Military settlement
Encyclopedia
Military settlements represented a special organization of the Russian military forces in 1810–1857, which allowed the combination of military service
and agricultural employment.
for the purpose of creating a reserve
of trained military forces. The first military settlement was established by Count
Alexei Arakcheyev in 1810 in the Klimovichi
uyezd
of the Mogilev
guberniya
. The organization of military settlements had been underway on a large scale since 1816. In 1817, Count Arakcheyev was officially appointed head of all the military settlements in Russia
.
s, who had already served in the army for no less than six years, and local men (mainly, peasant
s) between 18 and 45 years of age. Both of these categories were called master settlers (поселяне-хозяева). The rest of the locals of the same age, who had been fit for military service, but had not been chosen, were being enlisted as assistants to their masters and were a part of reserve military subdivisions. The children of the military settlers were being enlisted in the cantonist
s at the age of 7. Upon reaching the age of 18, they were transferred to the military units. The settlers would retire at the age of 45 and continue to serve in hospital
s and other establishments.
Each military settlement consisted of 60 interconnected houses (дома-связи) with a regiment
of 228 men. Each such house had four masters with indivisible household economy
. The life in a military settlement was strictly controlled. The peasants had to undergo military training, which caused tardiness and unseasonableness in agricultural activities. Corporal punishment
was a common phenomenon. Military settlements were being created on fiscal lands (казённые земли), which would often provoke riot
s among the state-owned peasants (казённые крестьяне), like the ones in Kholynskaya and Vysotskaya volost
s of the Novgorod guberniya
in 1817 and among the Bug Cossacks
in 1817–1818. Alexander I, however, stood his ground and announced that "military settlements will be created, even if we have to pave the road from Saint Petersburg
to Chudov [today’s Chudovo
; some 100 km away from Petersburg] with dead bodies". By 1825, Russia had already built military settlements in Petersburg, Novgorod (along the Volkhov River
and near Staraya Russa
), Mogilev
, Sloboda Ukraine
, Kherson
, Ekaterinoslav and other guberniyas. They made up for almost one fourth of the Russian army
(one third, according to other accounts) and accumulated some 32 million rubles
worth of savings, but still were not able to satisfy the army’s recruiting needs.
tool in the hands of the government, on the contrary, they turned into resistance hotbeds themselves. In June 1819, the Chuguyev regiment uprising
took place amidst the Sloboda Ukraine
military settlement, which would then spread over to the Taganrog
regiment okrug
a month later. The rebels
were demanding from the government to let them be what they had been before the reform, capturing their confiscated lands, beating, and ousting their superiors. Count Arakcheyev was put in charge of the punitive expedition
, which would result in the arrest of more than 2,000 men. 313 people were subjected to military tribunal
, 275 of which (204, according to other accounts) would be sentenced to corporal punishment by 12,000 strikes each with metal rods (шпицрутены). 25 men are known to have died during the execution of this sentence; the rest were transferred to Orenburg
.
In July 1831, one of the largest military riots in the Russian army of the 1st half of the 19th century took place in a military settlement near Staraya Russa. It was caused by cholera
outbreak, which would in turn provoke a number of "cholera riots
". The military settlement was overrun by the rebels, who then court-martial
ed their superiors and executed them. The rebellion spread over the majority of military settlements of the Novgorod guberniya. The battalion
, sent by the government to pacify the rebels, took the side of the insurgents. Soon, the authorities suppressed the uprising and severely punished those who took part in it. A third of the local villagers who had participated in the rebellion were subjected to running the gauntlet
and exiled to Siberia
. Many people were sent to katorga
to the fortress of Kronstadt
.
Military service
Military service, in its simplest sense, is service by an individual or group in an army or other militia, whether as a chosen job or as a result of an involuntary draft . Some nations require a specific amount of military service from every citizen...
and agricultural employment.
