Colonel E. A. Nikolsky - went through a large military school. A cadet, a young officer in the imperial army. Then in 1905-1908. was in charge of the "Special Office Work" at the Military Statistics Department of the General Staff and was responsible for working with military agents. Prepared a project for the creation of … intelligence in Russia. Main Intelligence Directorate. It is according to his template that our special service will be created only not by the tsarist government, but by the Bolsheviks.
I will say right away that Nikolsky's book is so interesting that we will return to it later. Therefore, I will not talk about his further fate yet.
So, the floor is given to Colonel Nikolsky (Quotes from the book by E. A. Nikolsky. Notes about the past. Russian way, Moscow, 2007)
Pages 36-39
It is interesting to remember the generally material side of life
Military units of the late 19th century. For some reason, the shooters were considered as the so-called "young guard", but they differed from ordinary infantry troops only in that the soldiers and officers received slightly higher salaries than the infantry. So, a soldier received more by 3 or 4 kopecks in a quarter of a year, an officer with a higher rank received more by 1 ruble and 25 kopecks per month. All the content received by the officers consisted of the following parts: salaries, canteens and apartments. In addition, a small amount was given for lighting and heating. The lieutenant received a salary - 26 rubles 25 kopecks, dining rooms - 15 rubles, apartments - 112 rubles a year and about 20 rubles for heating and lighting. Salaries and canteens were issued on a monthly basis, and apartment money, for heating and lighting, once every three months. Just a month - about 53 rubles.
It should be noted that there were obligatory expenses: monthly deductions were made from the maintenance for the officers' meeting, the library, the "borrowed capital", the uniform artel, the organization of the regimental holiday, the New Year's Eve, breaking the fast on Easter day, various evenings and meetings of the authorities and persons who inspected the regiment. Thus, a junior officer would receive no more than 30-35 rubles a month in his most tidy life, of which he had to pay no less than 25-28 rubles for an apartment and for a meeting at the table. What was left for other necessary expenses, such as the laundress, the purchase of new linen?
The shooter received 54 kopecks in money every three months. For food, the regiment was given the cost of 1 / 2D pound of meat with bones and lard, which was supposed to be 6 spools ** per day, and, in addition, the cost of some greens - all based on local reference prices for the products. In general, a soldier's entire food leave did not exceed 7-9 kopecks per day. The Quartermasteries did not take into account rye flour and buckwheat and millet groats at the rate of 2, 5 flour and 32 spools of buckwheat or barley groats per person per day. That was all the government gave to the soldier; there was no vacation, no tea, no sugar, no coffee, no butter, nothing more.
Getting up in the morning, the soldier drank, if he had his own money, his own tea with a small lump of his sugar with black state bread, which he was released at the rate of 3 pounds per person. If the soldier had no money, then he drank only hot water with bread in winter, when there was a need to warm up even a little, getting up from a cold bed. But not in all parts of the troops the soldier received his 3 pounds of bread on his hands and could eat it when he wanted. In military units, in which the commanders observed special economy, the so-called "ration from the tray" was used. With this method, the soldiers were not given bread for 3 pounds each in their hands, but during the meal they cut the bread into pieces. The soldiers took from the general mass as much as they wanted. Few of them, in this order, was able to eat their 3 pounds, part of the bread was not eaten and a considerable economy of flour was obtained, for which the commissariat returned the regiment with money received in the regimental economic sums. But the soldier had no bread left for the morning.
Normally, in the army units located in the provinces, even in specially built barracks there were no separate premises for dining rooms. Barracks were built, and all the more, they were hired from private individuals of the smallest possible volume, and savings were pursued in hiring, heating and lighting. As a rule, there were not even premises for studying verbal sciences and teaching soldiers to read and write, regulations. Classes were held right where they slept, while the soldiers sat in groups on their beds. The barracks consisted of one large room, in which the soldiers spent all their time of study and rest, and two separate rooms, one of which housed the company tseikhhaus, and in the other the sergeant major and the company office. Sometimes there were small rooms for company workshops.
There was lunch at twelve o'clock in the afternoon. The soldiers scattered into the kitchen with pots and received cabbage soup or soup with cereals and herbs, a portion of boiled meat, which consisted of small pieces strung on a stick, and porridge with bacon. The lunch was not varied. Soups - borsch, cabbage soup or potato, porridge - buckwheat or barley. That's all the menu for the soldier's lunch. During the Rozhdestvensky and Velikiy fastings, no meat was given, it was released for everyone for soup ‘A, a pound of fish, dried or salted. Usually roach or pike perch. For dinner at six o'clock, the soldiers received leftovers, if any, of soup from lunch, and porridge. That's all that our army was fed with.
The Guards had a greater monetary leave *, and units of the troops stationed in the settlements had their own plots of land on which they planted vegetable gardens, and therefore, with the money allocated for greenery, they improved food.
The soldiers slept either on common bunks, or, if the regiment had sufficient economic funds, on separate bunks. There was no leave from the treasury for bunks, as well as for pillows, blankets and bedding - the soldiers had, if they could, their own. The shelves, if the economic sums were sufficient, put up blankets.
The economic sums were formed mainly from the savings of the remnants of food supplied directly by the quartermaster **, savings on lighting and heating the barracks. Usually after being busy, i.e. at five o'clock in the afternoon, semi-darkness reigned in the premises, as the most limited number of lamps burned. It was the same in the cold season - not all the stoves were heated, but in turn, and meanwhile, the money for heating was released according to the calculation of all stoves and for all cold days.
The soldiers washed their dirty linen in the bathhouse during washing. They visited the bathhouse once every two weeks, and meanwhile the military units for washing people and their linen received money separately according to the calculation of the number of soldiers and for each week.
Page 43
Only after the first revolution did the government wake up, and the commander-in-chief of the Petersburg military district, Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolayevich, gave an order, which promised in the shortest possible time to increase the contents of both officers and soldiers and improve their life. Indeed, the pay was soon added to officers: junior - 25 rubles a month, senior - respectively more. The following salaries were assigned to the soldiers: an ordinary - 50 kopecks a month and a non-commissioned officer - a little more. The life of the soldier was significantly improved: they installed tea and bed allowances, and the supply of money for food was increased.
But even these measures were not sufficient, since the monetary allowance of our army, and food, and in general, the maintenance significantly lagged behind the costs of providing for the armies of foreign states.
My comment: The same question is often asked: why did the Anglo-Saxons succeed in covert operations? Where did Russian intelligence and counterintelligence look?
Nikolsky answers these questions.
Just remember - the project for the creation of the Main Intelligence Directorate (still only a draft!) Was written by him … in 1907!
Until this year, there was simply no intelligence in Russia.
Why?
I would like to ask this question to the Emperor. So after all will not answer already.
We all know the results of such tragic blindness.
