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

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.

known references to tattare derive from the prisoner lists of Åbo castle of the 1580s. By the end of the century, tattare were encountered in the interior of Finland, too. While it has often been assumed that tattare arrived in Finland from the western part of the kingdom, this question has not been settled, and it is also very plausible that no one particular direction of arrival exists. 2 In Swedish-language primary sources, the people on whom this article focuses were categorised by the majority population as tattare or zigenare. It is not known whether there was a term (or several terms) used by the minority to refer to itself. While the Finnish Roma refer to themselves today by the word Kaale (a plural form meaning 'black' in the Finnish Romani language), it is uncertain whether the term was widely applied in the eighteenth century. In 1780, the term was included in the word list of the tattare language by Chaplain Kristfrid Ganander, but my sources contain no other references to this word. 3 Zigenare and tattare are nowadays regarded as pejorative terms, and have been replaced by rom and resande. However, as it is precisely the categorisation performed in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries that this article explores, and since applying presentday terminology would too easily distort the meaning of the historical texts and concepts, the original historical terms will be applied. In the eighteenth century the words zigenare and tattare were mainly used as synonyms and thus I apply them side by side, since the meaning of these terms diverged after the era on which this research is focused. 4 Coinciding with the strengthening of vagrancy control, the Swedish state developed an expulsion policy towards people categorised as zigenare or tattare which was at its most stringent in the seventeenth century. The evolution of this policy culminated in a statute enacted in 1637, which ordered that all the male tattare found in the kingdom more than three months and ten days after the statute was enacted would be hanged without any legal proceedings. Although the order was moderated in the beggar statute five years later, it was not until 1748 that the execution order was abolished for good. However, there is no evidence to suggest that this order was ever implemented in practice. 5 Although officially in force until 1748, the expulsion policy was gradually replaced by an approach that strove to exploit the workforce of tattare and zigenare. From the seventeenth century onwards, the military became the main official sphere where their workforce was utilised. 6 In the latter part of the eighteenth and early years of the nineteenth centuries, military occupations were extremely common among the zigenare/tattare in Finland. This article tackles the relationship between ethnicity and the military by exploring the impact that military service had on the social position and subsistence of the zigenare/tattare serving in the army in Finland. Moreover, it analyses whether and how their strong involvement in the military affected the ways in which zigenare/tattare were viewed by others in society. 7 The main focus of this article is the last decades of Swedish rule, 1743-1809, although some consideration will be given to earlier developments as well. The research period begins from the year in which Sweden had to cede a part of south-eastern Finland to Russia as the result of the war between Sweden and Russia (1741-1743). It ends in the year in which all the eastern provinces of Sweden were finally annexed to the Russian Empire. This time period almost parallels the construction period of the Sveaborg and Svartholm fortresses on the southern coast of Finland. These fortresses were constructed in order to strengthen Finland's defences against Russia, which had occupied Finland twice during the eighteenth century. Many people categorised as zigenare or tattare served in the regiments placed at the fortresses and took part in the construction work. Partly as a consequence of this, more source material remains from this period than from the previous ones.
This article contributes to historical research on the so-called Roma, 8 as well as the broader fields of ethnicity and the military in the early modern period. In the research literature, in Finland as in other countries, the Roma have traditionally been dealt with as an isolated and clearly bounded group with a self-contained, exotic culture. 9 This has to a great extent predetermined the way in which they have been understood and presented: as anomalous outsiders whose relations with the rest of society have been characterised by general antagonism, explained by the Roma's 'inborn' aggression and criminality. 10 In recent decades, the research focus has shifted towards inter-ethnic relations, ethnic formation and economic activities. 11 However, the few existing studies on early modern Finland have mainly focused on state policies towards zigenare/tattare. 12 In a broader sense, surprisingly little scholarly attention has been devoted to the relationship between ethnicity and the military in the early modern context. 13 It has been studied mainly in a twentieth-century context, and, especially since the 1980s, dealt with as part of the historiography of Indigenous military service. 14 Based on a variety of socio-historical sources, this article analyses the ways in which military service influenced the social and economic position of a tiny and, in many ways, marginalised minority in the eastern borderland of the Swedish Kingdom. Instead of exploring zigenare/tattare as an isolated group, it aims to explain how ethnicity and social status were formed through social processes. From this vantage point, examining the military is crucial, since it played a huge role in the lives of many zigenare/ tattare in early modern Finland.
Research on zigenare/tattare in early modern Finland is dependent on administrative and judicial sources, since we lack literary sources and written reminiscence accounts about them relevant to the research period. 15 Moreover, due to their social position, the connection made between residence and poor relief as well as the expected correlation between residence and a sedentary way of life, zigenare/tattare have been only partly registered in official records. Therefore, finding information on them is extremely time-consuming and the information found is usually very fragmentary. The other crucial difficulty concerning the source material derives from the fact that the people labelled as zigenare/tattare were often targeted by repressive policies. The majority of the source material is thus loaded with the negative attitudes of the authorities who produced those sources. Furthermore, since the people at the heart of this study normally used ordinary Swedish names, they can be distinguished from the sources only when categorised by the labels zigenare or tattare. The study is thus inevitably restricted by labels given and identification performed by the authorities. For instance, quantitative research on zigenare or tattare in different regiments across time is impossible, since the ethnicity of the personnel was not systematically registered in regimental records.