The beginning of the reform
Military settlements were introduced by Alexander IAlexander I of Russia
Alexander I of Russia , served as Emperor of Russia from 23 March 1801 to 1 December 1825 and the first Russian King of Poland from 1815 to 1825. He was also the first Russian Grand Duke of Finland and Lithuania....
for the purpose of creating a reserve
Military reserve
A military reserve, tactical reserve, or strategic reserve is a group of military personnel or units which are initially not committed to a battle by their commander so that they are available to address unforeseen situations or exploit suddenly developing...
of trained military forces. The first military settlement was established by Count
Count
A count or countess is an aristocratic nobleman in European countries. The word count came into English from the French comte, itself from Latin comes—in its accusative comitem—meaning "companion", and later "companion of the emperor, delegate of the emperor". The adjective form of the word is...
Alexei Arakcheyev in 1810 in the Klimovichi
Klimovichi
Klimavichy is a city in the eastern Belarusian Mahilyow Voblast. Klimavichy is located east of Mahilyow on the bank of Kalinica River and is the administrative center of the Klimavichy Raion since 1924....
uyezd
Uyezd
Uyezd or uezd was an administrative subdivision of Rus', Muscovy, Russian Empire, and the early Russian SFSR which was in use from the 13th century. Uyezds for most of the history in Russia were a secondary-level of administrative division...
of the Mogilev
Mogilev
Mogilev is a city in eastern Belarus, about 76 km from the border with Russia's Smolensk Oblast and 105 km from the border with Russia's Bryansk Oblast. It has more than 367,788 inhabitants...
guberniya
Guberniya
A guberniya was a major administrative subdivision of the Russian Empire usually translated as government, governorate, or province. Such administrative division was preserved for sometime upon the collapse of the empire in 1917. A guberniya was ruled by a governor , a word borrowed from Latin ,...
. The organization of military settlements had been underway on a large scale since 1816. In 1817, Count Arakcheyev was officially appointed head of all the military settlements in Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
.
Internal organization
The quartered military forces were being formed from among married soldierSoldier
A soldier is a member of the land component of national armed forces; whereas a soldier hired for service in a foreign army would be termed a mercenary...
s, who had already served in the army for no less than six years, and local men (mainly, peasant
Peasant
A peasant is an agricultural worker who generally tend to be poor and homeless-Etymology:The word is derived from 15th century French païsant meaning one from the pays, or countryside, ultimately from the Latin pagus, or outlying administrative district.- Position in society :Peasants typically...
s) between 18 and 45 years of age. Both of these categories were called master settlers (поселяне-хозяева). The rest of the locals of the same age, who had been fit for military service, but had not been chosen, were being enlisted as assistants to their masters and were a part of reserve military subdivisions. The children of the military settlers were being enlisted in the cantonist
Cantonist
Cantonists were underage sons of Russian conscripts who from 1721 were educated in special "canton schools" for future military service .-Cantonist schools during the 18th and early 19th centuries:Cantonist...
s at the age of 7. Upon reaching the age of 18, they were transferred to the military units. The settlers would retire at the age of 45 and continue to serve in hospital
Hospital
A hospital is a health care institution providing patient treatment by specialized staff and equipment. Hospitals often, but not always, provide for inpatient care or longer-term patient stays....
s and other establishments.
Each military settlement consisted of 60 interconnected houses (дома-связи) with a regiment
Regiment
A regiment is a major tactical military unit, composed of variable numbers of batteries, squadrons or battalions, commanded by a colonel or lieutenant colonel...
of 228 men. Each such house had four masters with indivisible household economy
Economy
An economy consists of the economic system of a country or other area; the labor, capital and land resources; and the manufacturing, trade, distribution, and consumption of goods and services of that area...
. The life in a military settlement was strictly controlled. The peasants had to undergo military training, which caused tardiness and unseasonableness in agricultural activities. Corporal punishment
Corporal punishment
Corporal punishment is a form of physical punishment that involves the deliberate infliction of pain as retribution for an offence, or for the purpose of disciplining or reforming a wrongdoer, or to deter attitudes or behaviour deemed unacceptable...
was a common phenomenon. Military settlements were being created on fiscal lands (казённые земли), which would often provoke riot
Riot
A riot is a form of civil disorder characterized often by what is thought of as disorganized groups lashing out in a sudden and intense rash of violence against authority, property or people. While individuals may attempt to lead or control a riot, riots are thought to be typically chaotic and...
