108 The Warrior Tsar, 1689-1725
case where l, 100 recruits had been kept in chains or wooden stocks by order of
the governor of Nizhniy Novgorod. Characteristically the senators all but dis-
fcganh:u iiie abuses inilicted on the men and concerned themselves instead
with suspected malfeasance by the governor when hiring carts for their
transport.^62 ·
Recruits probably accounted themselves fortunate if they were dest>atched
to their unit by cart-five men to a vehicle in one recorded instance, eight in
another6^3 -and did not have to complete the journey on foot. They were
supposed to receive some rudimentary training on enlistment, and to be pro-
vided by their 'donors' with uniforms, footwear, and provisions; but nothing
was done to prepare them for the unaccustomed strain of mar<:hing to a
destination that might be hundreds of miles away. 'They are moved when the
rivers are in flood,' one contemporary noted, 'instead of at the right time, and
thus many fall sick and die prernaturely.'^64 Escorting officers were under
instructions to take the most direct route,^65 but in practice there was often a
good deal of superfluous movement. In 1714 a captain Levashev was ordered
to take 525 recruits from Archangel to St. Petersburg-by way of Moscow; I
man died, 4 fell sick, and 40 deserted, which in the circumstances were modest
figures.^66
On reaching his unit the Petrine soldier (like infantrymen in most armies in
most ages) continued to spend a lot of his time on the march. The normal prac-
tice was to cover 30 versts (about 18 miles) daily, resting every third day;^67 but
in the evacuation from Grodno in 1706 troops covered 960 versts in 44 days
with only four days' rest.^68 In default of memoir material one turns to army
regulations for a few glimpses of the soldiers' daily life. When the signal to set
out on the march was given the men were required to appear promptly;
'latecomers and those who sit on the cart carrying effects shall be punished
upon the body'. They were to keep in line or else suffer the same penalty. Any-
one who disobeyed an order on the march was to run the gauntlet.^69 Discipline
was enforced by special cavalry detachments under the general-geva/'diger or
chief of military police.^70 In camp the men were supposed to be accommodated
in tents (25 to a tent in the infantry, 16 in the cavalry), arrangedhrtows with
the sutlers (markitanty) kept at a distance 'lest the cooking fires cause damage
or there be a great stench and mess from the slaughtering of cattle'; latrines
were likewise to be situated outside the camp area.^71 In civilian billets three
62 DiP iv (ii). 1097 (pp. 877-81).
63 Avtokratov, 'Voyennyy prikaz', p. 329; DiP i. 50 (p. 29).
64 Petrov, Russkaya voyennaya silo, ii. 67.
65 Avtokratov, 'Voyennyy prikaz', p. 239. 66 DiP iv (ii). 1022 (p.196).
67 Peter I to G. P. Chernyshev, in PiB ix. 3377 (23 July 1709).
68 Myshlayevsky, Petr Velikiy, p. lxi.
69 Voinskiye stat'i (Ustav prczhnikh let),§§ 34-6, cited by Myshlayevsky, ~tr Y.tlkly, pp. 11-12;
Voinskiyc artikuly, §§ 76-83 (PRP viii. 337-8); Ustav voinskiy, PSZ iv. 3006 (30 Mar. 1716), ch.
xlviii; Bobrovsky, Vo:rennoye pravo, ii. 580-5.
70 PSZ iv. 3006, ch. xii.
71 Ibid., ch. xiv. lvi; Bobrovsky, Voyennoye pravo, ii. 587, 592.