The research, then, is challenging and restricted, but by no means unfeasible. One can draw a picture of their involvement in the army by combining information from various source materials and reading these sources very carefully. This study uses different socio-historical sources, such as vagrancy interrogation protocols, the correspondence of provincial administrations, court records and regimental records. Through a close reading of these sources, I show that the impact of military service on zigenare/tattare was complex. On the one hand, it had an integrating effect, since it provided many of them with legal status, which was extremely important in the era of strict vagrancy laws. On the other hand, it strengthened the ethnic label that was strongly associated with mobility, criminality and idleness. This article demonstrates the process through which the Swedish state shaped the way in which this tiny category of the population was viewed by exploiting it for defensive purposes. It adds an important dimension to the scholarship on ethnicity and the military, which has mostly been focused on the era of nation states.

Roma and Travellers in the Nordic historiographies
In recent decades, new research questions have surfaced in the Nordic historiographies of the Roma and Travellers: inter-ethnic relations, ethnic formation, and the social and economic position of the Roma and Travellers have gained interest among scholars working in this field. In contrast to the long-standing view, it has become clear that the Roma have not lived in isolation from other populations but instead have for centuries been connected to local communities and economies. 16 Miika Tervonen has examined the influence of nation-building processes on relations between the Finnish Roma/Swedish Travellers and sedentary majority populations in the period 1860-1925. The focus of Tervonen's study is inter-ethnic relations, and, in particular, micro-level interaction, conflicts and boundary drawing. 17 Although research on the Roma/ Travellers in early modern Scandinavia is sparse, Anne Minken's dissertation offers an extremely important long-term perspective on the history of the Scandinavian Traveller populations (tatere/tattare) prior to 1850. 18 Minken has concluded that the tattare did define themselves, and were identified by mainstream populations, as belonging to a distinct group, diverging from the mainstream population. 19 Minken has criticised the conclusions drawn by Adam Heymowski who, based on genealogical research on Swedish Travellers, emphasised their mixed origins and the influence of labelling and social exclusion on their group formation. 20 Relying on recent genealogical studies, Minken has argued that there was, in fact, a notable ancestral continuum between groups that were called zigenare and tattare during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and those called by the same terms during the nineteenth century. 21 According to Minken, however, the ways in which tattare were described by their contemporaries changed over the course of these centuries: Minken has described these developments as ethnification, deethnification and re-ethnification with regard to tattare and zigenare in Northern Europe. 22 There is a fundamental difference in the way in which the Finnish Roma and the Swedish Travellers have been understood as ethnic groups. Although the origins and composition of the Travellers have been contentious questions among both scholars and those who self-identify as resande, there has been a consensus that the Travellers originate at least partly from the Swedish majority population. 23 In Finland, both scholars and the Roma themselves have traditionally shared the opinion that the Finnish Roma have always formed a group distinct from the rest of the population, with 17 Tervonen, '"Gypsies", "Travellers" and "peasants"', op. cit. 18  clear ethnic boundaries and very low rates of intermarriage between the populations. 24 The developments of people categorised as zigenare or tattare may not have been identical in different parts of the kingdom. However, we lack comparative research that would enable well-founded analysis of the possible differences between these populations in the early modern era. In any event, during the time when Finland belonged to the Swedish Kingdom, the zigenare/tattare living in Finland were connected in many ways with the travelling groups of the western part of the kingdom. Family ties crossed the Gulf of Bothnia, and mobility was not infrequent between these areas: by contrast, we have several examples of zigenare/tattare questioned in Finland who reported that they were born in Sweden.
Anne Minken's study provides us with a unique analysis of the ethnic formation of tattare in early modern Scandinavia. However, her research touches Finland only cursorily. Indeed, research on zigenare/tattare in early modern Finland is sparse and it has mainly focused on state policies towards them. 25 Hence, we still have an imperfect understanding of the ways in which military service influenced the status of zigenare/tattare in early modern Finland. If we seek to abandon the perspective of isolation and understand the history of the Roma as part of the histories of Sweden and Finland, it is essential to explore their military service, since it was largely through the military system that they were bound to society in the early modern era.

Ethnicity and military service: theoretical considerations
The military has long been viewed as a vital institution for the transmission of social values. 26 Scholars and political leaders alike have widely believed that the military has affected state building, and that the armed forces were able to substantially reshape society. Since the latter part of the nineteenth century, the military has commonly been viewed as a nation builder: a national melting pot that breaks down racial, ethnic, religious and class divisions. 27 Social scientists who studied newly independent states in the 1960s increasingly regarded the armed forces as agents of modernisation. 28 They saw armies as institutions that would help these states overcome parochial kinship structures and loyalties. 29 According to this view, armies could provide a sense of citizenship: they were institutions where recruits with traditional backgrounds learned that they were a part of a national community. 30 The armed forces could thus serve to integrate diverse ethnic groups into this community, leading to the demise of ethnicity. 31 According to Cynthia Enloe, the above-described modernisation perspective is often founded on an ascriptive definition of ethnicity that views ethnicity as derived from shared descent. In this approach, cultural attributes of an ethnic group are regarded as objectively observable and persistent, and ethnicity is thus conceived as a relatively fixed phenomenon. 32 Enloe subscribes to a situational interpretation of ethnicity that considers ethnic identities more fluid: instead of being 'a package of fixed attributes and lineage patterns', ethnicity is 'open to changing collective definitions and fluctuating emotional intensities'. 33 Enloe argues that the scholars who adopt the ascriptive notion of ethnicity often view ethnicity as essentially a pre-modern mode of affiliation which will not remain functional in a period of modernisation. 34 In contrast, situational theorists are prone to consider ethnicity flexible and capable of remaining valuable to individuals in a time of social and technological change. While ascriptive theorists tend to regard political action as dependent upon primordial ethnic divisions, situational theorists acknowledge that political processes and organisations can create a sense of ethnic belonging and alter both the substance and salience of ethnic boundaries. 