A double-edged sword: the impact of military service on ‘zigenare’ and ‘tattare’ in Finland, c.1743–1809

Abstract

ABSTRACT Drawing on various socio-historical sources, this article examines the impact of military service on people categorised as zigenare or tattare (historical terms referring to Roma in Finland) in the eastern borderland of the Swedish Kingdom circa 1743–1809. The article explores how military service influenced their social position and subsistence, and the ways in which they were viewed by others in society during an era when Sweden reinforced its eastern defences against the Russian Empire. I argue that military service acted to integrate people categorised as zigenare or tattare into society by providing them with legal status. Simultaneously, however, it strengthened their existing ethnic label, which was strongly connected with mobility, criminality and idleness. This was because soldiers categorised as zigenare or tattare often served in enlisted regiments that did not provide them with subsistence throughout the year. Hence, they often ended up practising itinerant occupations to make a living. This strengthened the general perception that zigenare and tattare had an innate tendency to roam, reinforcing their stigmatisation. The article adds an important dimension to the scholarship on the relationship between ethnicity and the military, hitherto inadequately examined in the early modern context.