Descendant of Aaron-Chapter 2. In war like in war

Historical novel based on actual facts

Translated from russian by author
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          "A nation that forgets its past has no future."

               
      


                Part 1. Grandfather Andrey.
                Chapter 2. In war like in war...

    At the end of August 1827, Nicholas I signed a decree extending military service to Jews. From that moment on, the history of the uneasy relationship between the Russian army and Jewish conscripts begins.
    As usual, much depended on a person's personal qualities. But at the household and government level, anti-Semitism in Russia was quite high.
    When you sit in a trench and share with others all the difficulties and dangers of war, then everyone around values ;;only your universal human values. Everyone, risking their lives, is ready to help each other out.
Pinya, and he was recorded at the recruiting station as Pyotr Yakovlevich, proved himself to be a brave and skillful soldier. More than once, under the fire of Japanese artillery, he dragged wounded soldiers and officers from the battlefield on himself, saving their lives. All colleagues, including officers, treated him with warmth and respect. But, as they say, the family has its black sheep. There was always someone who wanted to humiliate or at least somehow emphasize Jewish identity. Even friends in the trench, in their simplicity of heart, often said: "You are a good lad, Petruha, we  even wouldn't say that you are a Jew."
    Six months later, Pinya, aka Piotr Yakovlevich, arrived in Sokolovka after being wounded.
Pinya was wounded and it is not known how long he lay under heavy fire from Japanese artillery. The shells fell closer and closer. It seemed that another moment and he would be covered with a direct hit. He would certainly have died if not for his best friend Yosya. Yosya crawled to Pinya and pulled him out from under the fire. Then he lifted Pinya onto himself and supported him with one right hand, Yosya's left arm hung like a whip, reached the infirmary. In the infirmary, doctors amputated Joseph's left hand, as it was completely crushed.
    Joseph was the son of a cantonist.
    The word "cantonists" appeared in Russian at the beginning of the 19th century. So, during the reign of Alexander I, they began to call the soldiers' sons who studied in schools at the garrisons.
    The purpose of conscripting Jewish children into the Russian army was not only to educate professional military men. Under the conditions of harsh military service, young cantonists were forced to accept Orthodoxy by torture and very hard work, which meant a complete breakdown of ties with the Jewish people and the Jewish faith and a quick dissolution in the Russian environment.
    Alexander Ivanovich Herzen describes his meeting with cantonist children at an inn in 1835.
    The writer's attention was attracted by a miserable crowd of children, huddled in a heap: "An elderly, small officer, with a face expressing many worries, petty needs, fear of the authorities, greeted me with all the cordiality of death boredom. He was one of those shortsighted, good-natured a campaigner who pulled his strap for twenty-five years and dragged on, without reasoning, without promotions, in the way that old horses serve, probably believing that this is the right thing to put on a collar and drag something at dawn.
   
- Whom and where are you leading?
- And don't ask, Indo heart breaks; Well, yes, the first know about that, our business is to fulfill orders, we are not responsible; but humanly ugly.
- Yes, what's the matter?
- You see, we gathered a horde of damned Jews from the age of eight or nine.

    They are recruiting into the fleet probably, I don’t know. At first they were ordered to drive them to Perm, but a change came out - we are driving them to Kazan. I took them for a hundred versts. The officer who handed over said: this is a trouble,  a third remained on the road (and the officer pointed to the ground).  Half of it won't make it to the destination, ”he added.


                (not completed)