35 When it comes to military policies, Enloe argues that militaries can have three possible effects on ethnicity. First, they can merely reflect existing submilitary, sub-political tendencies in social relations. The second possibility is that they accelerate the disappearance of ethnicity as a basis for intergroup relations. Enloe claims that the third possible effect, in which armies sustain or revitalise ethnic identifications, has been the most common in premodern and modern societies. 36 According to her, political identities of ethnic groups are often reinforced in the military, leading to intensified inter-ethnic tensions. The reason for this is that inter-ethnic power relations influence recruitment policies and the status of different groups in the army, as well as the expectations that groups have for post-service life. 37 States have often planned their military policies based on the presumed reliability and potential security risk of the ethnic group(s) in question, balanced with the state's need for manpower. 38 Yagil Levy has criticised both the adherents of modernisation and the situationalists for focusing almost exclusively on the groups' access to power in the military. According to Levy, armies differ in two ways: in the degree to which their recruitment policy and groups' access to military positions reflect ethnic or class inequalities in society, and in the extent to which groups are able to convert the power acquired in the military into valuable social positions in civil society. Inter-ethnic integration can be obtained only in cases where there is a high degree of equitable access to military positions coupled with equitable access to post-military positions. Strong inequality in the military accompanied by strong convertibility after a military career will lead to strengthening inequality, which Levy calls reproduction. Hence, the army not only reflects inequalities, but can also function as a state mechanism that reproduces inequalities. 39 Dana Kachtan, Ronald R. Krebs and Liora Sion have also questioned the military's role as a melting pot that unites individuals of various backgrounds in a common cause. 40 Kachtan has argued that ethnic identities do not disappear in the course of military service, but become more apparent instead. 41 She has also supported the argument that a person does not automatically seek to abandon a stigmatised ethnic identity. 42 Cynthia Enloe has argued that ethnic groups may look to military participation to attain a more legitimate status in society, to improve their economic position, or to strengthen links between a group's own identity and the identity of the state (or the nation state). Groups that perceive military participation as a way to legitimate them are often on the fringes the political order: they may be poor, regarded as religiously impure, or excluded from educational institutions. 43 Enloe's analysis of the so-called 'martial races' is of particular interest to this article. 'Martial races' are ethnic groups that have been extensively used in state military service in ethnically defined units. These groups originally lived in peripheral territories of the state and fell into vulnerable positions after being defeated in their resistance to outside invasion. According to Enloe, the state has made military vocations an essential part of the groups' own ethnic identities, which has led to an increased sense of ethnic cohesion and, simultaneously, growing dependency between them and the state military. Since these groups have lacked other potential means of livelihood and have often been held in contempt in society, the military has become a means for gaining respect, legitimacy and protection. 44 Although zigenare/tattare were not used or labelled as a 'martial race', a pattern of dependency between an ethnic group and state military connects their case with the so-called 'martial races'.
This article seeks to test the above-described theoretical issues in the context of the eighteenth-century Swedish borderland. It explores the relationship between ethnicity and military service, hitherto inadequately examined in the early modern context, by looking at socio-historical sources that shed light on the interactions at the grassroots level. In this article, ethnicity is understood as an unfixed phenomenon which, instead of being static, is constantly produced in social interaction. Focusing on the grassroots level is thus essential, since it was in these interactions that ethnicity was constructed. Ethnicity refers both to the self-identification of a person or a group and to his/its identification by 'outsiders', and these identifications are mutually interactive: the identification of a group from 'outside' thus influences the self-identification of the group.
There are notable restrictions in studying ethnic identities in a premodern era, in particular when it comes to minorities living on the fringes of society. The reason for this is that we lack sources that shed light on the self-identification of these people. Instead, the sources available convey to us the point of view of the authorities: how they defined and described zigenare/tattare. Hence, this study cannot assess the influence of military service on the self-identification of people categorised as zigenare/tattare. However, it can help us to understand how the military affected the ways in which they were defined, portrayed and understood in society at large. This article demonstrates that, during the research period, military service did not decrease ethnic differentiation between zigenare/tattare and others. Furthermore, the military did not simply reflect existing ethnic differences but also shaped the way in which ethnic identity was understood. It reinforced the ethnic label of zigenare/tattare, tying it more closely to itineracy. Since our focus here is on the pre-modern era, we cannot fully assess the argument of the modernisation approach. However, the findings support Enloe's argument that militaries often sustained or revitalised ethnic identifications. During the research period, military policies had an integrating effect since they provided many people categorised as zigenare/ tattare with a legal status. At the same time, however, such policies absorbed them into the lower echelons of society. I therefore show that military service could simultaneously have multiple and partly contradictory effects on an ethnic minority. 44 ibid., 25-29.

Zigenare and tattare in the rank and file
In the eighteenth century, military occupations were of vital importance for people labelled as zigenare or tattare in Finland. Indeed, it is rare to read a source dealing with them that does not in any way refer to an army connection. Yet this was not a phenomenon that was specific to Finland, or to the Swedish Kingdom in general. Anne Minken has noted that the socalled tattare also served in the military in Denmark and Norway. 45 Many references to 'Gypsies' serving in the military have been found in France, and in German-speaking regions as well, but in the latter their role in the military decreased gradually over the course of the eighteenth century. 46 The practice of recruiting people categorised as zigenare or tattare into the military began during the fierce expansion period of the Swedish Kingdom in the seventeenth century, when there was a constant need for men in the military. 47 Over the course of the eighteenth century, recruiting them appears to have become increasingly common. This can be explained, in part, by the greater amount of source material but also by the alleviation of policies concerning zigenare/tattare during the eighteenth century.
