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" All the tsar's men: Minorities and military conscription in Imperial Russia, 1874–1905 "
Dana M. Ohren
A. Rabinowitch
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Latin Dissertation
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English
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| Record Number
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53491
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| Doc. No
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TL23445
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| Call number
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3203866
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| Main Entry
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Dana M. Ohren
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| Title & Author
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All the tsar's men: Minorities and military conscription in Imperial Russia, 1874–1905\ Dana M. Ohren
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| College
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Indiana University
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| Date
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2006
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| Degree
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Ph.D.
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2006
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| Page No
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282
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| Abstract
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The introduction of universal conscription in 1874, as with many of Russia's Great Reforms, signaled a break with the past. The tsarist regime sought to modernize the governance of the empire through the standardization of subjects' rights and obligations. In particular, universal conscription was designed to end the collective nature of past levies and make participation in the draft the individual obligation of each male subject. Yet, despite the universal rhetoric of the 1874 Statute on Military Duties, conscription in the Russian empire was not extended on equal terms to subjects after 1874. Prejudices and practicalities led the regime to enact distinct conscription policies based on religion and geography, and thus reinforce the previous strategy of governing according to corporate statuses. Drawing primarily on inter- and intra-ministerial memoranda from the Ministries of War and Internal Affairs, the latter being the branch of the imperial bureaucracy responsible for overseeing the draft, this dissertation examines the balance the regime struck between its desire to standardize its rule and the reality it confronted in its multi-ethnic, multi-confessional empire. In the three decades following the introduction of universal conscription, increasingly divergent draft procedures demonstrate the difficulties officials encountered when trying to govern diverse subjects. Moreover, they display local administrators' and tsarist ministers' profound distrust for several minorities, especially Jews and Muslims. Based on questionable statistical data and anecdotal evidence, these two groups were repeatedly charged with draft evasion, and officials used such proof of disloyalty to justify discriminatory measures against them collectively. Although minister of war D.A. Miliutin believed universal conscription would unite all tsarist subjects towards a common goal and weaken "tribal differences among the people," the regime's policies served only to further divide subjects into corporate groups and therefore stymie efforts to foster a national spirit as envisioned by Miliutin.
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Social sciences; Conscription; Military; Minorities; Russia; History; European history; 0582:History; 0335:European history; 0332:History
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A. Rabinowitch
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Indiana University
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