The great Russian writer saw the Jewish cantonists on the road, but he
knew nothing of what happened to them later on, in the recesses of the
barracks into which they were driven. This terrible secret was revealed
to the world at a later period by the few survivors among these martyred
Jewish children.

Having arrived at their destination, the juvenile conscripts were put
into the cantonist battalions. The "preparation for military service"
began with their religious re-education at the hands of sergeants and
corporals. No means was, neglected so long as it bade fair to bring the
children to the baptismal font. The authorities refrained from giving
formal instructions, leaving everything to the zeal of the officers who
knew the wishes of their superiors. The children were first sent for
spiritual admonition to the local Greek-Orthodox priests, whose efforts,
however, proved fruitless in nearly every case. They were then taken in
hand by the sergeants and corporals who adopted military methods of
persuasion.

These brutal soldiers invented all kinds of tortures. A favorite
procedure was to make the cantonists get down on their knees in the
evening after all had gone to bed and to keep the sleepy children in
that position for hours. Those who agreed to be baptized were sent to
bed, those who refused were kept up the whole night till they dropped
from exhaustion. The children who continued to hold their own were
flogged and, under the guise of gymnastic exercises, subjected to all
kinds of tortures. Those that refused to eat pork or the customary
cabbage soup prepared with lard were beaten and left to starve. Others
were fed on salted fish and then forbidden to drink, until the little
ones, tormented by thirst, agreed to embrace Christianity.