The first thing you need to understand about war is that your lifestyle will change. Whether you work as a programmer, a designer, a copywriter, a PR man or a factory worker (are there any?), everything will break down with the outbreak of hostilities. From where you work, where you live, your wardrobe, to your menu and habits. And if you live quite freely without glazed curds, then the lack of suitable shoes in winter will lead to sad consequences.

Let's immediately dot the i's so that Internet specialists who read diagonally will splash out less bile in the comments - it will still be needed to process burgers.

1. Even during the war, clothing stores and supermarkets continue to operate, but the closer to the front line, the higher the prices, the worse the range and quality. No one bothers with the supply of good things, they carry the cheapest and often poor quality shoes and clothes. Most people don't have the money for a good one.
2. FROM a high degree the likelihood of you losing your job with the start of the war. Therefore, it is better to buy everything you need in advance, while spending is not so noticeable for you.
3. The period until business and the state are being rebuilt on a war footing usually stretches for at least six months. At this time, the assortment will be completely bad.
4. Yes, you can go closer to civilization and buy what you need, but moving from a war zone is extremely expensive both in terms of finances and time. The hassle and all sorts of risks when crossing checkpoints make you think 10 times whether you need it.
5. War means a sharp rise in prices and inflation in general. What cost 100 rubles yesterday will be sold for 300 tomorrow morning.

Necessary things

Medium city backpack

I understand that many people are used to being content with a shoulder bag, carrying a wallet, a tablet and a mobile phone with them, but with the outbreak of war, all this will remain in the past. Any of your trips somewhere implies a very specific goal: to pick up a package, things, buy medicines or products. The bag in this regard is much less practical and convenient.

Do not buy a tourist backpack, an ordinary urban backpack of 20-30 liters will be more than enough.

Be sure to try on the backpack before buying, make sure the straps are comfortable and have wide padding on the shoulders.

Try to choose a backpack without laptop compartments: it is extremely unlikely that you will have an urgent need to carry a laptop on trips, and a special pocket with protection will only steal useful place. Two or three compartments on bilateral locks are quite enough: in a small one you load small things like keys, a knife, a bandage, hydrogen peroxide, a handkerchief, toilet paper, a flashlight, documents, a notebook and a pen, the main thing remains for things.

The abundance of pockets is also useless - just spend extra time during searches and checks. Much more important is the strength of the material and its impermeability. Highly desirable chest straps that allow you to run with much more comfort.

Suitcase on wheels

In the conditions of the termination of mail forwarding, it is necessary to take out the necessary things not immediately (this is very expensive), but as needed. In this case, one backpack will not be enough.

If you have a family - be sure to take a suitcase on wheels. Key points worth paying attention to:

• High quality plastic wheels. Rubber pads will wear off the road and trails very, very quickly.
• Carry handles on both sides for two people to carry at once.
• Large bottom and a maximum of 2-3 small compartments. You will still be forced to dump all things during searches.
• Good double sided locks on each compartment.
• Rigid suitcase construction.

Lugging a suitcase with broken wheels or trying to unfasten jammed locks at gunpoint or in a queue of thousands in the pouring rain is not a pleasant occupation. Don't skimp on this purchase. Avoid bright colors and eye-catching designs. The simpler the better.

Cases, covers and wallets

In the first months of the beginning of the war and during periods of exacerbation, documents on the streets can be checked 10 or more times a day. It is even worse for those who often travel on roads with roadblocks. No one cares what difficulties you will encounter when replacing your passport, so the documents are more like a footcloth: worn out, falling apart and looking extremely deplorable.

A good cover is a guarantee of the life of your passport, although not a guarantee.

Try not to take bright, very cheap and with various kinds of cover symbols. Simple, discreet, desirable different color for every member of the family. Be sure to check that the covers do not fade or leave stains when wet. For insurance, wrap documents before leaving in a file or package.

A similar story with a purse (forget about fashionable micro wallets that fit a couple of credit cards and banknotes), a phone case or a case for glasses. Anything you can protect from falls, water, and shock, protect it. Sooner or later, you will have to get wet in the rain more than once, fall to the ground during shelling, or huddle in the crowd at roadblocks.

Bike

Not a hoverboard, not an electric scooter and other hipster fetishes. And a simple, most common, with affordable parts bike. Don't bother with expensive 20-speed models with an ultra-light frame. Don't skimp on tires and tubes. The rest is secondary. It's just a way to get from point A to point B without public transport, which will be limited and bad. Be sure to think about the best. Two-wheeled friends are stolen more often than cars, especially in small towns.

Knife or multitool

No huge cleavers with stops and miscarriages. A simple folding knife with minimal features, but made of good steel and with a non-slip handle. By and large, you only need a knife and a can opener. If the budget allows, you can look towards multi-tools. But even there you need extremely minimalistic options from a knife, bottle opener and pliers. Keep it in your backpack among the rest of the small things, and then it will not raise questions during checks.

