Bidspirit auction | Russian Empire. Antique Kodesh Book

Russian Empire. Antique Kodesh Book Given to Cantonist Berk Doberman, signed in Russian, Luga, St. Petersburg Province. - Russian Empire Antique Kodesh Book Given to Cantonist Berk Doberman, signed in Russian, Luga, St. Petersburg Province. Signed in Russian on front endpaper: St. Petersburg Province, city Luga, Artillery brigade, third battery. Receive young soldier Berk Doberman. Inscription of the time in Hebrew on rear side of front cover The book in Hebrew, leather binding, 28 x 22 cm Condition: page with dedication torn, creased; title page is missing, covers of the book detached, partly loose, spine damaged; staining inside. Weight: 970 gr. Cantonists (Russian language: кантонисты; more properly: военные кантонисты, ”military cantonists” were underage sons of conscripts in the Russian Empire. From 1721 on they were educated in special ”canton schools” (Кантонистские школы) for future military service (the schools were called garrison schools in the 18th century). The canton schools and the cantonist system were eventually abolished in 1857, following public and international criticism and the Russian defeat in the Crimean War. Jewish cantonists - the forced recruitment of Jewish children into military service in Tsarist Russia; discretionary policy (children of other nationalities were not drafted). Their military service was accompanied by forced conversion to Christianity, including with the use of bullying.