1988 and the trial of Brezhnev’s son-in-law, Yuri Mikhailovich Churbanov, the former Interior Minister, in 1989. See also: COMMUNIST PARTY OF THE SOVIET UNION
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Hill, Ronald J. (1980). Soviet Politics, Political Science, and Reform. Oxford: Martin Robertson/M. E. Sharpe. Hill, Ronald J., and Frank, Peter. (1981). The Soviet Communist Party. London: Allen amp; Unwin. White, Stephen. (1991). Gorbachev in Power. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
In Russia, the calendar has been used not only to mark the passage of time, but also to reinforce ideological and theological positions. Until January 31, 1918, Russia used the Julian calendar, while Europe used the Gregorian calendar. As a result, Russian dates lagged behind those associated with contemporary events. In the nineteenth century, Russia was twelve days behind, or later than, the West; in the twentieth century it was thirteen days behind. Because of the difference in calendars, the Revolution of October 25, 1917, was commemorated on November 7. To minimize confusion, Russian writers would indicate their dating system by adding the abbreviation “O.S.” (Old Style) or “N.S.” (New Style) to their letters, documents, and diary entries.
The Julian Calendar has its origins with Julius Caesar and came into use in 45 B.C.E. The Julian Calendar, however, rounded the number of days in a year (365 days, 6 hours), an arithmetic convenience that eventually accumulated a significant discrepancy with astronomical readings (365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, 46 seconds). To remedy this difference, Pope Gregory XIII introduced a more accurate system, the Gregorian Calendar, in 1582.
During these years Russia had used the Byzantine calendar, which numbered the years from the creation of the world, not the birth of Christ, and began each new year on September 1. (According to this system, the year 7208 began on September 1, 1699.) As part of his Westernization plan, Peter the Great studied alternative systems. Although the Gregorian Calendar was becoming predominant in Catholic Europe at the time, Peter chose to retain the Julian system of counting days and months, not wanting Orthodox Russia to be tainted by the “Catholic” Gregorian system. But he introduced the numbering of years from the birth of Christ. Russia’s new calendar started on January 1, 1700, not September 1. Opponents protested that Peter had changed “God’s Time” by beginning another new century, for Russians had celebrated the year 7000 eight years earlier.
Russians also used calendars to select names for their children. The Russian Orthodox Church assigned each saint its own specific feast day, and calendars were routinely printed with that information, along with other appropriate names. During the imperial era, parents would often choose their child’s name based on the saints designated for the birth date.
Russia continued to use the Julian calendar until 1918, when the Bolshevik government made the switch to the Gregorian system. The Russian Orthodox Church, however, continued to use the Julian system, making Russian Christmas fall on January 7. The Bolsheviks eliminated some confusion by making New Year’s Day, January 1, a major secular holiday, complete with Christmas-like traditions such as decorated evergreen trees and a kindly Grandfather Frost who gives presents to
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children. Christmas was again celebrated in the post-communist era, in both December and January, but New Year’s remained a popular holiday. See also: OLD STYLE
Hughes, Lindsey. (1998). Russia in the Age of Peter the Great. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
The cantonist system in the Russian Empire evolved from bureaucratic attempts to combine a solution to two unrelated problems: welfare provision for the families of common soldiers and sailors, and the dearth of trained personnel to meet the multifarious needs of the modernizing imperial state. The evolution of this category was part of the development of social estates (sosloviia) in Russia, where membership was tied to service obligations.
The recruitment of peasant men into the Russian armed forces frequently plunged their wives (the soldatka) and children into destitution. The state sought to remedy this situation by creating the category of “soldiers’ children” (soldatskie deti) in 1719. These children were removed from the status of serfs, and assigned to the “military domain,” with the expectation that they would eventually serve in the military. Before beginning active service, they were assigned to schools and training institutions attached to military garrisons in order to receive an education of use to the armed forces. The training was provided for children between the ages of seven and fifteen, with an additional three years of advanced training for pupils who proved to be especially talented. They were educated in basic literacy before being given specialized artisan training, musical, or medical instruction, or the numerous other skills required by the military. The most able were given advanced training in fields such as engineering and architecture. Some children resided with their parents while receiving schooling, others were dispatched to training courses far away from home. Upon completion of their education, the soldiers’ children were assigned to the military or other branches of state service. Upon completion of their term of service, which ranged from fifteen to twenty-five years, they were given the status of state peasants, or were allowed to choose an appropriate branch of state service. The garrison schools were permitted to admit, as a welfare measure, the children of other groups, such as impoverished gentry. In 1798 the schools were renamed the “Military Orphanage” (Voenno-Sirotskie Otdelenya), with 16,400 students. In 1805, the students were renamed “cantonists” (kanton- isty), and reorganized into battalions. In 1824, the schools were placed under the supervision of the Department of Military Colonies, then headed by Count Alexei Arakcheyev. The cantonist system continued to grow, and to admit diverse social elements under Nicholas I. In 1856, Alexander II freed cantonists from the military domain, and the schools were gradually phased out.
The cantonist system never fulfilled its objectives. Its welfare obligations overwhelmed resources, and it never found training space for more than a tenth of the eligible children. The cantonist battalions themselves became notorious as “stick academies,” marked by brutality and child abuse, high mortality rates, and ineffective educational methods. The bureaucracy failed to adequately oversee the category of soldiers’ children, who were often hidden in other social estates.
In 1827, the legislation obliging Jews in the Pale of Settlement to provide military recruits permitted communities to provide children for the can-tonist battalions in lieu of adult recruits. The fate of these Jewish cantonists was especially harsh. Children were immediately removed from their parents, and often were subjected to brutal measures designed to convert them to Russian Orthodoxy. The provision of child recruits by the Jewish leadership did much to fatally undermine their authority within the community. See also: EDUCATION; JEWS; MILITARY, IMPERIAL ERA
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Stanislawski, Michael. (1983). Tsar Nicholas I and the Jews: The Transformation of Jewish Society in Russia, 1825-1855. Philadelphia, PA: The Jewish Publication Society of America.
Max Weber offered a value-free definition of modern capitalism: an economic system based on rational accounting for business, separate from the
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personal finances of an individual or family; a free market open to persons of any social status; the application of advanced technology, especially in large enterprises that required significant amounts of invested capital; a legal system providing equal treatment under the law, without arbitrary exceptions, and ensuring protection of the right of private property; a flexible labor market free of impediments to social mobility, such as slavery and serfdom, and of legal and institutional restrictions, such as minimum-wage laws and labor unions; and the public sale of shares to amass significant amounts of investment capital. Although no economy in world history
