Peter's Soldiers 117
from the civilian population and probably improved the servicemen's
morale'.^139 They will have attributed the deficiencies to the ill-will or ineffi-
ciency of their superiors, retaining a positive image of the ruler.
Moreover, the military ethos was undoubtedly attractive to the more am-
bitious. Such men took their loyalty oath seriously: each of them had sworn
'to bear appropriate obedience to my commanders set above me in everything
touching the well-being and increase of His Tsarist Majesty's forces, state, and
subjects ... and to act in all things as an honest, loyal, obedient, brave, and
patient soldier should'.^140 They accepted the official view that a soldier's pro-
fession was the most honourable of all, since he risked his life for others in a
noble cause. According to the Military Statute 'the term soldier simply means
everyone in the army, from the highest general down to the least private•.14^1
Supposedly all the tsar's servants were equal in their obligations to him and
military rank depended on merit. Thus even the most humbly born could hope
for preferment if he displayed sufficient zeal and earned the goodwill of his
superiors. He might also hope to win medals and cash gifts which testified to
the monarch's appreciation of his services and fortified his self-esteem. These
were sources of strength which explain why hundreds of thousands of men
reconciled themselves, at least outwardly, to a military despotism from whose
effects they suffered more than most.
ll9 Alexander, 'Medical Developments', p. 211. In 1712 Peter ordered hospitals to be set up in
every province (PiB xii. 28; cf. PSZ iv. 2477), but seems to have expected the funds for them to be
provided locally. Invalid soldiers were treated at Dr. Bidloo's hospital in Moscow, which later
became a military institution (Petrov, Russkaya voyennaya silo, ii. 65); of its trainees, who
numbered a few dozen, most were despatched to the forces, among them Sergey Yevreynov, a
soldier's son who by 1736 was heading a field hospital at Azov-the first Russian to occupy such a
post (Alexander, 'Medi~I Devel.opments', pp. 209, 219-20). There were seven provincial institu-
i1ons, of which that in Kazin" could accommodate 600 men (Millier-Dietz, MiliUJrarzt, pp. 35-6;
Rossov, '1st. ocherk', p. 377). However, most veterans needing institutional care were sent to
monasteries, where they were not always made welcome.
uo Voinskiy ustav, preamble (PRP viii. 320-1).
141 Yepifanov, 'Voinskiy ustav', p. 174.
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