Flashlight

Absolutely indispensable thing, especially in conditions of regular power outages. Ideally two. One wearable, small, but bright enough and energy-intensive to light up the road for an hour. Better with batteries - always carry a spare with you. And a large home lamp on the battery with the possibility of recharging from the mains.

In both versions, it should be possible to put it on the end (flat bottom) with a light beam to the ceiling to illuminate the entire room, a lanyard attachment and several brightness modes.

Watch

Climbing for the phone to find out the time in rain or frost is not the most good decision. And while war teaches you patience, time is no longer a resource you have control over. Being late for a train, bus or meeting becomes an unaffordable luxury in peacetime. Any shockproof and waterproof watch with backlight and alarm will do.

first aid kit

I would not advise you to stock up on a large number of medicines, especially if there is no clear understanding of what you can use after the expiration date. But make sure you have 3-4 packs of bandages, cotton wool, hydrogen peroxide, iodine or brilliant green, analgin, aspirin, paracetamol, Activated carbon, thermometer, ammonia and ethyl alcohol.

Put the bandage and peroxide in your backpack, let them be with you all the time.

In principle, in conditions of hostilities, they get sick a little. The body seems to be mobilizing, and it is difficult to catch a cold or other illness, if you don’t try hard. Retribution comes in periods of relaxation and truces. Then people's health crumbles like a house of cards.

Warm jacket or down jacket

The emphasis on winter clothing is made for a reason. In peacetime, any of my movement in winter was reduced to the need to walk 10 minutes to a public transport stop or take a taxi. If I wanted to take a walk in winter, I knew that at any moment I could go to a cafe or shop and warm up. In the distant peaceful past, I wore a cashmere coat, trousers and patent leather boots, and I, like many others, was quite comfortable.

In a situation where you have to spend from 4 to 48 hours on the road with a high probability of long walks or overnight stays in an open field, tastes in clothes and the entire wardrobe as a whole require rethinking. Getting sick in the absence of heat, medicines and doctors is a rather dangerous occupation for health.

When choosing a jacket, be sure to take a warm sweater with you and try it on. You shouldn't be cramped.

If you don't have the right size, feel free to choose a slightly larger one. This way, heat is better retained and moisture is removed.

Good zippers, a large insulated hood, capacious patch pockets with flaps (preferably with Velcro), inside pockets (with zippers) for phone, money and documents - all this should be in your jacket. Add to that a high, padded collar (to keep the wind out of your face), adjustable cuffs (to keep snow out) and, of course, waterproof fabric.

Many jackets and down jackets at first glance look high quality, but are unsuitable for wear due to wetness. Rain with snow or a short-term entry into a warm room during a snowfall - and your clothes get wet to the skin. Take a bottle of water to the store and make sure the fabric repels moisture.

Try not to take bright colors and eye-catching designs. You do not have the task of attracting too much attention, you are not a tourist.

Sports boots

The key point to pay attention to when buying shoes is the thickness of the sole. It will protect you from the cold and allow you to move comfortably on broken glass, slate and brick.

Do not take low boots or winter sneakers: in them you leave a very vulnerable part of the legs exposed.

No zippers or zippers, just lacing.

Try on shoes with a thick warm toe, and if you are a cold person by nature, put an extra insole (ideally made of natural felt). After that, your foot should be fairly loose in the boot. No sizing. Otherwise, you will definitely freeze.

A huge disadvantage of boots of low and medium price categories is their tightness. The leg in such a boot feels like in a spacesuit, and after long journey condensation can be poured out of the shoes. If possible, buy expensive shoes. No - take a pair of spare socks with you on the road and change to dry ones if necessary.

Ski pants

The main advantage of these pants is waterproof and windproof fabric. Even in very hard frost and the wind is warm in them. And snowfall or rain will not make your trip less comfortable.

Pants, unlike trousers and jeans, hold you down less in movement and do not fit as tightly. Traditionally, for winter clothes, take a stock in size and try on thermal underwear. With it, ski pants are much more comfortable to wear: even after running or physical activity the lining will not stick to the legs, and the body will not cool as intensely.

Pay attention to the belt. It is highly desirable that the pants have both belt loops and lacing. Spacious pockets with locks, and additional fabric pads on the knees and buttocks will also be useful.

Sweater under the throat

Forget about jumpers and light pullovers. Thick, high-wool sweaters that cover the entire neck, preferably in black, navy blue or charcoal gray - that's your choice.

It may happen that you will not have the opportunity to wash and dry clothes throughout the winter.

No acrylic or other artificial fabrics. They are beautiful and, perhaps, even appropriate for urban wear, but under extreme conditions they are absolutely useless.

