Military Justice and Social Relations in the Prereform Army, 1796 to 1855

E. Wirtschafter’s article was previously published in the Slavic Review published by the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies (Vol. 44, #1, Spring, 1985, pp. 67-82). It is reprinted in our journal with the permission of the publisher.When a young peasant in early nineteenth-century Russia was conscripted into the army from the taxpaying population, he underwent a fundamental change in juridical status: born into serfdom, he became a "free" man (vol'nyi chelovek) with a c...