Raising Militias in 1806–1812 in the Context of Social Relationships (St Petersburg and Moscow Provinces)

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15826/qr.2022.3.707

Keywords:

meshchane communities, social relationships, district town, militia of 1806–1807, people’s militia of 1812, Patriotic War of 1812

Abstract

The subject of this study is the social contradictions in meshchane communes in district capitals in the early nineteenth century which transpired when recruiting men for military service. The object of the study is the appointment of militiamen during 1806–1807 and 1812, when far more men were recruited than during regular recruit levies. The author examines the communes of three district centres, i. e. Serpukhov, Novaya Ladoga, and Gdov. The article considers practices and motivations adopted by families, communes, town councils, and governors. The article refers to previously unpublished documents from council archives (communes’ verdicts, minutes of town councils, correspondence with governors). The author identifies two major issues: accusations of dissolute behaviour; and 2) conflicts between big and small households aggravated during mass recruiting to the militia in 1807. During the first militia, the traditional system of supplying recruits by commune proved insufficient to meet the needs of mass war. The author examines recruits’ age, marital status, family size, and reasons for being nominated. A suggestion is made that meshchane were more inclined to nominate older men than peasant communes: the role of nomination as a means of social cleansing seems to have been more significant in towns. The article considers the reaction of the government to delays and problems that arose during raising militia in identifying two response measures: the nomination of the dissolute was revised in 1808–1809 as a direct reaction to massive abuse recorded during the first militia – and the establishment of the official system of family recruit groups under the recruitment manual of 1810. Referring to the militia levy of 1812 and recruit levies of the 1810s, the article demonstrates that the new rules reduced conflict and delay in communes. During the Patriotic War of 1812, the nomination and dispatch of militiamen went considerably faster than in 1807. Additionally, the author supposes that with changes in legislation in 1808–1810, mass recruitment in the early nineteenth century, which made the position of small families more secured, could be a factor that encouraged the transition to the nuclear family in towns.

Author Biography

Mikhail Belan

PhD (History), Dr Student, Oxford University.

Oxford, OX1 2JD, UK.

ORCID 0000-0002-9899-1089

mikhailbelan@mail.ru

References

Babkin, V. I. (1962). Narodnoe opolchenie v Otechestvennoi voine 1812 goda [National Militia in the Patriotic War of 1812]. Moscow, Sotsekgiz. 212 p.

Belan, M. A. (2021). “Ne nam”, ne nam”, a imeni tvoemu”: pozhertvovaniya uezdnogo kupechestva na opolcheniya v nachale XIX v. (na primere Sankt-Peterburgskoi gubernii) [“Not unto us, not unto us, but unto thy name”: The Response of District Merchants to Raising People’s Militia in 1806–1807 and 1812–1814 (with Reference to St Petersburg Province)]. In Vestnik slavyanskikh kul’tur. Vol. 60, pp. 82–96.

Belousov, S. V. (2010). Kupechestvo Srednego Povolzh’ya v Otechestvennoi voine 1812 goda [Merchants of the Mid-Volga Region in the Patriotic War of 1812]. In Vestnik Samarskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta. No. 3 (77), pp. 59–63.

Belov, A. V. (2018). 1812 god v sud’be russkogo goroda [The Year 1812 in the Fate of a Russian Town]. Moscow, Politicheskaya entsiklopediya. 326 p.

Beskrovnyi, L. G. (1973). Russkaya armiya i flot v XIX veke [The Russian Army and Navy in the 19th Century]. Moscow, Nauka. 616 p.

Dzhivelegov, A. K., Mel’gunov, S. P., Pichet, V. I. (Eds.). (1912). Otechestvennaya voina i russkoe obshchestvo: 1812–1912 v 5 t. [The Patriotic War and Russian Society: 1812–1912. 5 Vols.]. Moscow, Tovarishchestvo I. D. Sytina. Vol. 5. 236 p.

Gornovskii, I. A. (1904). Sto let nazad. Militsiya 1806–1807 godov i pozhertvovaniya na nee [A Hundred Years ago: Militia of 1806–1807 and Donations for It]. In Russkii arkhiv. Iss. 8, pp. 534–554.