s among the state-owned peasants (казённые крестьяне), like the ones in Kholynskaya and Vysotskaya volost
Volost
Volost was a traditional administrative subdivision in Eastern Europe.In earlier East Slavic history, volost was a name for the territory ruled by the knyaz, a principality; either as an absolute ruler or with varying degree of autonomy from the Velikiy Knyaz...
s of the Novgorod guberniya
Guberniya
A guberniya was a major administrative subdivision of the Russian Empire usually translated as government, governorate, or province. Such administrative division was preserved for sometime upon the collapse of the empire in 1917. A guberniya was ruled by a governor , a word borrowed from Latin ,...
in 1817 and among the Bug Cossacks
Bug Cossacks
The Buh Cossack Host was a Cossack host, which used to be located along the Southern Buh River.The Buh Cossack Host was formed in 1769 out of Ukrainians, Vlachs, and Bulgarians, who had taken the side of Russia during the Russo-Turkish War of 1768-1774. After the war, the regiment was quartered...
in 1817–1818. Alexander I, however, stood his ground and announced that "military settlements will be created, even if we have to pave the road from Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...
to Chudov [today’s Chudovo
Chudovo
Chudovo is a town and the administrative center of Chudovsky District of Novgorod Oblast, Russia, located on the Kerest River . It lies on the M10 federal highway connecting Moscow and St. Petersburg, north of Veliky Novgorod and south of St. Petersburg...
; some 100 km away from Petersburg] with dead bodies". By 1825, Russia had already built military settlements in Petersburg, Novgorod (along the Volkhov River
Volkhov River
Volkhov is a river in Novgorod Oblast and Leningrad Oblast in northwestern Russia.-Geography:The Volkhov flows out of Lake Ilmen north into Lake Ladoga, the largest lake of Europe. It is the second largest tributary of Lake Ladoga. It is navigable over its whole length. Discharge is highly...
and near Staraya Russa
Staraya Russa
Staraya Russa is a town in Novgorod Oblast, Russia, located south of Veliky Novgorod. It is a wharf on the Polist River in the Lake Ilmen basin. It serves as the administrative center of Starorussky District, although administratively it is not a part of it...
), Mogilev
Mogilev
Mogilev is a city in eastern Belarus, about 76 km from the border with Russia's Smolensk Oblast and 105 km from the border with Russia's Bryansk Oblast. It has more than 367,788 inhabitants...
, Sloboda Ukraine
Sloboda Ukraine
Sloboda Ukraine was a historical region which developed and flourished in the 17th and 18th centuries on the southwestern frontier of the Tsardom of Russia....
, Kherson
Kherson
Kherson is a city in southern Ukraine. It is the administrative center of the Kherson Oblast , and is designated as its own separate raion within the oblast. Kherson is an important port on the Black Sea and Dnieper River, and the home of a major ship-building industry...
, Ekaterinoslav and other guberniyas. They made up for almost one fourth of the Russian army
Imperial Russian Army
The Imperial Russian Army was the land armed force of the Russian Empire, active from around 1721 to the Russian Revolution of 1917. In the early 1850s, the Russian army consisted of around 938,731 regular soldiers and 245,850 irregulars . Until the time of military reform of Dmitry Milyutin in...
(one third, according to other accounts) and accumulated some 32 million rubles
Russian ruble
The ruble or rouble is the currency of the Russian Federation and the two partially recognized republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Formerly, the ruble was also the currency of the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union prior to their breakups. Belarus and Transnistria also use currencies with...
worth of savings, but still were not able to satisfy the army’s recruiting needs.
Riots in military settlements
Military settlements never became an anti-resistanceResistance movement
A resistance movement is a group or collection of individual groups, dedicated to opposing an invader in an occupied country or the government of a sovereign state. It may seek to achieve its objects through either the use of nonviolent resistance or the use of armed force...
tool in the hands of the government, on the contrary, they turned into resistance hotbeds themselves. In June 1819, the Chuguyev regiment uprising
Chuguev Uprising
The Chuguev Uprising was an armed revolt, conducted by military settlers of the Chuguev Regiment in the town of Chuguev in 1819, against the harsh working conditions and regulations in military settlements, in which military service was combined with farm work, being introduced into the Russian...
took place amidst the Sloboda Ukraine
Sloboda Ukraine
Sloboda Ukraine was a historical region which developed and flourished in the 17th and 18th centuries on the southwestern frontier of the Tsardom of Russia....
