Zavelsky Legend
As told to me by Ilya Zavelsky
"There was a 'cantonist' system in the army in the beginning of the 1800's in Russia. 'Cantonists' were called Jewish soldiers who were recruited to the military service at an early age. Very often enlisters came to the Jewish villages and took by force, or even caught boys playing outside. They could be as young as 8-10 years old. Many of them died sooner or later. Many were baptized. Soldiers were in the military service for twenty-five years.

During the time of their military service they lived in the special military villages. They could have a family and children and a civil occupation in their free time. Often they stayed in the same village after their twenty-five year service was over. Usually Jewish people at that time did not have family names, only first names or they were called after their father.

Because they needed to have surnames in the military service, surnames were given to every one of them. A man was recruited to the army and received the name Zavelsky, because his unit stayed somewhere in Poland or Western Ukraine near a town or village called something like Zavel. We do not know this man's first name or date of birth. We just know that all this happened somewhere in the 1800's.

That first Zavelsky moved with his unit to Azov, a town in the south of Russia, and he stayed there when his service was over. It is known that he also was a tailor in his free time and after service, he had three sons."
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