measures to stop this “evasion,” As a result, the whole Jewish youth of conscription age was registered in 1875.  At the recruiting stations the age of the young Jews was determined by their external appearance, without regard to their birth certificates.  Finally, in the course of 1876-1878, a number of special provisions were enacted, by way of exception from the general military statute, for the purpose “of insuring the regular discharge of their military duty by the Jews.”

According to the new legal provisions, the Jews who had been rejected as unfit for military service were to be replaced by other Jews and under no circumstances by Christians.  For this purpose, the Jewish conscripts were to be segregated from the Christians after the drawing of lots, the first stage in the recruiting process. [1] Moreover, in the case of Jews a lower stature and a narrower chest were required than in that of non-Jews.  In the case of a shortage of “unprivileged” recruits, permission was given to draft not only Jews enjoying, by their family status, the third and second class privileges, but also those of the first class, i.e., to deprive Jewish parents of their only sons. [2]

[Footnote 1:  Since the number of men of military age greatly exceeds the required number of recruits, the Russian law provides that lots be drawn by the conscripts to determine the order in which they are to present themselves for examination to the recruiting officers.  When the quota is completed, the remaining conscripts, i.e., those who, having drawn a high number, have not yet been examined, are declared exempt from military service.]

[Footnote 2:  “According to Russian law, the following three categories of recruits are exempt from military service:  1) the only sons; 2) the only wage-earning sons, though there be other sons in the family; 3) those who have an elder brother or brothers in the army.  The first category is exempt under all circumstances; the last two on condition that the required number of recruits be secured out of the “unprivileged” conscripts.  Only in the case of the Jews is the first category drawn upon in the case of a shortage.]

In this manner the Government sought to “insure” with ruthless vigor the discharge of this most onerous duty on the part of the Jews, without making any attempt to insure at the same time the rights of this population of three millions which was made to spill its blood for the fatherland.  In the Russo-Turkish War of 1877, many Jewish soldiers fought for Russia, and a goodly number of them were killed or wounded on the battlefield.  Yet in the Russian military headquarters—­the post of commander-in-chief was occupied by the crown prince, the future Tzar Alexander III.—­no attention was paid to the thousands of Jewish victims, but rather to the fact that the “Jewish” firm of army purveyors, Greger, Horvitz & Kohan [1] was found to have had a share in the commissariat scandals.  When at the Congress of Berlin in 1878