Editor's Note: The Crimean War (1854-1856) pitted Russia against her enemies at the time, England, France, and the Ottoman Empire. A fel'dsher was a doctor's assistant, or medical attendant, someone with medical training, but lacking a graduate qualification. In the context of this decree, fel'dsher is not a term necessarily referring to Jews. Front-line service refers to the actual combatants fighting on the front lines. Note that this decree, like only a handful of others in Levanda's book, singles out a particular Jewish individual by name.
On permitting, with the shortage of feldsher apprentices in schools, the assignment of feldshers and lower ranks at the front.
The Military Council, after considering the presentation of the Medical Department, and agreeing with the opinion
of the Department, decided:
1. To add the following note to point 3 of supplement XXXIV in book 4 of the Military Code: "Because of the shortage
of feldsher apprentices in schools, feldshers and lower ranks can be assigned to the front, but of these, only
if they demonstrate lack of ability or poor skills, to front-line service, and provided the Medical Department
finds that they have all the information necessary to be in the feldsher profession; the ranks of Jews,
remain under the same law, and can be approved as feldshers only in time of war, and only those who are awarded
by commanders for particular zeal, demonstrated by dressing the wounded during battle; - and
2. In accord with this, to award a decoration for a private in the Selingen infantry regiment, Nison Zukerman,
a feldsher by profession, to fill a vacancy in the feldsher battalion in the Yakutsk infantry regiment.
The Emperor, on such legal position of the Military Council, was pleased to establish it. (V.P.S.Z. Vol. XXIX, No. 28,625).
