Abstract
In the spring and summer of 1854 and 1855, following various government measures to reinforce the armed services, thousands of seigniorial peasants tried to volunteer for military service. These measures, however, expressly prohibited seigniorial peasants from volunteering without their owners’ permission, and the would-be volunteers were sent back. The purposes of this chapter are to examine the causes and significance of their ‘misunderstandings’ of the measures and to consider what the ‘volunteer phenomenon’ tells us about peasants’ aims, aspirations, mentalité and behavioural patterns.
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© 1992 David Moon
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Moon, D. (1992). Peasant Volunteers for Military Service during the Crimean War. In: Russian Peasants and Tsarist Legislation on the Eve of Reform. Studies in Soviet History and Society. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-11833-5_5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-11833-5_5
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-11835-9
Online ISBN: 978-1-349-11833-5
eBook Packages: Palgrave History CollectionHistory (R0)