 people each from a thousand souls. Then 240,778 people were taken into the army.
Further recruitment kits were made annually, for 4-6 people from a thousand souls. These sets yielded between 140,000 and 150,000 recruits a year. In total, over the last decade of the existence of conscription, from 1863 to 1873, 1,323,340 recruits were taken into the army.
The final conscription in Russia was abolished only when the big war in Western Europe demonstrated that the conscription system, combined with the emerging railways, made it possible in peacetime to abandon the permanent maintenance of a large professional army without noticeable damage to the country's combat capability. In 1870, the rapid mobilization of the Prussian army for the war with France was personally observed by the Russian Minister of the Interior, the de facto head of government, Peter Valuev, who was in Germany.
The mobilization, its thoughtful lightning speed and the rapid defeat of France made a great impression on the Russian minister. Returning to Russia, Valuev, together with the head of the military department Dmitry Milyutin, prepared an analytical note for the tsar: "Russia's security requires that its military structure should not lag behind the level of the armed forces of its neighbors."
As a result, the authorities of the Russian Empire decided to completely abandon the system of recruiting that had existed since the time of Peter. On January 1, 1874, the tsarist manifesto appeared, introducing instead of "recruitment" a system of conscript service and general conscription: "Recent events have proved that the strength of the state is not in one number of troops, but mainly in its moral and mental qualities, which reach their highest development only then, when the cause of defending the Fatherland becomes a common cause of the people, when everyone, without distinction of rank and status, unites for this sacred cause."