Other little things

There are a number of things that do not require a lot of money, but will please you with their presence more than once. I'll just list them without going into details:

1. Twenty pairs of socks, including 3-4 pairs of warm ones.
2. Sneakers with hard soles.
3. Strong jeans (no decorative stripes or damage).
4. Raincoat.
5. Warm waterproof gloves.
6. Autumn and winter hats (even if you walked in peacetime without a hat in severe frost).
7. Thermal underwear.
8. Swimming trunks.
9. Stock of cotton t-shirts.

stupid spending

Huge stock of groceries

Cereals, flour, butter and canned food in industrial quantities - all this, of course, is fine and necessary, and you can even eat something, but with large stocks everything will gradually deteriorate. Keep the minimum number of main positions without turning your apartment into an Auchan branch.

Lots of frozen meat and semi-finished products

Sooner or later you will be left without light, and all this will have to be cooked, eaten or thrown away in an emergency mode. At such moments, the dogs, which once loving owners throw out into the street, leaving the city, do not walk, but crawl along the roads with bellies swollen to incredible sizes.

Military / paramilitary uniform

These are obviously unnecessary questions, attention and risks. Among civilian clothes, there are no less comfortable options.

Firearms and traumatic weapons

The benefits from it will be much less than the questions and problems.

Binoculars

This is a real chance to get a bullet.

Outcome

This list could be expanded, but you will not be able to stock up for all occasions. It is impossible to guarantee that on the very first day the projectile will not destroy your house or apartment, and with them all the lovingly collected supplies. Even the most hard-nosed gadgetophiles and perfectionists who suffer from a watch strap on the wrong color or painfully choose a feng shui table take a year to look at things and the world much easier.

Don't get hung up on choosing the best things. Just buy what meets the requirements - life itself will lead you to the right ones. Peace!

There is a common myth that these days you can follow the war in live. In fact, where the carnage begins, there is never television. There was no television in Grozny during any of the two wars, in Sarajevo, in Srebrenica, in Kosovo there was no television, in Syrian Aleppo it was not there either. Where it's really bloody and dirty, television comes after it's over to film mass graves or safe distance show how something burns and explodes. The real war is much more terrible than our (those who were not in the war) ideas about it. So, what to do if the war starts and you are in the city.

As always in life - there are different options. Today we will not consider the option that provides that you decide to join the armed forces and participate in hostilities. Today only about civilians..

The main advice in the event of a war is to get out of the city as soon as possible.

Already on the first day of hostilities in the city, most likely there will be no electricity, no water, no gas, no heat, no mobile phone network, no wi-fi, nothing that supports city life. All these things, of course, will not disappear at the same time, but in any case, it will happen pretty quickly.

The problem of survival will immediately begin. How many days does your house have enough food? That's right, a few. Shops and gas stations will stop working on the first day, and their looting will begin around the same time.

Those who will survive will have what to eat, what to drink, change for something that is not enough, or, for example, the right to pass through a checkpoint. If you go to the store, it's better to take your friends with you. Firstly, you will be able to carry more products, and secondly, there is hope that the loot will not be taken away from you on the way back. In the first days of the war, society still by inertia retains some signs of culture, and banditry, looting, permissiveness of degenerates are not yet so common, but everything is moving towards that quickly, and therefore you need weapons.

One thing needs to be understood. There is no such thing as private property in a war zone. No one is interested in what was recorded in the Land Register or registered in the register of enterprises before the war. Now everything is canceled because of the war. You only own what you can protect. If armed uncles enter your apartment and say that here they will now have a machine gunner's nest or a sniper position, do not argue.

Just get out of there, even if you are not asked to. You do not want to be around when the enemy "covers" this machine gunner. Don't tell uncles it's private property or anything like that. Uncles are nervous because they are being shot at, they have weapons, they are full of adrenaline and courage, do not quarrel with them.

The good news is that no one else has private property either, except for those who have guns and who can defend theirs with guns in hand. In other words, if the owner does not have a weapon, it is not his car, if the owner does not have a weapon, it is not his food supply, and so on. The man with the gun is always right. Never quarrel with a person who has a weapon. The cost of living in a war zone becomes very cheap. Remember this. Anyone can kill you, and he will not get anything for it. No one will ever look for the killer.

Therefore, you need weapons, otherwise you will soon have no food, no drink, no wedding ring, no warm clothes, nothing to help you survive.

Classically, weapons are obtained by robbing a police station. Usually, a black market immediately appears, soldiers earn money by selling something from army stocks, someone sells something from weapons legally obtained in peacetime. Remember that you also need ammo. If the opportunity arises to exchange your mommy's jewelry for Kalashnikovs, do it.

Best of all, if at the same time you can get some kind of pistol. If you run into a patrol, the Kalashnikovs must be handed over immediately, but you can hope that after you hand over the machine gun, they will no longer search you, and the gun will remain with you.

