The Struggle for Survival 185
latter was sometimes kept in disused gunpowder barrels and was unfit to
drink. By the time the thirsty and famished troops returned from the Crimea,
parries of men had to be sent out to requisition grain from the local peasants,
v;hich they hud taken the piccaution of hiding in underground pil~. Eal:h com-
pany had a hand-mill with which to grind whatever was found, but often the
flour could not be baked owing to lack of fuel. Some soldiers ate it raw and
went down with diarrhoea; only one man in five was still fit when the troops
returned to base. 54
Half a century later Pishchevich had a similar tale to tell: cavalrymen en
route to the Crimea in wintry conditions had no means of baking bread and
instead prepared a brew called salamata from flour, salt, and water^55 -there is
no mention this time of a vegetable content. The author went into raptures at
the sight of the men going about their culinary tasks, 'one reaping the grass,
others bringing the water or building the fire', and the food tasted good, 'as if
cooked under the best conditions'; with such splendid soldiers, Pischchevich
averred, Russia could conquer the world, and so he resolved then and there to
behave as a model officer. Von Plocho, the Prussian, did not share these
Rousseauist sentiments, but was almost as euphoric. The Russian infantry-
man, he declared admiringly, could do without the costly field bakeries that
had been introduced in other armies:
when he gets to his camp or bivouac, he digs a hole in the ground, puts a bast mat in it,
pours his flour on top, mixes it with water, heats up a second pit, and so bakes his bread
... If the Russian has a little salt, or an onion and a cucumber-and some kvas or a
glass of brandy [sic]-this provides him with a splendid meal. 56He does not say whether he tried it himself; most foreigners who did so found
the taste highly disagreeable.^57
The official ration cost the state about 4 roubles per man per annum. ss It
consisted of 3 quarters of flour and 21 /J chetveriki of grits,^59 and was issued
monthly-presumably to the anel managers rather than to the men individually.
A soldier on the march was expected to carry enough food for four days, while
supplies for another six days were brought up in carts. The daily issue on the
march was 2Yz funty (ca. I kg.) of grain (milled or unmilled) or 1 Y4 funty of
sukhari. The latter was a kind of biscuit, made by double baking, which kept
well but was hard on the teeth and gums and had little taste. The flour contained a
good deal of roughage.w54 'Turetskaya voyna', pp. 257, 261, 263; cf. 'Prevratnosti sud'by', p. 481.
55 [Pishchevich) Zhi:;;n·, p. 37; cf. Richelieu, 'Journal', p. 161.
56 Plotho, Entstehung, p. 58.
57 Duffy, Russia's Military Way, p. 131.
58 3.88 to 3.95 roubles: von Hupel, Beschreibung, p. 144; cf. PSZ xliii. 10682 (11 Jan. 1757),
p. 330, 13390 (7 Dec. 1769), pp. 132-3.
59 Von Hupe!, Beschreibung, loc. cit.; Stein, Geschichte, p. 247.
60 Von Hupe], Beschreibung, pp. 144-5; de Raymond, Tableau, p. 539 n.