!o.L. The Imperial Century, 1725-1825
were on a militia basis, leave was granted, at least in the 1770s under
Potemkin, when one seventh of his newly formed hussars took turns to stay at
home.^105 Rumyantsev and the Tsarevich Paul both advocated it for the rest of
the troops: the former as part of his plan for a territorial army and the latter
because, as he wrote, he had discovered th~t in practice it did not pui up Lhe
desertion rate; however, not much seems to have come of their ideas.^106 In the
(privileged) Mounted Grenadier regiment in October 1795 one private in three
and one corporal in nine were on leave; among officers only captains had a
more favourable ratio.^107 However, there may have been special local reasons
for this, and the term otluchka (absence) could cover errands and work
assignments as well as home leave (otpusk). A routine monthly report on
troops in the First Division in March 1796 suggests that frequency of absence
declined according to rank: 41.4 per cent of staff officers, 35.4 per cent of
subalterns, 13.9 per cent of cadets, NCOs, and corporals, and 9.4 per cent of
privates were lawfully absent at this time.^108
What often happened in practice, especially under Catherine II, was that
regimental commanders, who during her reign wielded almost absolute power
over their subordinates' lives, allowed men to go on leave informally, without
reporting the fact or entering it in their records, in return for some
favour-either a cash 'gift' or, more usually, labour services. Such collusion
had been banned already in 1738,^109 but it persisted none the less since it was
hard to control and it suited both parties. At the end of Catherine's reign an
effort was made to centralize the granting of leave: the War College or
commander-in-chief was to issue permission in each case, and forms had to be
filled in giving particulars of the man's destination, due date of return, etc.^110
These rules were further tightened by Paul on his accession: leave had to be
taken during the winter months; only a given number might be absent from
each unit at any time; and, last but not least, they were not to be paid-which
meant that leave would again be limited to the privileged.^111 The emperor
regarded private employment of soldiers on leave as a grave abuse. In 1798 a
brigadier named Gur"yev was penalized for allowing a private in his unit to
overstay his leave, which he had spent on Gur'yev's estate, evidently as a
labourer. (Characteristically, the officer merely had to part with an additional
recruit.)^112
Alexander I first allowed leave applications to be granted by (divisional)
inspectors,^113 but the wars seem to have led to a reversal of this policy; in any
IOS Dubrovin, Suvorov, p. 105.
106 Dubrovin, Suvorov, p. 68; Paul to P. Panin, 10 May 1778, 'Perepiska', p. 408.
101 TsGVIA, V-UA, f. 1349, d. 300, I. 282.
108 Ibid., I. I.
109 PSZ x. 7707 ( 15 Dec. 1738).
110 PSZ xxiii. 17042, 17158 (Apr. 1792, 31 Oct. 1793).
111 PSZ xxiv. 17588 (29 Nov. 1797), IX, ch. VIII,§§ 5-6, xxiv. 18167 (28 Sept. 1797); Shil"dcr,
Aleksandr/, i. 335.
112 Studenkin, 'Ukazy', p. 508.
Ill PSZ xxvii. 20490 (31 Oct. 1802).