If you are far-sighted, you already have an arsenal legally mined in peacetime. AT war time this will immediately become a goldmine. I have friends who have an arsenal at home, with which you can fight for a year and a half.

It is very important to decide where and how you will go. Perhaps you still need to stay where you are.

Those who have a battery operated radio at home are in a much better situation than others. Some stations will definitely work, and some information about what is happening can be obtained.

It is necessary to evaluate the geographical and strategic importance your location. How important in terms of control of the city can be your street, your yard, your house, in what direction the fights will go, whether someone will control this area, whether there will be resistance, what kind and so on.

If there is a mortar position nearby, run away immediately, the enemy will definitely destroy it. And he will not shoot from a machine gun. If a sniper sat on the roof of your house, run away from there. In Grozny, tanks worked on such houses. Nobody wants to hunt a sniper. It is easier to demolish the two upper floors in such a house.

Realize that you don't want to be where the tanks will go and where the barrel of the tank will point. The power of a tank shot is incredible. Only fragments from a tank hitting a building inflict mortal wounds within a radius of one hundred and more meters to all those who did not find shelter. In some conflicts, in order to stop the tanks, powerful high-explosive charges were used in the city to destroy houses in the path of the tanks and thus stop them, drive them to a standstill. I will say again, you want to be very far from the tanks and those who are trying to stop them. Remember in cistern The toilet has water on which you can survive for a week or even longer.

Do not wash it off under any circumstances. It is no different in quality from tap water, however, water no longer flows from the tap, and shops are no longer open and robbed. This water supply is of great importance.

It's hard to survive in the city. Areas of apartment buildings in general become a trap, among other things, sewerage that does not work, waste, corpses in the summer increase the risk various diseases, and in winter, in turn, it is impossible to warm the apartment. Cooking warm food is very difficult. The water that is brought from the river must be boiled; in such conditions it cannot be drunk just like that. If you manage to get kerosene from the army, you can make impromptu tiles, you can burn furniture, but sooner or later it is better to leave.

If you're going on the road, you need to understand the military mindset.

The most important thing that everyone confirms is to look like a civilian. If for some reason you put on your camouflage, dress up as Rambo and go outside, enjoy this moment, because, in fact, you are already dead. You won't even know if the sniper or the soldiers of which side will take you out. In war, one who looks like a soldier is a soldier, and one who looks like a civilian is probably also a soldier. You need to look as harmless as possible. Best of all, homeless, with children in their hands and a white flag in a conspicuous place.

Hide the machine gun under your jacket, if you got a Kalashnikov with a folding butt - ideal, if not - anyway, hide it.

On the one hand, civilian soldiers are not interested. In Chechnya, even in spite of intense fighting, those who were not suspected that they were soldiers in disguise - old men, women with children, etc., could almost calmly move around the city. Soldiers don't want to unnecessarily "shine" their position or waste ammo to shoot at a civilian who is simply fleeing the city. This is on the one hand. On the other hand, in the case of ethnic, religious conflicts, this is not always the case. This was not the case in Yugoslavia. In any case, if you run into a machine gunner’s nest, which is still being built and dug in, a group of saboteurs, they may decide that you are a risk, or an enemy spy who is disguised as a civilian, and therefore start to “work” for you.

Therefore, if you see soldiers in the yard or in an empty house, in no case approach. Even if they look friendly, even if they smile and you are welcomed, leave. It is very likely that they want to call you only to silence you without noise. This is a war, everyone is nervous, many are paranoid, many with a pathological propensity for violence, which was finally given free rein, in many conflicts, experienced units tried to "work off" civilians who could open their position. Remember that once the war has started, the Geneva Convention is not a set of laws, but only a description of the desired behavior. During the war, all kinds of degenerates, moral freaks and psychopaths suddenly emerge on the crest of the war and finally begin to live on their own. You don't want to meet them and make contact with them in any way, not even eye contact.

Do not approach the hospitals where all sides are taking their wounded, and shooting can begin at any moment, some side will want to capture this strategic object only for themselves, and the losers will decide that if not for me, then for no one, and call in artillery or aviation. Bypass the former state institutions, any important infrastructure objects - stations, communication centers, television centers, etc. Don't go anywhere at night. The night is ruled by the army, bandits and marauders.

Army units in the city very often have a poor understanding of what is happening and where the enemy is now.

Almost always, at some point, friendly people shoot at friendly people, and always everyone shoots at unwary civilians.

Remember, while you are in the city, there is a chance to steal fuel.

Gas stations don't work. You can't get fuel except from the army, but you don't want to have contact with the army, and they don't want to help you, but in the countryside there won't even be a place to steal.