The Swedish military consisted of both tenure and enlisted troops. In the allotment system, a number of farms formed a file (rote), each of which equipped a soldier for whom they provided a croft, some farmland and equipment. In peacetime the tenure soldiers participated in military drills, but most of the year they remained in their crofts, farming, and were thus integrally connected to village life. Although the number of enlisted regiments increased in the latter part of the eighteenth century, the tenure regiments still formed the greatest part of the military at the turn of the century. 48 Some men categorised as zigenare or tattare served in tenure regiments, thus living most of the year firmly connected to their village communities. 49 However, clearly the vast majority of the zigenare/tattare who served in the army were recruited to enlisted regiments. It is likely that the military had a significant influence on the movement of zigenare/tattare from Sweden to Finland since, until 1764, the artillery was the only enlisted unit permitted to recruit in Finland. Although enlistment was prohibited in Finland at this time, vagrants could nevertheless be recruited by legal force. 50 By the end of the eighteenth century, the enlisted regiments in Finland consisted of the artillery and four infantry regiments. Two of these infantry regiments, the Queen Dowager's Life Regiment and the Stackelberg Regiment (known as the Jägerhorn Regiment from 1801 onwards), were garrison regiments located in the Sveaborg and Svartholm fortresses. The other two, the Savolax Jäger Regiment and the Karelian Jäger Regiment, were intended for the defence of the border with Russia. 51 The personnel of the garrison regiments and the artillery were in full-time service, whereas the Savolax Jäger Regiment only gathered for military drills during the summer. The system thus resembled that of tenure regiments, with the difference that the Savolax jägers were not provided with crofts to stay in during the rest of the year. The system proved economical, as it lacked any obligation to provide accommodation for the soldiers. For this reason, in 1803, the New Jäger Regiment (the Adlercreutz Regiment from 1804 onwards) was formed on a similar basis. 52 People categorised as tattare or zigenare served in several enlisted units. A considerable number were recruited to the Adlercreutz Regiment, and many served in the Queen Dowager's Life Regiment as well. Furthermore, zigenare/tattare served in the Jägerhorn Regiment and the Savolax Jäger Regiment. 53 Most served as infantrymen, but the regiments also had several zigenare/tattare load drivers, as well as some drummers and handymen. The statutes forbade the recruitment of zigenare and tattare to the Finnish Artillery Regiment. 54 However, sources demonstrate that several zigenare/ tattare had a background as artillerists or artillery handymen. Furthermore, some served as dragoons and in the navy. 55

Why the military?
For people categorised as zigenare/tattare, the pursuit of a more legitimate status in society coupled with economic incentives were the central motives in seeking military participation. These motives arose from the strict vagrancy policies of the time.
In the Great Northern War (1700-1721), Sweden lost its position as a great power. Russia conquered the eastern parts of the realm, including the south-eastern part of Finland. The continual wars of the seventeenth century, combined with years of crop failure, had seriously retarded population growth -in Finland in particular. 56 In the eighteenth century Sweden strove to increase its population and labour supply, which influenced the policies concerning zigenare/tattare. Prior to 1748, people categorised as zigenare or tattare were legally considered outlaws and were subject to expulsion policies, but in the latter part of the eighteenth century 'domestic' zigenare/tattare came to be governed by the same legislation as other vagabonds. In practice, this change in policy was gradual. However, it enabled the exploitation of, and reflected the authorities' will to exploit, zigenare/tattare as a workforce. 57 In the Swedish Kingdom, an independent status was guaranteed for persons who owned land or worked as tenant farmers, and even for those landless people who held possessions sufficient for a year-long subsistence. All other landless people were obliged to enter a year-long servicea principle known as compulsory service (tjänstetvång). 58 The regulations governing this compulsory service were most stringent in the statute of 1723, after which exceptions began to be added to it. The statuses exempting a person from service obligation, together with establishing a year-long service relationship, were perceived as 'protection' against being ascribed the status of a vagrant. Consequently, people lacking such 'legal protection' (laga försvar) were generally considered vagrants. 59 The military had a prominent position in Swedish society, and the vagrancy legislation was developed with a tight connection to the military. During the seventeenth century the need for recruits in the army was constant, and people regarded as vagrants were commonly directed to the ranks. 60  enforcement of vagrancy policies, since they heavily affected the exploitation of the workforce of convicted vagrants. This did not concern only forced recruitment. The latter part of the eighteenth century saw the buttressing of Swedish military frontiers through the construction of the fortresses of Sveaborg (on a group of islands off Helsingfors) and Svartholm (at the entrance to the Bay of Lovisa), both on the southern coast of Finland, to reinforce the eastern defence of the Swedish Kingdom against the Russian Empire. The need for a labour supply at these construction sites was enormous, and the workforce of convicted vagrants was exploited there alongside that of soldiers, artisans and prisoners. Indeed, in the early nineteenth century, forced labour at the Sveaborg or Svartholm fortresses was the most common outcome of a vagrancy conviction in at least two provinces of southern Finland (whilst vagrant women were also sent to do forced labour at the spinning house of Åbo, which had been founded in 1738). 