military settlement, which would then spread over to the Taganrog
Taganrog
Taganrog is a seaport city in Rostov Oblast, Russia, located on the north shore of Taganrog Bay , several kilometers west of the mouth of the Don River. Population: -History of Taganrog:...
regiment okrug
Okrug
Okrug is an administrative division of some Slavic states. The word "okrug" is a loanword in English, but it is nevertheless often translated as "area", "district", or "region"....
a month later. The rebels
Rebellion
Rebellion, uprising or insurrection, is a refusal of obedience or order. It may, therefore, be seen as encompassing a range of behaviors aimed at destroying or replacing an established authority such as a government or a head of state...
were demanding from the government to let them be what they had been before the reform, capturing their confiscated lands, beating, and ousting their superiors. Count Arakcheyev was put in charge of the punitive expedition
Punitive expedition
A punitive expedition is a military journey undertaken to punish a state or any group of persons outside the borders of the punishing state. It is usually undertaken in response to perceived disobedient or morally wrong behavior, but may be also be a covered revenge...
, which would result in the arrest of more than 2,000 men. 313 people were subjected to military tribunal
Military tribunal
A military tribunal is a kind of military court designed to try members of enemy forces during wartime, operating outside the scope of conventional criminal and civil proceedings. The judges are military officers and fulfill the role of jurors...
, 275 of which (204, according to other accounts) would be sentenced to corporal punishment by 12,000 strikes each with metal rods (шпицрутены). 25 men are known to have died during the execution of this sentence; the rest were transferred to Orenburg
Orenburg
Orenburg is a city on the Ural River and the administrative center of Orenburg Oblast, Russia. It lies southeast of Moscow, very close to the border with Kazakhstan. Population: 546,987 ; 549,361 ; Highest point: 154.4 m...
.
In July 1831, one of the largest military riots in the Russian army of the 1st half of the 19th century took place in a military settlement near Staraya Russa. It was caused by cholera
Cholera
Cholera is an infection of the small intestine that is caused by the bacterium Vibrio cholerae. The main symptoms are profuse watery diarrhea and vomiting. Transmission occurs primarily by drinking or eating water or food that has been contaminated by the diarrhea of an infected person or the feces...
outbreak, which would in turn provoke a number of "cholera riots
Cholera Riots
- Cholera Riots in Russia :The Cholera Riots were the riots of the urban population, peasants and soldiers in Russia in 1830-1831 during the cholera outbreak....
". The military settlement was overrun by the rebels, who then court-martial
Court-martial
A court-martial is a military court. A court-martial is empowered to determine the guilt of members of the armed forces subject to military law, and, if the defendant is found guilty, to decide upon punishment.Most militaries maintain a court-martial system to try cases in which a breach of...
ed their superiors and executed them. The rebellion spread over the majority of military settlements of the Novgorod guberniya. The battalion
Battalion
A battalion is a military unit of around 300–1,200 soldiers usually consisting of between two and seven companies and typically commanded by either a Lieutenant Colonel or a Colonel...
, sent by the government to pacify the rebels, took the side of the insurgents. Soon, the authorities suppressed the uprising and severely punished those who took part in it. A third of the local villagers who had participated in the rebellion were subjected to running the gauntlet
Running the gauntlet
Running the gauntlet is a form of physical punishment wherein a captive is compelled to run between two rows—a gauntlet—of soldiers who strike him as he passes.-Etymology:...
and exiled to Siberia
Siberia
Siberia is an extensive region constituting almost all of Northern Asia. Comprising the central and eastern portion of the Russian Federation, it was part of the Soviet Union from its beginning, as its predecessor states, the Tsardom of Russia and the Russian Empire, conquered it during the 16th...
. Many people were sent to katorga
Katorga
Katorga was a system of penal servitude of the prison farm type in Tsarist Russia...
to the fortress of Kronstadt
Kronstadt
Kronstadt , also spelled Kronshtadt, Cronstadt |crown]]" and Stadt for "city"); is a municipal town in Kronshtadtsky District of the federal city of St. Petersburg, Russia, located on Kotlin Island, west of Saint Petersburg proper near the head of the Gulf of Finland. Population: It is also...
.