This evasion resulted in immense shortages which pressed heavily upon the Jewish communities, since the latter were held collectively responsible for supplying the full quota of recruits.  The reports about the unsatisfactory conscription results among the Jews filled the Government in St. Petersburg with rage.  The persistent reluctance of human beings to be parted almost for life from those near and dear to them, or to see their little ones carried off to an early grave or to the baptismal font, was regarded as a manifestation of criminal self-will.  Accordingly, the former measures of “cutting short” and “curbing” this self-will were improved upon by new ones.  In December, 1850, the Tzar gave orders that for every missing Jewish recruit in a given community three men of the minimum age of twenty from the same community and one more recruit for every two thousand rubles ($1000) of tax arrears should be impressed into service.  A year later the following atrocious measures were issued for the purpose “of cutting short the concealment of Jews from military service”:  the fugitives were to be captured, flogged, and drafted into the army over and above the required quota of recruits.  The communities in which they were hidden were to be fined.  The relatives of a recruit who failed to present himself in proper time were to be taken in his stead, even if these relatives happened to be heads of families.  The official representatives of the communities were equally liable to being sent into the army if found convicted of any inaccuracy in carrying out the conscription.

A reign of terror followed in the Jewish communities upon the promulgation of these laws.  The Kahal elders—­it will be remembered that they continued to exist after the abrogation of the Kahals, acting as the fiscal agents of the Government [1]—­now faced a terrible alternative:  to become, in the words of a contemporary, “either murderers of martyrs,” i.e., either to capture and send into the army any youth or boy, without discrimination, or themselves to don the gray uniform and be impressed into military services as “penal” recruits.  In consequence, a fiendish hunt after human beings was set afoot in the Pale of Settlement.  Adults were seized and, regardless of their being the only mainstay of their families, were taken captive, and children of eight were captured and presented to the recruiting authorities as being of the obligatory age of twelve.  But despite all this hunting, many communities were not able to furnish their quota of soldiers, and the number of “penal” recruits from among the Kahal elders was very considerable.

[Footnote 1:  See above, p. 60.]