About the book: 1982 / The most extensive popular science work on military settlements, recruitment, cantonists and conscription of Jews in the era of Nicholas I. To create this work, the author managed to collect a large number of rare historical sources from the 19th - early 20th centuries. The book is divided into two parts. The first part is the attitude of the tsarist administration towards Jews, the creation of cantonist schools for soldiers’ children: their life, studies, camps, graduation into the army. The second part is devoted to the situation of Jews in Russia and their life in the era of Nicholas I (characteristics of the kahal and shtetls, Jewish recruitment, the situation of Jewish children in cantonist schools, the forced conversion of Jews to Christianity... “The second part can be considered an encyclopedia of the life and recruitment of the Jewish population in the era of Nicholas I" (from the preface of Professor N.P. Poletika). The most valuable documentary materials on the Jewish question in Russia. Forgotten names, unknown and unstudied materials..