Self-Supply of Food for the Red Army on the Eastern Front in the Second Half of 1918

Abstract

This article discusses how the Eastern Front’s Red Army solved the problem of food provision through self-supply, which was carried out by soldiers and the regimental command using requisitions and purchasing products from the local population. The emergence of this method was due to the inability of the front and army command to fully provide troops with provisions, as a result of which the leadership was forced to partially impose this task on the local regimental command, which often treated the organization of procurement and fight against soldier robbery rather carelessly. Nevertheless, food quality for the Red Army improved, as evidenced by the decrease in the number of marauding fighters. This was also facilitated by army command measures to improve the level of soldier discipline. In the article much attention is paid to the evolution of the population’s attitude to the procurement activity of soldiers and the regimental command. Despite the fact that initially the peasants rather negatively perceived the presence of the Red Army in the countryside, subsequently residents of villages began to show greater interest in cooperating with the troops, providing them with food, both on a voluntary and a monetary basis. This policy was favored by the army command, aimed at regulating procurement operations and maintaining good neighborly relations with the local population. Moreover, other means of obtaining food are listed, such as capturing enemy storage facilities at stations and in cities.