Внесок Бессарабії в забезпеченні російської армії продовольством на початковому етапі Першої світової війни

Abstract

Providing servicemen with food during hostilities is an extremely important factor in maintaining a high morale and combat capability of army units. In the Russian Empire, during the First World War, the task of food and fodder supply of the country and the front was assigned to the Main Directorate of Land Management and Agriculture (since 1916 – the Ministry of Agriculture). The agrarian regions of the empire, in particular the Bessarabian province, played an important role in this process. Authorized by the Ministry of Agriculture for the purchase of bread for the army. The aim of the article is to study the specific steps of the quartermaster's office, as well as the military and civilian authorities of the Bessarabian province to provide food for the Russian army at the initial stage of the war. To create a more reliable picture, the author uses a number of previously unpublished sources of the Central State Historical Archive of Ukraine, the State Archives of Odessa region and the municipal institution «Izmail Archive», as well as the National Archives of the Republic of Moldova. It is proved that in 1914-1915 Bessarabia played a significant role in supplying the army with food and fodder. The military and civilian administrations made every effort to ensure that troops had a good food supply. As a result of the activities of the leadership of the Odessa Military District and the Bessarabian Civil Administration, the amount of food supplies procured in the province largely provided the Russian army and inland regions. At the same time, the methods and forms used to carry out this process were not always expedient and effective.