[Footnote 2:  Constantine was appointed by his brother Alexander I, Commander-in-chief of the Polish army after the restoration of Poland in 1815.  He remained in this post until his death in 1831.  See also above, p. 13, n. 2.]

[Footnote 3:  He was the imperial Russian Commissary in Warsaw, and was practically in control of the affairs in Poland.  See below, p. 92 et seq.]

Novosiltzev was evidently well informed about the state of mind of the Jewish masses.  No sooner had the rumor of the proposed ukase reached the Pale of Settlement than the Jews were seized by a tremendous excitement.  It must be borne in mind that the Jewish population of Western Russia had but recently been incorporated into the Russian Empire.  Clinging with patriarchal devotion to their religion, estranged from the Russian people, and kept, moreover, in a state of civil rightlessness, the Jews of that region could not be reasonably expected to gloat over the prospect of a military service of twenty-five years’ duration, which was bound to alienate their sons from their ancestral faith, detach them from their native tongue, their habits and customs of life, and throw them into a strange, and often hostile, environment.  The ultimate aim of the project, which, imbedded in the mind of its originators, seemed safely hidden from the eye of publicity, was quickly sensed by the delicate national instinct, and the soul of the people was stirred to its depths.  Public-minded Jews strained every nerve to avert the calamity.  Jewish representatives journeyed to St. Petersburg and Warsaw to plead the cause of their brethren.  Negotiations were entered into with dignitaries of high rank and with men of influence in the world of officialdom.  Rumor had it that immense bribes had been offered to Novosiltzev and several high officials in St. Petersburg for the purpose of receiving their co-operation.  But even the intercession of leading dignitaries was powerless to change the will of the Tzar.  He chafed under the red-tape formalities which obstructed the realization of his favorite scheme.  Without waiting for the transmission of Novosiltzev’s memorandum, the Tzar directed the Minister of the Interior and the Chief of the General Staff to submit to him for signature an ukase imposing military service upon the Jews.  The fatal enactment was signed on August 26, 1827.

2.  The Recruiting Ukase of 1827 and Juvenile Conscription

The ukase announces the desire of the Government “to equalize military duty for all estates,” without, be it noted, equalizing them in their rights.  It further expresses the conviction that “the training and accomplishments, acquired by the Jews during their military service, will, on their return home after the completion of the number of years fixed by law (fully a quarter of a century!), be communicated to their families and make for greater usefulness and higher efficiency in their economic life and in the management of their affairs.”