Video: Vodka and the fighting efficiency of the Red Army: we dispel the myths about the "People's Commissars 100 grams"
2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55
More than seventy years have passed since the end of the Great Patriotic War, but the "People's Commissar's hundred grams" are still remembered to this day. There are many opinions about how and how much the Red Army men drank on the military fronts, and they are all contradictory. Some say that vodka almost helped the Russians defeat the Germans, while others are more conservative. So what really happened?
First they drank in the navy.
The fact that "forty-degree" firmly entered Russian culture many years ago, we think, is no secret to anyone. Already at the beginning of the 17th century, the military command began to give out 480 grams of "bread wine" to soldiers every week to cheer up. The Navy relied on four "glasses" (160 grams) of vodka per week, and from 1761 this rate was increased to seven. It is noteworthy that at first alcohol was dispensed to promote health and improve well-being.
Promoted health and well-being.
And only by the end of the 19th century, doctors discovered that vodka has an extremely detrimental effect on soldiers both during the war and after it. In most cases, the soldiers who served had a serious alcohol dependence. And only after the defeat in the Russo-Japanese War in 1908, it was decided to finally stop issuing alcohol to the soldiers.
The women also drank.
Prohibition lasted until January 1940, when the legendary military leader Kliment Voroshilov personally turned to Stalin with a request to give out fifty grams of lard and one hundred grams of vodka to the soldiers of the Red Army every day. For tankers this rate was doubled, and for pilots it was even tripled. This is how the concept of "People's Commissar's hundred grams" appeared in the military ranks, about which they soon began to make up legends.
Stalin personally signed the order, which immediately took effect. During the war, this decree was revised several times. So, on August 25, 1941, adjustments were made, according to which one hundred grams was relied only on soldiers fighting on the front line. This list also includes pilots and flight technical personnel.
Maybe in a mug and tea.
On June 6, 1942, a new order was issued, and the mass distribution of alcohol in the Red Army was stopped to all soldiers, with the exception of those who participated in offensive attacks. The rest were given vodka on official holidays. Stalin himself deleted International Youth Day from this list. On November 12, 1942, the soldiers who fought on the front line began to receive one hundred grams of vodka again. In Transcaucasia, instead of vodka, port or dry wine was poured. According to information, in May 1945, the distribution of alcohol in all troops was completely stopped.
Front-line one hundred grams.
Everything is clear from the documents, but how the situation was in reality. Here, as mentioned earlier, the opinions of the veterans are very different. For example, participants in the Battle of Stalingrad claimed that it was very tight without vodka in the terrible frost. Marine Dmitry Vonlyarsky later recalled that vodka was given out, but not on a regular basis. Usually the "People's Commissars' hundred grams" were drunk before the attack by young soldiers, and in most cases they were the first to die. Experienced Red Army men tried to avoid alcohol during the battle, as it greatly slowed down the reaction and reduced fighting qualities. According to the recollections of the veteran tanker Vladimir Trunin, vodka was given out only in rifle units, and even then not always.
It is stupid to say that the notorious "front-line hundred grams" helped win the Russians a victory. As General of the Army Nikolai Lyashchenko wrote in his memoirs, only poets enthusiastically called these treacherous hundred grams "battle". Vodka objectively reduced the fighting efficiency of the Red Army.
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