Soldiers’ children as a special social institution in the Russian Empire in the second half of the 19th century

We consider the social and legal status, family status and class transformations of soldiers’ offspring in the second half of the 19th century. The great reforms of the 60–70s of the 19th century did not actually affect the regulation of children of lower ranks and reserve soldiers. In this context, it is clear that there has been very little change in the situation of such children compared to the recruitment period. Soldiers’ children in the 19th century continued to fill up the lumpenized population groups of the Russian Empire, and their situation remained shaky, unstable and uncertain. We reveal the historical and legal dynamics aspects of the social and class status of children of representatives of the “military class”: soldiers’ children, reserve soldiers’ children, recruits’ children. We ascertain features of the charity and welfare organization for the families with called up soldiers during the Crimean War of 1853–1856 and the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878. Attracting a wide range of archival sources and published materials allowed quite successfully to reconstruct existing social and legal regulation and the practice of charity “military offspring” of lower ranks soldiers. We reveal features of the “reflection” of soldiers’ position in primary archival documents and legislative acts, including social and legal conflicts and trends that determined the life and fate of “military children”. We give a historiographic assessment of the study of legal status of soldiers’ children and their everyday life in the war and peace years of the second half of the 19th century. We identify research gaps in the works of domestic and foreign historians on the stated issues. We draw conclusions about the prospects of studying the post-reform ethnic and social, social and cultural, class and legal features of the soldier’s offspring, which is still “in the shadow” of research interest in the history community. We prove that “soldiers’ children” were and remained a special social institution in the Russian Empire in the second half of the 19th century. We reveal the peculiarities of studying this category of “military class” in pre-reform and post-reform Russia.

military class, social institute, Russian army, soldiers’ children, soldier’s wife, War Office, Crimean War of 1853–1856, Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878, social welfare, country council