Set off on the road during daylight hours (many advise you to go at dawn, when the night fasts are already tired, and the morning fasts have not yet woken up, slowly and calmly, as civilians do. By your behavior, let everyone clearly understand that you are civilians who want leave. Take your time. The principle of creating a route is simple. The fewer patrols, the fewer roadblocks, the fewer contacts, the better. It is clear that the central streets, central intersections, bridges, are better controlled, since they have a strategic value. Use what that you know the city.

If you need to spend the night in the city because there is no longer your home, or you are stuck on the way, it is better to stay in the open somewhere on the side of the road than to enter empty buildings in which there were battles or an army. Here, each door can be equipped with a grenade. In such places, do not open the refrigerator, do not lift the toilet lid, and if a kitten meows in a closet or behind some door, do not save him, this is a classic trap.

The streets are often safer. In the capture of cities, nothing else has been invented, except for two eternal strategies. The first is to first demolish half the city with artillery and aircraft, and then directly seize house after house, from the first house on one side to the last on the other, as was done in World War II, including in Berlin. The second option - tanks and armored personnel carriers first try to seize strategic points, fortify them and thus create control over the city, as, for example, in Grozny during the first Chechen war. In the case of this strategy, there is a risk that the army units at these strategic points will be surrounded and destroyed, which, by the way, the Chechens did with the Russian army, turning the first capture of Grozny, perhaps, into the most shameful defeat. Russian army in modern history. At the same time, the Americans in Baghdad did just that. After the bombardment, we simply drove into the city and began to fortify. Perhaps they knew that there would be no strong resistance, or they relied on their advantage in strength.

Be that as it may, in the first case, the cleaning of houses begins immediately. To make the attackers feel safe, they do not leave enemies behind, every house will be checked. And in the second case, too, sooner or later, the search for opponents will begin with a search of suspicious houses, districts and streets. There is no difference now whether they are Russians or Americans.

In the cities where it goes guerrilla war, sweeps are going severely. Clearing abandoned buildings is the most dangerous thing for soldiers, and they hate it, so it's better not to be in such a building. If not instructions, then army wisdom says that if you don’t want surprises, first throw a grenade into the room and only then go see who “lives” here. And it will not be a stun grenade, as in peacetime operations. However, a grenade is not the most dangerous. Have time to jump behind a good sofa, reducing your "area" facing the explosion to a minimum, stretch out on the floor or hide your head and body behind a large backpack, behind some kind of flower pot, and if you are not completely naked, there is a big chance to survive. Another thing is that you can never know what kind of frostbitten idiots will now enter the room. Therefore, it is better to sit on the side of the street with a white rag and let yourself be in charge than to imagine that you will crawl into some abandoned basement, hide in an abandoned house and be safe there.

If there are dead people on the streets, remember that it is strictly forbidden to touch and turn them over. A grenade under a corpse, too, unfortunately, has become a sad classic of all recent conflicts. If it is possible to remove a weapon or ammunition from a deceased without turning it over, do so, but it is not necessary to search it more thoroughly. If the dead man has a communications system, contrary to what is seen in the movies, don't take it. You will most likely not hear anything understandable and useful for you here. Moreover, you are civilians. You need to look like a civilian. There will be a walkie-talkie, there will be a desire to mess with it. A civilian with a walkie-talkie is no longer a civilian. And hide your weapons, of course.

Around all modern cities there is a ring road. Usually there is a boundary of the environment. For motorized rifle brigades, the standard behavior is to disperse along the circuitous routes and blockade the city. There will be roadblocks, control and the like.

Approach them slowly and with your hands up. Don't think of sneaking through the forest somehow, in short dashes or anything like that. In military conditions, every suspicious movement in the forest is reason enough for a machine gun to start working. Pay attention to the weapons of the soldiers visible in the photographs from the Crimea. A lot of Pecheneg machine guns and a lot of modernized sniper rifles Dragunov with a short barrel and a folding butt, as well as "screw cutters" and classic Kalashnikov machine guns, as well as machine guns. Many copies of these weapons, as seen in the photographs of journalists, are equipped with the most modern sights (Aimpoint Micro T-1 and Eotech 512, the cost of which is from 500 - 700 dollars per copy). You don't want these people to start shooting in your direction. Go to the checkpoint with your hands up. Most likely, they will simply rob you, take away everything of value and let you through.

Now you are out of town. They say that every Latvian has his own rural house. Happy are those who really have it. If there is also a cellar with potatoes, other products, pickles and jams in this house, then you will most likely survive. The main task is to protect your home from bandits, marauders who want to take it all away from you. It is not difficult to defend against one or two bandits, but it is already difficult to stand against a dozen. Moreover, they have already trained during this time. They know how to assess your strength, outflank and so on. However, you have time at your disposal to prepare traps, obstacles, barricades for them and turn your family and friends into a small military detachment. Again, weapons are very necessary, if they are not there, we recall the Middle Ages and we will have different strategies. The bandit, on whom a bucket of gasoline was poured and who understands that he can now flare up, will most likely be “on pause” at some point. Your defense must be aggressive and strong so that the marauders decide to go to another, easier target. The army is most likely not interested in your rural house, so there are chances to wait out active hostilities and then see what happens next.