61 For many low-status men, voluntary enlistment in regiments served as a means to acquire protection against allegations of vagrancy. This can be concluded from the interrogation protocols of alleged vagrants. People arrested for vagrancy were subjected to interrogation in the governor's office. I have examined the vagrancy interrogation protocols of the Nyland och Tavastehus province and the Kymmenegård province (located next to each other in Southern Finland and housing the Sveaborg and Svartholm fortresses, respectively) for the years 1805 and 1806, which contain interrogations of 326 adult alleged vagrants. 62 The interrogatees included 56 persons who were, or whose spouse was, categorised as zigenare or tattare. Military occupations were prevalent in the backgrounds of the alleged vagrants: 108 persons, 38% of all the men interrogated, stated that they had previously served in the army. 63 The protocols provide little information as to whether the interrogatees had ended up in the regiments voluntarily or as a result of the forced recruitment of vagrants. However, it does seem unlikely that many of them would have been drafted by force since, during the years 1805 and 1806, only 11 of the interrogatees were recruited, whereas over a hundred were sent to do forced labour. Yet it is not always easy to draw a clear distinction between forced and voluntary recruitments. 64 Obviously, the military personnel could pressure people to enlist 'voluntarily' by threatening them with forced recruitment. For instance, Johan Johansson, a son of a tenant farmer, stated in his interrogation that two lower-ranking military officers had tried to force him to enlist -by threatening that if he did not agree, he would be sent to the fortress in what appears to have been forced labour. 65 The military played an important role in the lives of the interrogatees, regardless of their ethnicity. However, the protection acquired in the army was particularly essential for people categorised as zigenare/tattare. Whereas almost two-thirds of the male zigenare/tattare interrogatees had previously served in the army, the proportion was around one-third among those not categorised as zigenare/tattare. According to the interrogation protocols, the work histories of zigenare/tattare interrogatees were less diverse and less connected with agricultural work than the occupational histories of the others. It is thus likely that they faced more difficulties in acquiring protection as agricultural labourers than other interrogatees, and were consequently more eager to turn towards the military.
Enlisted soldiers were not provided with economic security. However, they did receive a low wage and a bounty on enlistment. Moreover, they attained a legitimate position in society, since military service entailed legal protection. Indeed, zigenare/tattare could refer to prior military service when aiming to present themselves as members of the state. As early as the late seventeenth century, when expulsion policies were still in effect, 'Zigener corporal' Anders Larsson wrote to the king on behalf of his 'Zigenare comrades', pleading for permission to make a livelihood according to their old customs. According to Anders Larsson, their forefathers had stayed in the kingdom since ancient times, serving the king. Since 1676, they had served in the dragoon squadron of Gerhard Schantzenstierna and, during peacetime, all able-bodied zigenare had participated in the construction works of Nyenschantz, the fortress at the mouth of the river Neva on the site of present-day Saint Petersburg. Anders Larsson pledged all the able-bodied to serve in the military or at the fortresses, if so ordered by the king. However, he requested that the elderly, women and children be allowed freedom to seek their own livelihoods. 66 Thomas Magnusson has argued that although forced recruitment was intended to serve as an instrument that would support the obligation for workers to serve one year in the same place, in reality it acted as a counterforce to this principle. As the enlisted soldiers' wages were too low for a sustainable livelihood and they were often put on leave for months at a time, they were forced to take additional jobs in the open labour market. They often took short-term jobs, moving from one place to another, protected by their military status. For journeymen or apprentices, it could even be tempting, at times, to leave their masters and to enlist in regiments, since they could thus acquire a more independent status to practise their occupations. 67 Hence, instead of strengthening the stability of the regulated labour market, the threat of forced recruitment increased itinerancy in society. 68 Military service may have connected well with the other economic activities of people categorised as zigenare or tattare, since it provided a powerful protection against vagrancy control while also enabling the practice of itinerant occupations. There are, for instance, several examples of zigenare/tattare soldiers having practised horse trading during their leave. 69 Furthermore, the skills that many zigenare/tattare had with horses were certainly regarded as useful in the military. It is highly likely that previous experience and networks also encouraged enlistment, and therefore gradually acted to increase the number of zigenare/tattare in regiments. Nevertheless, we should also remember that a portion of them may have ended up in the regiments through forced recruitment based on vagrancy.

