Russian local government during the war and the Union of Zemstvos

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Monograph

Identifikator:: 1794855874

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-179223

Document type:: Monograph

Author:: Polner, Tichon I. http://d-nb.info/gnd/172311195

Title:: Russian local government during the war and the Union of Zemstvos

Place of publication:: New Haven

Publisher:: Yale Univ. Press

Year of publication:: 1930

Scope:: XXV, 317 S.

Digitisation:: 2022

Collection:: Economics Books

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Chapter

Document type:: Monograph

Structure type:: Chapter

Title:: Chapter XI. Work in the army

Collection:: Economics Books

224 THE ZEMSTVOS DURING THE WAR some distance from the canteens. To make things easier for the trench workers, field kitchens were sent out twice daily to their camps, or, sometimes, they were given foodstuffs and cooked their meals themselves. In spite of these expedients the congestion at the dining halls continued and not unfrequently meals had to be eaten in the open air even in the bitter cold of the winter. The average cost per day of feeding a refugee was 14 to 22 copecks and of a trench worker 27 to 35 copecks. The organization of the supply of provisions was by no means an easy matter. Bread was obtained chiefly from the bakeries attached to the canteens and partly from the Army Supply Department. Sometimes flour was handed over to peasants, who would bake the bread for a small remuneration. Flour was received mainly from the stores of the Zemstvo Union, which bought it in central Russia or obtained it from the Army Supply Department. Meat was supplied almost entirely by the Army Supply Department. As regards fire- wood, it would often be taken without payment from the neighbor- ing forests, or was supplied by the military authorities. The prompt Jelivery of supplies in a ruined country congested with masses of troops and refugees naturally presented enormous difficulties, and caused much anxiety to the officers in charge of the canteens. Not- withstanding every effort made by the zemstvo depots at the front, the canteens very often found themselves in a critical position for lack of the most indispensable supplies. | The canteens gradually became the centers of a far-reaching or- ganization which included bakeries, slaughterhouses, stables, black- smiths’ shops, bootmaking and carpenters’ shops, bathhouses, laun- dries, hostels, homes for refugees’ children, and many others. On the average each canteen had four members of the higher per- sonnel, 53.2 per cent being men and 46.8 per cent women. Most of the higher personnel were recruited from among the university stu- Jents, but they also included village teachers and priests. The lower personnel of a canteen averaged eighteen persons.” They were en- listed either from among the refugees or from among the trench workers, or, lastly, from among the convalescent soldiers. More than one-third were engaged in looking after the horses and attending to the transport of provisions, water, fodder, firewood, etc. ; the others were employed in the kitchen and as waiters in the dining halls. 25 The minimum number was six; the maximum, fifty-three.

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