We can say with confidence that the food allowance of the soldiers of the Red Army made them the most "satiated" in the entire USSR. They were inferior only to naval sailors and pilots. And the point here is not in the excellent quality and quantity of the ration of the soldiers, but in the half-starved existence of the rest of the civilian population of the country. This imbalance was especially noticeable in the early years of the war. Each product in the army was strictly quoted in accordance with the daily needs of the body. At the forefront was rye bread from wallpaper flour, 800 g each day in the warm season. With the cold, the norm increased by 100 g. In addition to bread, 500 g of potatoes, 150 g of meat, 100 g of fish, more than 300 g of vegetables, 170 g of pasta or cereals, as well as 35 g of sugar and 50 g of fat were supposed. This is how the infantry, tank crews, artillery and all the "ground" branches of the armed forces ate. This amounted to about 3450 kcal per day per person. The pilots, as more valuable army personnel, were supposed to have better food - 4,712 kilocalories. There is already 80 g of sugar, meat (poultry) up to 390 g, vegetables 385 g, and there were more cereals - 190 g. In addition to the increased calorie content of dishes, the Air Force and the diet differed in variety - fresh and condensed milk, cottage cheese, sour cream, cheese, dried fruits and eggs. The sailors' menu was supplemented with their own baked bread - this, however, was found only on large ships. And the divers on the dinner table could boast of sauerkraut, pickles and even raw onions. Such products specific to army dishes were designed to neutralize the lack of oxygen on submarines.
Naturally, with the growth of the rank of a soldier, his allowance became more high-calorie and more varied. But not by much: daily 40 g of butter (lard), 20 g of cookies and 50 g of canned fish were additives to the officers' ration. The high command sometimes ate outside the norm: sausages, balyk and expensive alcohol could be found on the tables.
One of the reasons why the soldiers of non-combatant, sentry and spare parts rushed to the front was poor nutrition. A day 75 g of meat, 150 g of bread, 50 g of cereals and pasta, and only 10 g of fat and sugar each were supposed to be fighters who did not participate in hostilities. In the guard units, the calorie rate barely reached 2650 kcal, with a minimum value of 2600 kcal. It was hard for the cadets of military schools - the young organism required large food norms, which doomed future officers to a half-starved existence.
But the food supply for the military was in no way comparable to the food supply for civilians. During the years of the war, at least 4 million people died in the rear from hunger and diseases related to malnutrition. In many ways, this was the reason for the country's economy's unpreparedness for war. In the very first months, the Germans captured or destroyed up to 70% of the food reserves of the western part of the USSR, and the mobilization of men from the agricultural regions of the country aggravated military losses. In 1942, in comparison with the last pre-war year, the harvest of grain and potatoes collapsed by 70%, and only 2 million tons of sugar beet were harvested instead of 18 million in 1940.
Harsh reality
The discussion above was about theoretical calculations of the nutritional value of food rations, which sometimes had a distant connection with reality. Everything depended on many factors: where the field kitchen was located, where the front was located, whether the food arrived on time, which of the suppliers and how much stole. In an ideal situation, they were fed hot twice: in the morning, before dawn, and in the evening, when the sun went down the horizon. The rest of the time the soldier ate bread and canned food.
What was the two-time hot diet of a Red Army soldier like? Usually the cook sent everything that was at hand into the cauldron, receiving either a kulesh at the exit, which is a liquid porridge with meat, or a thick vegetable soup. It is worth remembering that it was rarely possible to have breakfast (dinner) near the field kitchen - usually food was delivered in thermoses to the trenches on the front line. It is good if they managed to deliver food before it cooled down, often in the offensive the kitchen lagged behind the attacking units. And do not think that the cooks were warm, dry and comfortable in the rear. So, in September 1943, the attacking units of the 155th division crossed the Dnieper, and the kitchen remained on the opposite bank. I had to throw thermoses with hot food under German shelling on boats.
Even the front-line units of the Red Army were not spared by famine. So, in the winter of 1942, the most difficult situation developed on the Leningrad front - the soldiers were given only 500 g of bread and 125 g of meat, and the "rear services" were generally limited to 300 g and 50 g, respectively. Only in the spring of 1943 was it possible to create a food reserve and arrange the distribution of food in accordance with the standards. Soldiers died of hunger not only on the outskirts of Leningrad. The 279th Infantry Division lost 25 men in November 1942 from malnutrition, and several dozen fell ill with dystrophy. Appeared in the Red Army and long-forgotten misfortunes - scurvy and night blindness. The reason was the chronic shortage of fruits and vegetables harvested in 1942.
“We put our teeth back in with our fingers. You can't chew with your gums! The battalion sucked coniferous antiscorbutic briquettes all day, it helped a little,”
- Daniil Granin testifies in his front-line memoirs.
Over time, the country was able to ensure uninterrupted supplies of high-grade products to the belligerent army. To do this, we expanded crops in the Volga region, Kazakhstan and the Southern Urals, organized the production of food concentrates, and with the return of Ukraine, the situation has completely improved. The allies also helped a lot with their "second front".
“They stole without shame and conscience, whoever could. The soldier had to keep quiet and endure … They feed us badly, three times a day water and buckwheat groats, a liquid soup … I feel a breakdown ", - the Russian weekly "Profile" cites testimonies of front-line soldiers in connection with another misfortune of the army - theft.
In the reports on inspections of field kitchens, they wrote:
“The food is prepared monotonous, mainly from food concentrates…. Delivered to the soldiers cold."
And the cases of disclosed theft were politically correct called "non-Soviet attitude to the preservation and consumption of food." Despite the threat of demotion of those responsible for food or even the possibility of being tribunalized, the soldiers suffered from this "non-Soviet attitude" until the end of the war. And they happily greeted dry rations with breadcrumbs, sausage, canned food, dried fish and tea leaves. Here there were ample opportunities for exchange for tobacco, sugar, simple trophies and even ammunition.
Not by bread alone …
It was necessary to debunk the legend about front-line 100 g of vodka for a long time. Contrary to the prevailing myth, they poured not before the battle, but afterwards in order to relieve stress and give an opportunity to remember the dead. And the soldiers were treated only from September 1, 1941 to May 15, 1942, and later the rate was increased to 200 g, but only for the bravest in battle. By the beginning of 1943, vodka remained only in units engaged in the offensive. The rest have lost such luxury. Of course, they did not stop drinking, but consumption dropped significantly. Now the private had to go for tricks, modifying industrial alcohol or even antifreeze using filters from gas masks or other tricks. And at that time the fleet was given a daily portion of wine …
But smoking was much more stable and transparent. Makhorka was given out 20 g per hand every day, and monthly 7 smoking books were supposed to be used on hand-rolled cigarettes with 3 boxes of matches. Of course, such a volume was not enough for passionate lovers to smoke (this, above all, dulled hunger), so an exchange was used, and the most desperate even smoked dried manure. It should be noted that the military leadership nevertheless tried to reduce the percentage of smokers in the army and offered sweets with chocolate instead of makhorka.
In comparison with the soldiers of the Wehrmacht, who received a diet similar in calorie content, but more varied, the Soviet soldier was in an advantageous position. The Germans, both before the war and during it, lived much better than Soviet citizens and tried not to leave their comfort zone even at the front. Hence the Dutch cheese in a ration, and cigarettes, and chocolate, and sardines in oil. However, the harsh conditions of the Eastern Front showed that a much more hardy and unpretentious Soviet soldier, who also possessed remarkable ingenuity, was head and shoulders above his opponent from the Wehrmacht.
