Only at a later period, during the reign of Alexander II., was this right accorded to the "Nicholas soldiers" [1] and their descendants.
[Footnote 1: In Russian, _Nikolayevskiye soldaty_, i.e., those that had served in the army during the reign of Nicholas I.] The full weight of conscription fell upon the poorest classes of the Jewish population, the so-called burgher estate, [1] consisting of petty artisans and those impoverished tradesmen who could not afford to enrol in the mercantile guilds, though there are cases on record where poor Jews begged from door to door to collect a sufficient sum of money for a guild certificate in order to save their children from military service.
The more or less well-to-do were exempted from conscription either by virtue of their mercantile status or because of their connections with the Kahal leaders who had the power of selecting the victims.
[Footnote 1: See above, p.

23, n.

1.] 4.

THE POLICY OF EXPULSIONS In all lands of Western Europe the introduction of personal military service for the Jews was either accompanied or preceded by their emancipation.

At all events, it was followed by some mitigation of their disabilities, serving, so to speak, as an earnest of the grant of equal rights.