Large antique photo of a Jewish Russian Cantonist officer. Pre 1917
size: 40 x 30 cm. (15.7 x 11.8 inches) Size with cardboard: 50 x 35 cm. (19.6 x 13.7 inches)
Damaged; tracks of moth, missing places to edges.
Cantonists (Russian language: кантонисты; more properly: военные кантонисты, "military cantonists"[1]) 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.[2][3][4]
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.