The impact of military duties in the early 19th century on urban commoners in Russia: recruit and militia levies and billeting in the communes of St. Petersburg province

Thesis

This thesis examines the impact of increased military duties on the social and political evolution of urban commoners of the Russian Northwest in the early 19th century. The impact of increased recruit and militia levies and billeting duty in the 1800s-1820s is examined in relation to the communes of three district capitals: Novaia Ladoga, Sofia-Tsarskoe Selo, and Gdov. The focus is on the practices, actions, and motivations of individuals, communes of merchants and meshchane, and town councils.

These increased duties led to the modernization of social relationships and political culture.

Increased conscription revealed the limits of the communal process of nomination for service: with the first mass militia levy announced in 1806, communes failed to supply enough soldiers on time. The government had therefore to revise the system of nomination. The practice of nomination for dissolute behaviour was put on a stable legal footing and family recruit groups were introduced, reducing conflict, delays, and disputes within communes.

Local merchant elites were crucial to the performance of military duties: the richest families controlled the town council, organizing fundraising during the recruit and especially the militia levies of 1806-07 and 1812. The merchants themselves made additional contributions. But those in district towns were heavily impacted by the upheavals of war, the growth of taxation, and other financial demands: the local elites significantly contracted from 1807, and especially after 1812.

Relationships between councils and the Chief of Police and Civil Governor were likewise crucial to the performance of military duties. Effective cooperation with urban police on the ground helped in the supply of recruits, money, and equipment during levies. The Governor played a role as mediator whenever disputes and conflicts arose between commoners and police or army officers, most of which were solved by negotiation: commoners and councils were not as powerless as often imagined.

Following the war, there was a growing demand for the equalization of duties and tax burdens among commoners in the 1820s; dissatisfaction with officialdom grew, which manifested itself in cholera riots, e.g., in Staraia Rusa in 1831.

Authors: Belan, M

• DOI: 10.5287/ora-zbbadvnon
• Type of award: DPhil
• Level of award: Doctoral
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford
• Language: English
• Keywords: urban communes; the Russian North-West; the Russian Empire; militia of 1806-1807; military duties; increased demands; merchants; the Napoleonic Wars; district towns; meshchane; 19th century; zemskoe opolchenie of 1812; town councils; urban self-government; St. Petersburg province; 18th century
• Subjects: Napoleonic Wars, 1800-1815--Campaigns--Russia; Microhistory; Russian empire; Social history; History; Russia--History--1613-1917