Effects of a military career
For a person lacking a year-long service relationship, the army offered the possibility of attaining legal protection and status, which in turn enabled other itinerant or short-term occupations. Nevertheless, this secure status was often only temporary. The vagrancy interrogation protocols indicate that, after being discharged from the regiments, former soldiers often became suspected of vagrancy. Scattered references also suggest that low social status was passed down from soldiers to their children. On the basis of the interrogation protocols, the family background of alleged vagrants cannot be thoroughly studied since it is seldom mentioned in these documents. However, soldiers' children appear to have formed a notable group among alleged vagrants. 75 parents (including one uncle), and these include 21 soldiers or soldiers' wives, suggesting that soldiers' children also faced problems in finding legal protection. 70 Due to the system of recruitment and the organisation of enlisted regiments, the reputation of enlisted soldiers was very different from that of tenure soldiers. Enlisted soldiers were generally considered to be of a lower moral character than tenure soldiers. 71 This reflects the difference in socioeconomic status between tenure and enlisted soldiers. Enlisted regiments had difficulty in obtaining men, since their low pay and poor conditions made such military service generally unattractive. Consequently, the men who enlisted did not usually have many other prospects available. 72 The officers of enlisted regiments were responsible for recruiting soldiers for their companies, and received a sum of money from the Crown for this purpose. This system of recruitment, known as passevolance, was economically advantageous to the officers, and the cheaper the men they recruited the more they profited. According to the statutes, the officers were not allowed to recruit disreputable men. However, if there was a shortage of voluntary recruits, officers resorted to forced recruitment of vagrants and, furthermore, some convicted criminals could avoid punishment if they joined the military. 73 On the other hand, the reputation of enlisted soldiers was not considered entirely irrelevant, since there is evidence of soldiers being discharged from the regiments after having committed a crime. 74 This resembles somewhat the contradictory criteria for choosing recruits in post-independent Mexico. A desire to spare productive members of society from military service clashed with the need to form an army of reliable and disciplined citizen-soldiers. 75 In the local politics of recruitment, the recruits petitioning against their recruitment seized on the first of these principles. In so doing, they constructed two opposites. Army life became defined in opposition to the patriarchal liberal social order, and the good citizen in opposition to the soldier, vagabond and bandit. 76 In addition to the practice surrounding recruitment, the organisation of enlisted regiments had a notable influence on the reputation of enlisted soldiers. It was decreed that those enlisted soldiers who were not in full-time service in the garrison regiments had to provide a certificate to prove that they would become farmhands, tenant farmers or artisans at a certain locality. 77 However, this was difficult to monitor, since soldiers often had trouble securing a service relationship. For instance, when zigenare Matts Hag and Carl Brun were recruited to the Savolax Jäger Corps, they were permitted to practise handicrafts or 'other legal occupations' in the region. They were also promised a croft from some unoccupied land, but had not received it by the time Hag had served almost three years and Brun half a year. Therefore, they had mainly stayed at four neighbouring parishes, travelling from one village to another and earning their livelihood from begging and horse exchange. 78 Hag and Brun were no exception, since many of the Savolax Jägers ended up moving around in search of work and subsistence. This, in turn, led to complaints concerning the misdeeds of travelling jägers. 79 Furthermore, the soldiers of garrison regiments were often furloughed by their officers for long periods, and the travelling of enlisted soldiers raised complaints. 80 Over the course of the eighteenth century, the authorities made several efforts to control and restrict the travelling of enlisted soldiers -particularly the ones categorised as zigenare or tattare. In April 1752, following a request from the Court of Appeal, the general governor commanded regimental commanders to order that 'Zigeunare, so-called clasp smiths, or other hawkers' who served in the regiments should only be furloughed for legal matters and for short periods. Governors should be informed of the reason why the person was furloughed, the region where he was aiming to go, the time that he was allowed to stay there, and whether or not he had a wife and children, as well as the number of children. Those zigenare whose travelling details had not been communicated to the governor, or who were found beyond the defined region, were to be imprisoned. 81 An intriguing detail connected to the command given by the general governor was that the complaint that had sparked the order had come from a man who himself was categorised as zigenare. In 1750, zigenare Ludvig Bertilsson Sambo had accused four men of robbery; they all had military status, and two were identified as zigenare in the sources. During the investigation, Sambo said that army deserters and people who were hiding for committed crimes had the habit of banding together with zigenare and roaming around the country. On these occasions men often used women's clothes, and thus, although they were being tracked, avoided being caught. Sambo himself was a former tenure soldier in the Björneborg Regiment, who had arrived in Lillkyrö parish in 1746 with certificates of his good behaviour. Governor Gustav Creutz had granted him permission to stay in the parish on condition that he would acquire horses for the peasants and 78  pay the personal tax (mantalspenningar) for himself and his wife, who was a peasant's daughter. 82 In his statement, Sambo drew a connection between travelling zigenare and criminals, while differentiating between himself and this group. This illustrates well the fact that the zigenare/tattare image was not spread and maintained exclusively by the mainstream population. Indeed, it could also be used by those identified as zigenare/tattare themselves -often as an image to which they contrasted themselves in cases where they sought to raise their own standing. Neither the order of the general governor nor the December 1763 order of King Adolf Fredrik about granting passports to zigenare/tattare standardised the practice of granting furloughs and passports to enlisted soldiers. 83 Furthermore, zigenare/tattare soldiers were often imprisoned after having diverged from the route marked in the permission, or exceeded the permitted travel time. 84 It is important to remember that giving furloughs to enlisted soldiers did not involve only people categorised as zigenare or tattare. What was it that made the mobility of zigenare/tattare soldiers particularly problematic in the eyes of the authorities and the settled population? How was their mobility described? In 1774, the governor of Åbo explained that 'giving furloughs to Tartarer always brings on the disadvantage that they band together with others of their kin, roam around the country and act brazenly'. 85 This idea can be perceived in many complaints concerning zigenare/tattare soldiers.
Sources confirm that soldiers categorised as zigenare or tattare often travelled with their families, which could include wives, children, elderly parents and siblings. 86 It is not clear whether travelling with families was more common among the zigenare/tattare soldiers than among the others. The economic difficulties faced by soldiers' families were not restricted to those categorised as zigenare or tattare but were a more general phenomenon. Soldiers' wives contributed to maintaining their families by performing various odd jobs. 87 They often ended up travelling in search of work and subsistence, and could resort to begging. 88 Nevertheless, travelling with family members was often mentioned in complaints concerning soldiers categorised as zigenare or tattare, perhaps suggesting that they travelled more frequently with their families and in larger groups than the others.
The particular habit of, or drive for, mobility was sometimes explicitly mentioned in the complaints concerning zigenare/tattare soldiers: their itinerancy was explained not by practical reasons related to the military system, but by an urge for travelling in its own right. In 1753, the bailiff of southern Sääksmäki district stated about the zigenare/tattare artillery handymen that As this people is, since their youth, used to earn their livelihood by wandering around the countryside without practising handicrafts or doing any work, their only will also now, when they acquire furloughs, is to practise what they have been used to do since their youth. 89 In 1762, the bailiff of western Raseborg district was also against furloughing 'soldiers of Zigeuner kin', since 'their intention has never been, nor is, to earn their livelihood by work and service but, on the contrary, to spend their days in laziness and excess as well as to burden other people with their audacious and insolent visits'. 90 In these statements, mobility was explicitly separated from work; it was explained not by the economic necessities of enlisted soldiers but by an inner, learned will to roam.
