Russian Peasant Volunteers at the Beginning of the Crimean War

In October 1853 war broke out between Russia and Turkey. The following March Britain and France joined the war on the side of the Turks. In the first seven months of the war, the Russian government announced three regular recruit levies, several appeals for volunteers and the formation of a temporary naval militia. News of these measures filtered down to seignorial peasants (pomeshchich'i krest'iane) through official channels and as rumors that went beyond the contents of the government measures and that contained various distortions, in particular that the government was offering privileges, including freedom from serfdom and the regular recruit obligation, to volunteers. In the spring and early summer of 1854, thousands of seignorial peasants left their villages to volunteer for military service. Many descended on Moscow. Seignorial peasants, however, had to have permission from their owners to volunteer, and the would-be volunteers were returned to their villages. Usually Russian peasants loathed military service in the regular army and did everything in their power to avoid being drafted. Why did so many peasants try to volunteer in the spring and early summer of 1854?