Dry Ration Primer

On paper, rations (Paëk) of the Red Army are simple: The men are fed thrice daily by a field kitchen, receiving 3100-3500 calories. A hot porridge is brought up before dawn, cold meat and bread for lunch, and a hot soup for dinner after dark. If this is not possible, Red Army men were to consume a dry ration issued previously for use in this situation. It is the dry ration that we will concern ourselves with in this note.

Of course, this ideal was often seldom achieved during the Great Patriotic War; thermoses leaked, cooks had to service too many men, or there was simply not food available. More often than not, the men would make do with the dried ration (sukhpaëk). Thankfully, prewar planners were far sighted, and already in 1941 they published a guiding document that was in force for the entire conflict. Application in the Red Army of Food Tablets (Concentrates) and Dry Food Rations was a manual establishing the norms of what should be given to soldiers as a dry ration, and the frequency of issuance. This document decreed the following ration per man per day:

The ration was, on paper, issued five times a month, in full. These portions would not be consumed on the same day, and should have been saved for use when hot meals weren’t available. In addition, in 1940, the Red Army began to train men to eat the dry ration every 6^th day, in order to acclimatize them to the labour and the taste of the new food concentrates.

Once the soldier had this ration (the exact composition obviously varied) it was his responsibility to cook it. The foods above were designed to be something that would not only last a while in storage, but also items that could be cooked in the field, with a minimum of preparation. Most of the ration can be eaten as is, with only the concentrates requiring boiling, either in an individual mess kit or in the food delivery thermos. The manual also provides some tips on cooking the concentrate blocks, such as the amounts of water (pea soup- .6 litres, buckwheat porridge- .7 litres) needed per serving.

There were substitutes that could be made for these products. Sausage could be swapped for fish, or cheese, and the dried bread might be swapped for rye crackers. Canned food is listed as a substitute, although in this case one had to be careful, as one can might mean replacement of several days of the meat ration (the can was not to be eaten in one sitting). Another common replacement was egg powder, as it was light, 17g of powder replaced 100g of meat, and provided some variety to the diet.

To replicate everything except the concentrates, all one needs to do is to dry out some dark bread, buy some sausage or fish and place everything into a period appropriate container. For soldiers in the field, this would have been a simple cotton bag, with a drawstring closure. These bags are available from most vendors, and will hold the ration well. 

The concentrates, however, which were promoted as the base layer of the meal, are much more difficult. They are being made in Russia, and are available from merchants like Cyril Metkhantchev and Veshmeshock, they are pricey, too much to be consumed in the quantities demanded by a full event schedule. We can replicate the taste, sure, with a solid soup base crushed into a bag, but the form is lacking. Finally, a second type of ration was issued to the troops as well, the neprikosnovennyi zapas (NZ), which could only be eaten under the explicit order of an officer. There does not seem to be a set list of what would constitute the NZ, although the previous source also makes mention of canned meat, crackers, sugar and tea. The NZ seems to have been given in advance of an assault, in anticipation of being away from the lumbering field kitchens. Obviously, the NZ would find itself eaten by hungry soldiers, and there are accounts of officers confiscating the NZ and holding them in a central location to be issued when the time was right.  This is my speculation, but it seems that canned goods would have been prioritized for NZ, including American imports. Antipenko confirms this suspicion with an interview with soldiers of the Bryansk Front in 1942.

It is important to note that the Red Army was partially expected to make do with what they had, and if we are being unkind, to live off the land. Men in the quartermaster department were constantly working to incorporate local, fresh foods into the diets of Red Army soldiers. They also innovated and improved on the dry ration, adding to it as the situation changed. Logisticians like Saushin stressed that variety in fare and in the nutrients provided were critical to both the biological function and moral of the men. As Saushin sums up perfectly “To cook cabbage soup today, and borscht tomorrow does not mean to diversify food!”

This could result in a very different choice of ration depending on what period of the war one wishes to portray. Boris Slutskii recounts how there had to be an official order to stop the slaughter and consumption of Hungarian cattle while he was fighting there in 1945. In the same chapter, he recounts reluctantly eating stolen horsemeat in 1942. For the Reenactor, we should choose to be as crafty as Red Army men, while also not going overboard. Tasteful additions of foods not listed in the official regulations should be an essential part of the replicated dry ration, as well as withholding rations if the scenario or event calls for it. Hunger is an authentic feeling!

Link to the original Article and Sources: Dry Ration Primer