Two contradictory tendencies in the recruitment policies of the early nineteenth century can be noted. On the one hand, policies acted to increase the recruitment of military personnel. The target group of forced recruitment was expanded by the recruitment statute of 1802. 91 In February 1804, an ordinance on public workhouses (allmän arbetsinrättning) defined a common policy towards vagrants and vagabonds, among whom tattare and zigenare were also counted. Those vagrants who were capable of military service and had not lost their right to serve the Crown were considered to fall under the recruitment statute of 1802. 92 On the other hand, several restrictive measures against soldiers categorised as zigenare or tattare were also taken. In 1800, when Captain Borgenström requested that his load driver, zigenare Johan Berg, be returned to his service from the Sveaborg fortress, where he was imprisoned, 87 The economic activities of enlisted soldiers' wives in Helsingfors are currently being studied by Sofia Gustafsson. 88 53-54. the captain was ordered to discharge him. Moreover, other commanders of the Tavastehus Regiment were ordered to discharge all the load drivers who did not farm, and were prohibited from recruiting these kinds of people. 93 In the following year, the commanders of the Björneborg Regiment were forbidden from recruiting zigenare load drivers, and were ordered to discharge all the zigenare load drivers from the regiment. This prohibition was motivated by complaints concerning the travelling of zigenare under the protection of tenure regiments. 94 On 26 March 1805, the governor of the Nyland och Tavastehus province, Johan Henrik Munck, brought to the consideration of King Gustav IV Adolf the measures that should be taken concerning the soldiers of the Adlercreutz Regiment who were travelling outside their furlough regions, and had not acquired other means of livelihood or a stable place of residence. Approximately one month later, Munck returned to the question. He pointed out that he had recently found out that people 'of Ziguenare kin' had been enlisted in the regiment as well. They had banded together with other zigenare, forming a group of 20 people who travelled the country, acting brazenly, until they had been arrested and sent to the governor. Munck had treated those who did not belong to the military according to the statutes, while he had sent those who had legal protection as soldiers to their furlough regions, 'although, during the interrogation, they were not able to declare with reliable certainty their place of residence there'. 95 Munck declared his view on zigenare serving as soldiers: . . . since the Adlercreutz Regiment is not located in a garrison, which could provide the possibility to discipline and accustom dissolute or unstable soldiers to order and diligence, even between the months of training; I therefore venture humbly to favour a prohibition against recruiting Ziguenare to the regiment in question, in particular since the experience of several centuries has proven that this hopeless people is of such . . . nature that, without daily and most careful supervision, it cannot be kept in order and condition; therefore no-one of Ziguenare kin will be taken in service to any tenure regiment in Finland these days. 96 Munck's request met with a positive response. zigenare, leading to their arrest -this was most probably the same incident that Munck had written about. 97 There is evidence of several people categorised as zigenare or tattare being discharged from regiments as a consequence of the Royal letter. According to historian Hans Hirn, two zigenare were discharged from the company of the lieutenant colonel of the Jägerhorn Regiment. 98 In the Adlercreutz Regiment the discharges were particularly common, and I have found references to at least 17 zigenare/tattare being discharged from this regiment within a year. 99 Many of the discharged soldiers were sent to do forced labour, although there are no archival references that illustrate the future of all these men. 100 There is reason to assume that after the ban on recruiting zigenare or tattare, the ethnicity of the military personnel aroused some reflection among the authorities. In a letter to Colonel Adlercreutz, in September 1805, the governor of Nyland och Tavastehus inquired about two zigenare, Johan Bergqvist and Johan Forss, who were brought to prison in Tavastehus due to some horse thefts. 101 In his response, Adlercreutz wrote that Bergqvist had served in his regiment but had been discharged as a zigenare whereas Johan Forss still served in the regiment. Adlercreutz explained that he could not have discharged Forss, who had declared being born in Saxen and who, in general, 'had been well known and of good reputation'. Nevertheless, the colonel promised to discharge Forss if it turned out that he, too, was 'of Ziguenare kin'. 102 In this intriguing letter, Adlercreutz explicitly notes that a birthplace and a reputation could influence whether or not someone was 'of zigenare kin'. Eighteenth-century Swedish statutes involved much harsher policies towards 'foreign' zigenare/tattare than 'domestic' zigenare/tattare born in the kingdom. The statute of 1748 stated that those tattare who had recently arrived in the country were to be expelled back to the region from where they had entered. Those who had been in the country for some time were no longer threatened with expulsion; if found roaming, they were to be punished in the same way as other vagabonds. 103 Hence, it is not at all clear why being born in Saxen would have had any impact on ethnicity. However, migration may have enabled the changing of identity and getting rid of the 'zigenare label' when a person succeeded in acquiring a legal status and a place of service in his new domicile. Enlisted regiments that gathered together men from different geographical locations may have formed a fruitful environment for this.
The second reference in the letter is clearer: according to Adlercreutz, good reputation was apparently difficult to connect with zigenare ethnicity. During the research period, it was fairly common to use the expression 'of zigenare kin' when referring to people identified as tattare or zigenare. Although this expression refers to the significance of presumed kinship in distinguishing who was a zigenare/tattare, the letter written by Adlercreutz clearly indicates that there was more to the concept than mere kinship. In the eyes of the authorities, at least, certain qualities were connected with the notion of zigenare/tattare and this could lead to confusion when the reality did not match the stereotype.
