WORK IN THE ARMY
help in all directions. Possessing neither the equipment nor the
money to undertake the feeding of these hungry masses, the com-
manding officers requested the Zemstvo Union to extend the work
of its canteens to include the civilian population.
The systematic development of canteens began on the southwest-
ern front toward the close of May, 1915, and their number by Janu-
ary 1, 1916, had reached 516. Later, after the refugee movement
had abated, the number of zemstvo canteens on this front began to
decrease, and by February, 1917, was reduced to 238. On the western
front the largest number of canteens, 341, was reached in February,
1916, but it was reduced to 153 in 1917. On the northern front and
in the Caucasus the canteen work was never much developed. On the
northern front the number of canteens did not exceed thirty and of
these only three survived in 1917; in the Caucasus the number of
canteens fluctuated between fifteen and twenty-three, feeding almost
exclusively the Armenian refugees from Turkey. The character of
the work, the conditions under which it had to be carried on, and the
clientele served by the canteens varied with time and place. The pic-
ture given below, therefore, should be treated as a very general
outline.
As a rule, a canteen providing for the refugees and local popula-
tion took care of about ten villages situated within a radius of ten
miles. Canteens for the use of trench laborers were so distributed
that they would be within one hour and fifteen minutes walking dis-
tance from the quarters of the units assigned to them. The principal
difficulty consisted in the scarcity of suitable premises. For the em-
ployees it was still possible to find warm quarters in peasant cot-
tages or, at worst, they could be supplied with warm tents or army
huts. Much more difficult was the problem of finding heated dining
halls. In the summer time the problem was much simplified by serv-
ing the meals in the open. During the winter, however, heated din-
ing halls became an absolute necessity. But even where such prem-
ises were available they could hold usually only 70 to 100 persons
at a time, while those waiting for admission numbered from 500 to
1,500 for each meal. In order to save time, many of the unfortunate
people who were using the canteens preferred to take their meals
home. Occasionally instead of ready meals they were given food-
stuffs which would last for as long as a week. This expedient was
particularly appreciated by those whose homes were situated at
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