Soldiers of the Tsar. Army and Society in Russia, 1462-1874 - John L. Keep

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198 The Imperial Century, 1725-1825
one household to another' much as their predecessors had done in the
Muscovite era, and many simply lapsed lfack into servile status.
It was evidently in order to cope with this problem that the practice grew up
of sending men who were due for discharge IO (reguiar) 1;;a11ison units instead
of back to their villages-in other words, of not discharging them at all! The
motive was benign: here, in a familiar military setting, they would at least
receive half pay and might expect better care than they could hope for as un-
attached and unwelcome civilians. In 1812 de Raymond wrote that the Russian
soldier 'generally serves in the army for as lbng as he can and then joins a gar-
rison, where he performs ordinary service until he becomes an invalid; he is
then put in a monastery where, thanks to a frugal diet, he vegetates for a little
while longer.'^144
In the 1790s the decision as to a man's fate when his 25 years were up was
taken at divisional or corps level, on the advice of the regimental commander.
The latter would normally take some account of the veteran's marital
status-and possibly even of his wishes in the matter. But the authorities' main
concern was to dispose of their surplus human cargo as decently and painlessly
as could be managed. Catherine ruled in 1795 that if a soldier in a garrison unit
or invalid company 'finds relatives or reliable persons who will stand bail for
him, take him and keep him at their own expense until his death', he was to be
released to their care and given an internal passport.^145 Archival data relating
to men in the Yaroslavl" musketeers regiment who were due for discharge in
that year show that 88 men were posted to nearby garrison units whereas 130
(along with 46 who were sick or incapacitated) were sent back to their
'previous domiciles'.^146
A little later there would have been a third option: institutional care. Five
'invalid homes' existed by 1811, admission to which was confined to those
designated as 'completely incapacitated'. Men who were 'partially incapaci-
tated' were either sent to garrison units and invalid companies or else assigned
to low-grade civil service jobs.^147 Pensions were paid to invalid NCOs and men
after 1815, but by 1825 less than^1 ~ million roubles had been spent on them-a
mere fraction of the sum disbursed on officers' pensions and on administering
the schemes.^148
Among those invalids who were released 'on their own sustenance' (no
sobstvennoye propitanie), as the decree candidly termed it, were some who had
a wife to look after them. Married men also did better materially while in the
service, since their wives, if they accompanied them, could earn a little extra
money performing menial chores: washing and mending clothes, for example,
or perhaps caring for the sick.^149 Our sources unfortunately do not reveal in
144 De Raymond, Tableau, p. 527. The last item of information was out of date.
145 PSZ xxiii. 17402 (Oct. 1795). 146 Keep, 'Catherine's Veterans', p. 396.
147 Plotho, Entstehung, p. 70; cf. PSZ xxxi. 24145 (3 Mar. 1810).
148 Berezhkov, 'Isl. ocherk prizreniya ranenykh', VS 137 (1881), I, p. SO.
149 PSZ xvii. 12543 (14 Jan. 1766), XXV, §3. The latter function was recommended by
Potemkin (Dubrovin, Suvorov, p. 116), but was probably unusual.

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