A month later, the governor of Nyland och Tavastehus replied to Adlercreutz that Forss and Bergqvist were 'of true Zigenare kin', and requested that he discharge Forss, who, if he was 'foreign born', should be deported from the kingdom to his domicile. 104 In the muster roll of the Adlercreutz Regiment of the year 1806, it is written that Johan Forss, who served in the Hollola Company as soldier number 60, was discharged on 1 November 1805. However, there is no reference to his ethnicity in the muster roll -instead, it is written that he was discharged due to a theft. 105 By contrast, several other soldiers discharged as a consequence of the Royal letter were explicitly stated in the muster roll as having been dismissed for being zigenare.
This case indicates that, to a certain extent, it may have been possible to hide -and, perhaps, even to get rid of -one's ethnic status. A certain flexibility of ethnic status enabled the authorities, too, to use the label in a way that was the most convenient for their purposes. Hence, ignoring the label could be possible if a person was regarded as useful and his conduct and appearance did not fit with the prevailing zigenare image.
The varying and internally contradictory statutes and prohibitions enacted during the early nineteenth century demonstrate the diverse endeavours connected to the military system. At first glance, increasing the number of men in the army and decreasing mobility and idleness in society appeared as complementary objectives, since idle people could be directed to the regiments. However, it was soon apparent that the system did not suppress mobility, making it challenging to monitor the reputation and behaviour of military personnel. As the authorities sought to balance these different endeavours, it is not surprising that enlisted soldiers were treated inconsistently.
The source material draws a very negative picture of the status and reputation of enlisted soldiers, and, when it comes to the enlisted soldiers categorised as zigenare or tattare, it appears as if two negative perceptions were conjoined. Notwithstanding this negative image, the legal protection provided by the military status was of essential value to the so-called zigenare/tattare. Although it did not free them from being suspected of vagrancy, it nevertheless offered protection when it came to convictions: whereas a zigenare/tattare soldier caught travelling could be whipped but was then returned to his regiment, from which he could soon be furloughed again, other zigenare/tattare lacking such legal protection were usually sent to do forced labour at fortresses. Furthermore, some zigenare/tattare succeeded in attaining legal protection by joining tenure regiments, or acquiring a service relationship or the status of a tenant farmer. The individuals who granted them protection as farmhands, labourers or tenant farmers quite often belonged to the military themselves. 106 It is likely that contacts established in the army played a role in this.

Conclusion
In the eighteenth century, the position of the Finnish territory as a border region was very concrete, as Sweden fought three wars against the Russian Empire and, among other areas, had to cede parts of south-eastern Finland to Russia. With respect to people categorised as zigenare or tattare, the border position was not irrelevant since it shaped the basic political structure in which they lived. In the latter part of the eighteenth century, the eastern defences of the Swedish Kingdom were reinforced by the construction of the fortresses of Sveaborg and Svartholm. It was precisely these fortresses and the military regiments in place that enabled the exploitation of the workforce of convicted vagrants. Therefore, these defences had a notable impact on the enforcement of vagrancy policies and on the everyday life of people categorised as zigenare or tattare.
Although vagrancy control was a repressive policy imposed by the authorities upon individuals, the people who were targeted by vagrancy policies had multiple strategies that they applied in order to deal with administrative practices. The military provides a good example of this kind of duality. On the one hand, the forced recruitment of vagrants appears as a repressive measure imposed by the authorities in order to criminalise vagrancy and mobility. On the other hand, enlisting in the military can be regarded as a survival strategy among people who faced problems in finding year-long service relationships and thus felt threatened by vagrancy control. For them, joining the regiments could be a way to acquire protection against being labelled as vagrants, concurrently enabling the practice of ambulatory and seasonal occupations.
How does this case connect to the existing theoretical approaches to ethnicity and military service? Did serving in the military influence the ethnicity of people categorised as zigenare or tattare? As stated earlier, this study cannot shed light on the self-identification of zigenare/tattare. Furthermore, we know little about the significance of ethnicity in the practices within the military. Although it was not regarded as important to register soldiers' ethnicity in the regimental records, ethnicity may have played a role in social interactions and power structures within the army. It is certain that zigenare/tattare ethnicity was not entirely invisible in the military. This became apparent in the early nineteenth century when many soldiers identified as zigenare/tattare were discharged from the regiments. Yet the example of Johan Forss, who served in the Adlercreutz Regiment and whose ethnic identity caused reflection, indicates that the ethnic identity of a soldier was not always evident to commanders.
The overall impression is, however, that differentiation between zigenare/ tattare and others did not decline as a result of military service. In civilian sources, 'zigenare' and 'soldier' were not mutually exclusive labels, but were used side by side. This indicates that serving in the army did not lead to the weakening of ethnic identification. By contrast, military service shaped ethnicity by affecting the way in which zigenare/tattare were understood. Serving in the enlisted regiments did not decrease their need for mobility; on the contrary, it may have increased it. Therefore, serving in the military strengthened the general perception that zigenare/tattare had an innate tendency to roam, thus increasing their stigmatisation. In the complaints against zigenare/tattare soldiers, their travelling was often explicitly separated from work and connected with laziness. No consideration was given to the possibility that the activities practised while travelling might be defined as work, or were an economic necessity caused by the military system that pushed them onto the road. These findings resonate well with Cynthia Enloe's view, according to which militaries often sustain or revitalise ethnic identifications.