Now the most important thing.

If in peacetime you make at least some elementary preparations for a rainy day, it will help a lot if such a day comes.

First, consider all routes and methods of evacuation, counting back-up options. It is best to take care that there is a place in the village. If not with you, then with some friends, relatives, acquaintances. They do not need to object, together it will be easier to defend their place from bandits and marauders. Here it is necessary to store elementary stocks of food, fuel, medicines. Pasta is a great invention of mankind, unlike flour and various cereals, worms do not start in them, they have a long shelf life and high the nutritional value. If you can find high-quality canned food, it’s generally fine, they will be more expensive than money, and if your farm has chickens and a cow, and there is a river nearby where you can fish, then this is generally a five-star place to wait out the war. Just don't forget to organize shifts. Someone needs to stay awake at night and so on.

While you are in the city - always try to keep the gas tank in the car as full as possible. During Chechen war Snickers was especially popular. Small, light, on four or six candy bars, a soldier can live all day. Comes in handy along the way.

The reduction of the ration fund began. The reason was an acute shortage of allocated limits. If in September 1946 the total fund of grain for ration supply to the region was 5260 tons, then in October it was reduced to 3313 tons, and the reduction went on monthly.

It was achieved by reducing the rate of rations and by reducing the categories of li who received them. First of all, the peasant population, the disabled, dependents and single mothers fell under the reduction of the ration contingent.

The post-war village had the hardest time of all - life from hand to mouth, work on the collective farm for unpaid sticks in the workday record sheet and a meager garden, taxed in kind. In the districts of the region, more and more patients with alimentary dystrophy appeared (a disease caused by prolonged starvation or insufficient calorie content and poor protein nutrition that does not correspond to the body's energy costs - note by the author).

Children were born weak. Often they had a violation of the proportions of body parts: a large belly and thin legs. To save the lives of their children, parents went to the extent of throwing them up or openly refusing them. Employees of village councils or districts came to work, and there was a child on the porch.

In the United States, during the Great Depression, people went on hunger marches. Photo: Public Domain

“Due to financial difficulties in the region, cases have become more frequent when parents bring their children to village councils, to the district, to the district executive committee with a demand to take their children to an orphanage. There are cases when parents are hiding somewhere, ”- approximately such reports were written from the field.

The villagers ate acorns, bush resin, quinoa, young twigs and linden leaves. The main food was potato bread, potatoes with milk, cabbage soup from sedge or potato tops. There was no salt, sugar is a delicacy. There were no other products.

Peasants on collective farms stole potatoes, grain, that is, they took in their pocket after work, as much as they could fit. Adults were not forgiven, but children were simply taken away.

The cattle also had nothing to feed. Even straw on the collective farm was given for work! So, for ten people they gave a fifth of the straw from the one that was put into the haystacks. The roofs of the sheds and the yard were covered with straw, so that the cattle would not freeze in winter, and in the spring this straw was fed to the animals.

Surprisingly, in such a difficult time for the country, grain exports increased abroad! Either they wanted to prove to the whole world that we are a strong country and even after the war quickly got up from their knees, or it was some kind of political game. Harvesting improved in 1948, but the state increased the amount of mandatory harvesting. The collective farms were again left with nothing, and discontent ripened among the peasants: “Everything is for the city, but what about us?” This is how people lived after the war. Again they fought hunger, with a “comrade” from military life.

Whenever I get discouraged in a post, I reread my interviews with veterans of the Great Patriotic War, blockade, home front workers. I am usually occupied with “near-culinary” stories like a woman: what they ate in the trenches, in dugouts, in the field, in frozen communal apartments in the war. After all, it’s not enough just to survive, often it was necessary to perform feats - “to lay down one’s soul for one’s friends.” What did you feel about it? What did you dream about?

These life stories are truly inspiring and empowering.

Danila brought the summons in August 1942. The mother, confused, took a bowler hat, ran into the forest to pick up her son's berries that had just accumulated blueberry juice on the way - at home, after all, roll with a ball. The ship "Maria Ulyanova" did not approach the shore. The passengers disembarked into the boat, and the conscripts left on it. When the mother returned, the son had already sailed from the shore, waving his hand: "Bye, mom." The unfortunate woman ran down the mountain, stumbled, fell. The berries scattered, she sat down on the ground and wept helplessly. He carried these tears in his heart for the rest of his life. And there is no sweeter blueberry in the whole white world ...

“We were so stupid then, girls, we were embarrassed of everything,” says Alexandra, a participant in the breakthrough of the Leningrad blockade.

