What was the ration of Russian soldiers in 1812

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

1. The proverb "Bread and water is a soldier's food" was not born out of nowhere. In the campaigns, the carts lagged behind, so the crackers were saved. A guardsman rescued - an old man in charge of feeding a group of soldiers. At any long halt, a fire was made, breadcrumbs were crumbled into boiling water, salt was added to this mash, linseed or hemp oil was poured over - and the stew was ready. Hot and satisfying. The recipe survived until the twentieth century - the soldiers of Second Lieutenant Kuprin and the tramps M. Gorky called such a dish "Murtsovka".

Bread is a soldier's food

2. The cabbage soup, according to the charter (there are understandable exceptions), must be prepared by 12 noon. In the post with smelt (small dried-dried river fish) and vegetable oil, in the meat-eater - with lard or beef. The beef was usually "cut into crumbs" so that little by little, but everyone could get it. When it was time for dinner, the artel worker received cabbage soup for his department.

3. In addition to bread, the soldiers received provisions in kind from the treasury: cereals (most often buckwheat - it is prepared the fastest, 20 minutes - and you can call to the boiler). They made porridge from cereals. All other products were to be purchased by the soldiers with collective money.

4. It was only during the Russo-Japanese War that Colonel Turchanovich's field kitchen appeared, which was officially called the "universal portable hearth". In this open-air kitchen, enough lunch was prepared to feed 250 people. She had two boilers, each of which was equipped with an independent firebox. The water in such a kitchen boiled in 40 minutes, a two-course lunch was prepared in three hours, and a dinner in one and a half. Soon, all the troops of the world acquired a patent for such a cuisine. You can be proud - Russian discovery!

5. In peacetime, each soldier was entitled to a daily "Petrovskaya Dacha" - 2 pounds 40 spools of rye flour (960 g) and 24 spools of cereal (100 g). Flour could be replaced with 3 pounds of baked bread (1200 g) or 1 3/4 pounds of rusks (800 g). It is interesting that the above-named norms were first tested by Peter the Great on himself. For a whole month, the king ate like an ordinary soldier! Let the abundance of bread not surprise: in the twentieth century, most conscripts saw meat every day only in the army, at home - empty cabbage soup and porridge without butter - just to fill their belly.

The artel is already preparing dinner

6. Meat products were purchased by the soldiers themselves at the expense of artel funds. At the head of the artel was the company commander himself, who was in charge of the entire economy, food and ammunition. His assistants were the sergeant major, who was responsible for all economic affairs, and the captenarmus, who received and issued weapons, ammunition, provisions and firewood. There was a special artel cash office, which very rarely, only in exceptional cases, was replenished at the expense of a meager soldier's salary. The artel funds were spent mainly on the purchase of butter or lard for porridge, vegetables, seasonings, money for the artel cash desk.

7. Funds for the artisan treasury came from the imperial family, in particular from the Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna, from donors from among the nobility and merchants, from officers who refused free wine and meat portions, from works that were carried out by lower ranks at the request of landowners, merchants etc. under an agreement with the company commander, so the tradition of sending soldiers to build summer cottages was not invented yesterday.

8. In March 1812, in addition to the usual dispensing of provisions, regular meat (1/2 pound of meat, 200 g.) And wine (1/80 of a bucket, 150 g.) Portions were appointed in the following ratio: 2 meat and 2 wine portions a week to the army regiments and 3 meat and 4 wine portions a week to the guard.

A cup is a soldier's wine portion (though a later time - the end of the 19th century.

9. It was at the beginning of the war that such a dish as goulash, or kulesh, appeared in the soldiers' kitchen. Food, first of all, should be easy to prepare and, of course, satisfying. Like kulesh, for example. Not a thin soup, but not a thick porridge either. Seemingly ordinary millet in meat broth could warm, and satisfy hunger, and give strength. With a multi-kilometer march, this is still doping. In addition, they could easily feed a large number of people.

10. With the beginning of the war, the meat portion was increased by one and a half times, and two glasses of vodka (246 g) were supposed to per day. Before the advent of alcohol meters in Russia, the strength of a water-alcohol mixture (which was called "bread wine") was measured by so-called annealing. If exactly half of the burnt wine burned out, then such a wine was called "half-tar". Polugar, the strength of which was about 38%, and served as the basic standard unit of the strength of vodka, recommended since 1817, and officially fixed since 1843. (Therefore, the legend that D. I. Mendeleev determined the strength of Russian vodka at 40 degrees has nothing to do with reality).

Soldier's Joy - Bath

11. An important feature of the Russian army was hygiene. You can smile skeptically, but the non-combat losses of the French Great Army, which included the soldiers of "enlightened Europe", were higher than those of the Russian: dysentery, colds, diaper rash, pediculosis and, as a result, typhus … and General Bagration ordered the army on April 3, 1812.:

“To anticipate the multiplication of diseases, prescribe to company commanders so that they observe:

1st. So that the lower ranks do not go to bed in clothes, and especially without taking off their shoes.

2nd. Straw, on the bedding used, should be changed more often and make sure that after the sick it is not used under the healthy ones.

3rd. Supervise that people change their shirts more often and, where possible, arrange baths.

4th. As soon as the weather will be warmer, avoiding cramped conditions, place people in sheds.

5th. Have kvass for drinking in artels.

6th. Make sure the bread is baked well.

7th: Give the wine portion before lunch and dinner, but never on an empty stomach.

8th: Taking bivouacs, run away from as wet and swampy places as possible."