Food Supply of Captured Non-Commissioned Officers and Enlisted Men in Russia and Western Countries in the XVIIIth Century

Abstract

The purpose of the study is to reconstruct the procedure for providing food to military personnel of various nationalities captured in the wars of the XVIII century. The object of the article is prisoners interned in Russia, Austria, England, France, Prussia, Spain, Sweden and Turkey. The absence of such works in both domestic and foreign historiography indicates the novelty of the work, and its relevance is due to the fact that it allows us to expand and clarify our ideas about the place of Russia in the world in the early modern period. In the process of investigation, mainly historical-typological and historical-comparative method were used. The source base of the article consists of works published mainly abroad, and documents from six archives of the former USSR. In the course of the study, three key Western European models of food supply for prisoners were identified. The genesis and evolution of the corresponding Russian model are studied step by step. The article shows that the basis of the Russian model was based on the principle of equality of food provision for prisoners of war and Russian soldiers of the garrison troops. The article emphasizes that the Russian model was a synthesis of domestic and foreign experience and retained the best features from the practice of the Moscow state of the XVI–XVII centuries. The article proves that in terms of the quantity and assortment of food products released to prisoners (36 kg of bread and 2–3 kg of cereals per month), Russia surpassed any other European country until the middle of the XVIII century and only with the beginning of the Seven Years' War of 1756–1763 was inferior to the leadership of Great Britain and France (and even then only in terms of the assortment). According to the author, the Russian model of prisoners' nutrition was highly effective and could be easily adapted to any situation, including the ethnic and confessional characteristics of individual groups of prisoners of war.