Petition of the Jewish community of Minsk asking for a child to be spared from the obligatory military conscription, 1827

Petition of the Jewish communitiy of Minsk to the Governor of Minsk asking him to spare a child from the newly enacted military conscription and to have his brother be drafted in his stead. The conscripted brother is the family's sole breadwinner and sending him to the army will take away the family's sole means of survival.

The signatures of the townspeople submitting the petition appear in two columns. Minsk was part of the Commonwealth of Poland and Lithuania until the partition of Poland, upon which Minsk became part of the Russian Empire. In 1827 there wiere still strong traces of the original Polish culture in the gubernia (province) of Minsk. Some of the signatures are in handwritten Polish script, reflecting the Polish origins of the signatories.

NIcholas I's 1827 law establishing compulsory conscription affected the Jewish population disproportionately when compared to other ethnic groups in Russia. The law affected children as young as twelve years of age.  The term of service was 25 years. If a child was conscripted below the age of 18, the years served under the age of 18 did not count towards the 25 years.  The military recruits were called cantonists.

Mnsk, handwritten, Russian, 1827.