Then he recalls the case of eating cows killed five days ago. And so I did not want to wait until the water with meat boils. And they didn't wait.

On the day of her 115th birthday, the Siberian long-liver Lukerya spoke to me like this:

- I feel good, I don’t spend money on medicines ...

- What was the treatment? Bow, than else! Finely crumble and eat, when with water, when with honey, or even just one

- Excuse me, but how are you being treated, say, for the flu? I ask.

- Bow, than else! Finely crumble and eat, when with water, when with honey, or even just one.

- You have a beautiful figure in all the photos, even after childbirth. Did you do something special?

- I also do arithmetic! A glass of well water on an empty stomach - and you will have the same, or even better.

- I can’t help but ask: you went to the dentist for the first time at the age of 60 - didn’t your teeth bother you before?

- Worried. The owner tore the upper back to me at the age of 30: it hit the jamb, the tooth cracked, it began to hurt ... This one on the bottom side, like it there, I knocked it out back at 18, when I fell on a barrel in the cellar. And the rest were in the places where they should be. I'm every evening them vegetable oil rinsed until it thickened in the mouth. Everyone did it. Ask anyone.

– Oil? What?

- What was at hand. Sunflower, rapeseed…

- You know, Olya, the absence of a hand compared to loved one- a trifle, - says the former machine gunner Alexander. We don't know how to live at all. Peaceful sky, white bread is taken for granted. Without a sense of God, and hence happiness.

And this is the advice of the old woman Concordia from my native Khanty-Mansiysk Okrug:

“In May-June, you will collect young pine cones and pour sugar in even rows in a three-liter jar. The sugar will melt little by little, so shake it three or four times a week. Keep like this for a month. And then carefully strain the syrup into a separate jar and spoon into tea. Real medicine. He will cure any sickness. And remember: do it every year, mother pine will give you unprecedented strength, she has such a medicine hidden in her cones - you can’t convey it. You can’t buy it in any pharmacy.”

I carefully leaf through the memoirs of the old warrior Yefim:

“I fell ill with typhus and was in the hospital in Krasnoyarsk. I would have died a long time ago, but a compassionate orderly got caught - he gave me silver spoon: one hundred percent silver, apparently, even from Demidov's supplies - and punished: "Eat only from it and you will live a hundred years, unless, of course, someone deliberately suffocates." I still sip only from it. It turned out to be a marvelous spoon, all ailments were bypassed, I don’t see age.

And I remembered an article by a famous professor, who, by the way, cited the following fact: earlier, all medical instruments were made of silver, and the percentage of blood poisoning was almost zero ...

“We were among the last to leave Leningrad,” recalled Larisa, a former medical officer. - The car constantly failed, and I was happy: I had 150 grams of bread, with sawdust, of course. But it's BREAD! So I will survive. And that's when the dream appeared. As soon as I earn money, I will buy a loaf of bread, vegetable oil and sugar and I will eat it all, eat it, eat it ...

- I, - said the former scout Inna, - as soon as I go into the store, the first thing I look at is pearl barley. I add it to all the first dishes, even to the ear and pickle. The most delicious and most nutritious porridge. It can be eaten even if there are no teeth, and the lips, for example, are frozen and it is difficult to open the mouth ...

- I got a bowler hat and slowly brewed spruce paws. I drank a lot. And got stronger, again took a rifle in his hands

“They discharged me from the hospital to die,” admitted an old soldier, a Mansi named Popilla, “but I don’t want to go home. Long away. Yes, and I gave my word to my people that I would reach Berlin. He returned to the unit and asked for ancillary work. I got a bowler hat and slowly brewed spruce paws. Resin, of course, a lot. I scraped it off the top with a lid from under a can and drank it like that. I drank a lot. For a month, probably, he was treated. I returned to my former complexion, and again I took the rifle in my hands. The name Rokhtymov is on the Reichstag. Suddenly you will be there and you will see, I am ...

“I grew up in the city, alone with my parents,” admitted nurse Margarita, “and I couldn’t eat stew from last year’s cabbage. In forty-three, even if you ask anyone, there was a lot of such cabbage. And then I came up with the idea not to fall off, to drink thickly brewed tea before the soup.

They drank water from under pasta and rice, because it is bread, which means it is satisfying. And also salty

The front-line cook George, in order to avoid stomach upsets, brewed wild pears. And he never poured out the rice water, filtered it and poured it into mugs. He did the same with the water in which the pasta was cooked. They drank it separately, because it is bread, which means it is satisfying. And also salty. Why not soup?

- If every day you drink tea in a merchant way (that is, with sugar. - O.I.), - said Senior Lieutenant Timofey, - then the feeling of the holiday is lost. The holiday is coming - and you have already eaten sweets. This is wrong. Not our way. A holiday should be a holiday in every sense...

