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.