Gulevich, S. A. (1906). Istoriya Leib-gvardii Finlyandskogo polka, 1806–1906 gg. v 5 t. [The History of the Finnish Life Guards Regiment. 5 Vols.]. St Petersburg, Ekonomicheskaya tipolitografiya. Vol. 1. 458 p.

Hartley, J. M. (2008). Russia, 1762–1825: Military Power, the State, and the People. Westport, Praeger. 318 p.

Hartley, J. M. (2015). Patriotism in the Provinces in 1812: Volunteers and Donations. In Hartley, J. M., Keenan, P., Lieven, D. (Eds.). Russia and the Napoleonic Wars (War, Culture and Society, 1750–1850). L., Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 148–162.

Lapina, I. Yu. (2008). Zemskoe opolchenie Rossii 1812–1814 gg.: issledovanie prichin vozniknoveniya gubernskikh voinskikh formirovanii i analiz osnovnykh etapov ikh uchastiya v voine s Napoleonom [The National Militia of Russia in 1812–1814: The Study of the Origins of Provincial Military Forces and the Analysis of the Main Stages of Their Involvement in the War with Napoleon]. Dis … dokt. ist. nauk. St Petersburg, S. n. 626 p.

Mironov, B. N. (1990). Russkii gorod v 1740–1860-e gody: demograficheskoe, sotsial’noe i ekonomicheskoe razvitie [The Russian Town in the 1740s–1860s: Demographical, Social, and Economic Development]. Leningrad, Nauka. 272 p.

PSZ [Complete Collection of Laws of the Russian Empire]. Collection 1. Vol. 27, 29, 30, 32.

RGIA [Russian State Historical Archive]. Stock 488. List 1. Dos. 6, 458, 681, 835, 907, 1004, 1038, 1054, 1057, 1058, 1060, 1084, 1152, 3062; Stock 494. List 1. Dos 51, 53, 80, 91, 104.

RGVIA [Russian State Military History Archive]. Stock 395. List 240. Dos. 17; Stock 846. List 16. Dos. 18999.

Ryndzyunskii, P. G. (1958). Gorodskoe grazhdanstvo doreformennoi Rossii [Urban Citizenship of Pre-Reform Russia]. Moscow, Izdatel’stvo Akademii nauk SSSR. 559 p.

Smith, A. K. (2014). For the Common Good and Their Own Well-Being: Social Estates in Imperial Russia. Oxford, N. Y, Oxford Univ. Press. 296 p.

Spiridonova, L. M. (2017). Opolcheniya 1812 goda: postsovetskaya istoriografiya [Militias of 1812: Post-Soviet Historiography]. In Voenno-istoricheskii zhurnal. No. 8, pp. 85–91.

TsGA g. Moskvy [Central State Archive of the City of Moscow]. Stock 17. List 1. Dos. 41. Vol. 3, 399, 585; Stock 1036. List 1. Dos. 107, 109, 213.

TsGIA SPb [Central State Historical Archive of St Petersburg]. Stock 189. List 1. Dos. 96, 140; Stock 685. List 1. Dos. 28, 44, 49, 50, 98, 188, 206, 230, 332, 370, 428, 463, 500, 547; Stock 881. List 1. Dos. 215, 340–345.

Vedomost’ o manufakturakh v Rossii za 1812 g. [Bulletin of Manufactories in Russia in 1812]. (1814). St Petersburg, Tipografiya Voennogo ministerstva. 174 p.

Vedomost’ o manufakturakh v Rossii za 1813–1814 gg. [Bulletin of Manufactories in Russia in 1813–1814]. (1816). St Petersburg, Tipografiya Pravitel’stvuyushchego Senata. 457 p.

Published

2022-08-08

How to Cite

Belan, M. (2022). Raising Militias in 1806–1812 in the Context of Social Relationships (St Petersburg and Moscow Provinces). Quaestio Rossica, 10(3), 884–902. https://doi.org/10.15826/qr.2022.3.707

Issue

Section

Problema voluminis