All my respondents steadfastly endured adversity, caring little for the perishable. And they survived. Should I be discouraged? Moreover, it's time to remember those who provided us with today's well-fed life. Good lesson. Everlasting memory.

During the Great Patriotic War, it was difficult for people to find something more valuable than food. AT besieged Leningrad they ate carpenter's glue, boiled leather belts, looked for last year's frozen root crops, were ready to exchange anything for a piece of bread.

How people ate at the front and in the rear - in the special project "Vesti FM" "Military ration", timed to coincide with Victory Day.

blockade bread

City in the ring. When flour ran out in Leningrad, they began to deliver it along the Road of Life. Bakery workers recall: at some point there was only a third of rye flour in a loaf. The rest - cake, food cellulose, needles, meal - are the remains of oilseed seeds after fat is extracted from them.

On the most difficult days, shells of grains were added to form bread, these sharp fragments injured the esophagus.

Other stories mention that bags from Lake Ladoga were brought wet. They poured out from the middle, the frozen pieces were torn off from the sacking with their hands and ground again in the millstones.

The flour was treated with care. Even flour dust was used, which was swept from the floor.

Front line bakers

Bread of War. Orders military units were carried out as a matter of priority, flour and salt were specially allocated. Veterans of the Moscow battles recalled how the foreman handed out hot bread in the ravine. The soldiers, washing it down with tea, were preparing for a second offensive.

In those places where they could not bring bread from the rear, they got out of the situation - they recalled the experience of their ancestors and made stoves themselves from available materials - clay and brick. Such an oven was built for 8 hours, dried for the same amount, after which it could bake up to 240 kilograms of bread in 5 revolutions, that is, furnace-baking cycles.

In 1943, among the badges of military prowess, the badge "Excellent Baker" appeared. They were awarded to fighters who distinguished themselves by work and inventions that contributed to improving the quality of baking and savings.

Wood glue jelly: a blockade delicacy

Blockade children remembered the dish as a real delicacy. The glue was made from animal bones, so it was edible - it had a lot of gelatin. These dry yellow or grayish tiles were soaked for several days, then boiled: after cooling, the mass solidified.

Bay leaves, cloves, pepper were added to the jelly - for some reason, as they wrote in diaries, in a city where there was no food, there were a lot of spices. It turned out a blockade delicacy - it was considered almost festive dish- glue at some point became a shortage. As they say, the most delicious wood glue jelly was eaten with vinegar.

Carrot tea and ground coffee

Today is a day without tea is hard to imagine. However, during the war, brewing was in short supply. A semblance of a hot drink was made from carrots. The root crop was rubbed on a grater and dried along with chaga - this is such a mushroom. It looks like a growth, most often grows on birch trees. Carrots made the tea sweet. And the chaga gave dark color. Leningrad residents also remember another drink - the blockade "coffee".

Residents of the city went to the burning Badaev warehouses - in the first days of the blockade, they were bombed by the Germans. Stocks of flour and sugar were stored there, so, as they recall, it was a long walk from the ground warm air with the smell of chocolate.

People collected this earth, then dissolved it in water. When it settled, the water was boiled - a sweetish brown liquid was obtained - like weak coffee.

"Makalovka"

In the rear, mothers and grandmothers prepared a simple dish for children: they fried carrots and onions, then they added stew and poured them with water. Bread was dipped into this thick brew. At the front, "makalovka" was also popular. Its composition was usually a little richer - there was lard or oil on which vegetables could be fried. The thick part was divided equally, and bread was dipped into the liquid part in turn.

Sometimes the supply at the front was uneven: during an offensive or protracted battles, food might not be delivered for several days. But then they distributed rations immediately for the entire period. Because the composition of the "makalovka" could be different.

Kulesh: either soup or porridge

Kulesh. Tank crews were fed this dish in the morning before the Battle of Kursk, one of the key battles in the Great Patriotic War. This either thick soup, or liquid porridge included: brisket on the bones or stew, millet, potatoes and onions. First they boiled the meat, then poured millet, coarsely chopped tubers. Onions were fried separately and added at the last moment. In their memoirs, front-line soldiers described kulesh as a very satisfying dish.

rear hodgepodge

This dish was eaten in the Great Patriotic War and hungry post-war years. Sauerkraut and chopped potatoes were placed in a cast iron pot. Filled with water and set to stew. Then fried onions were added. Even from simple, everyday dishes, the hostesses tried to come up with something unusual and tasty. The dish was ennobled with bay leaf and salt.

Another dish is cabbage soup. Judging by the memoirs of Leningrad residents, in the first severe blockade winter in the fields, despite periodic shelling, under a thick layer of snow they looked for the remains of cabbage: some in the collective farm fields, some, according to old memory, on their own and neighbors summer cottages. Shchi was cooked from frozen stalks and leaves at home on potbelly stoves. Apart from cabbage, they usually had nothing in them.