Cooking on the Soviet Homefront during WWII - See Pinned Comment. Nastoi Khvoi 14:45

Nastoi Khvoi

A bit of history about the people in the Soviet Union pre and during WW2.


https://dokumen.pub/hunger-and....-war-food-provisioni

Not by Bread Alone 73 Open twenty-­four hours a day to accommodate workers on different shifts, the crèche served almost three times as many children as it was designed for, but both mothers and babies w ­ ere in good condition.60 The nutritional supplements and childcare offered by the factories enabled women to work, and to feed themselves and their children. The u­nion factory committees (zavkomy) also helped the families of workers who ­were mobilized into the army, providing material aid and wood for fuel.61

The factories thus became survival centers, feeding municipal employees, officials, evacuees, parents, children, and families of soldiers and workers. And while all these groups w ­ ere in desperate need of help, they depleted the stocks available for workers.

The lack of food and narrow diet took a toll on the health of workers. Industrial towns in poor agricultural areas in the east and far north w ­ ere hit especially hard by the reduction in central deliveries. Workers every­ where suffered from edema and other symptoms of dystrophy.

In Fac­ tory No. 200 in Cheliabinsk, the head of the u­ nion’s factory committee and factory doctor wrote a panicked letter in February 1943 to Shvernik, the head of the VTsSPS, about high rates of illness and death, especially among workers h­ oused in dormitories and dependent on the canteens: We have an increase of cases of protein-­deficiency edemas, vitamin deficiency, and dystrophy of the I and II degrees, leading to a high rate of illness and death, especially among single workers living in the dormitories. If mea­sures are not taken quickly to improve the feeding of single workers and those with dystrophy, then we will come to a catastrophic position with the labor force because the factory is already very short of workers.

They pled with Shvernik to find a dependable source оf food and vitamin C so that the factory committee might provide two meals a day for the factory’s 1,600 workers, and special supplements for those in various stages of starvation.62 In 1943, the state launched a major campaign to use a variety of “in­ vented” foods to supplement the diet.


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Pine needle extract (nastoi khvoi), a bitter concoction made from boiled pine needles containing high amounts of vitamin C, was used as a “juice” to counteract scurvy.

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Scientists searching for protein additives discovered yeast extract (belkovye drozhzhi), and canteen cooks began adding tons of the foul-­tasting stuff to soups and foods. Unions or­ga­nized workers in large groups to gather edible wild greens, including sorrel, nettles, and dandelion leaves, with high nutri­ tional value. The Union of  Workers in Pubic Catering (rop) taught cooks to boil down the starchy water left after cooking potatoes and to create a variety of jelly-­l ike “desserts” by adding sugar to the potato starch (krakh­mal).

In Moscow, rop members produced eighty-­seven tons of potato starch extract, which was then distributed to the factory canteens.

Canteen cooks also made jelly (kisel) from water used to boil beets and other vegetables. rop members took state-­sponsored cooking courses in the use of these new “foods,” which generally tasted badly but provided a much-­needed supplement. rop sent recipes to canteens throughout the country.63 Subsidiary Far ms, Gar dening, and Decentr alized Stocks By early 1942, it was clear that central state stocks distributed through the Commissariat of Trade could not cover the food needs of the urban population; even defense workers w ­ ere suffering from malnutrition.

Mo­ bilizing the Commissariat of Trade and the ­unions, the state launched a campaign to develop local sources of food, including subsidiary farms, gardens, and decentralized purchasing. On January 5, 1942, the VTsSPS issued two decrees. The first established collective factory gardens for canteens; the second made small plots available to individuals.64 In February, the Commissariat of Trade established Departments of Work­ ers’ Provisioning (Otdely Rabochego Snabzheniia, or ORSy) in leading defense, coal, chemical, and ferrous metallurgical enterprises. As food provisioning shifted from retail stores to canteens, ORSy ­were created as an administrative extension of the Commissariat of Trade in the factories. By linking factories with local trade organizations, it aimed to improve provisioning for workers, to ensure full delivery of allocated stocks, and to procure additional sources of food.

The Commissariat of Trade or­ga­nized approximately 2,000 ORSy in 1942. By the end of 1944, ORSy managed 30,000 subsidiary farms, and by January 1945, 7,000 ORSy served almost half of the population covered by the rationing system.65 Active in local food procurement, ORSy established fishing brigades, gardens, and piggeries, and contracted with state and collective farms, and local food pro­cessors. Their activities varied widely by re­ gion.66 In some industrial centers, ORSy took over the stores once run by town trade departments.67

In Irkutsk, the ors cooperated with party, ­union, and trade officials, and the directors of the town’s industrial enter­ prises to develop a plan for provisioning and to gather 33,000 tons of potatoes and vegetables from the surrounding area. In many factories, ORSy created subsidiary enterprises, including potteries, coopers, and workshops for sewing, furniture, building materials, leather, and baked ­ ere also charged with goods to serve the needs of the workers.

ORSy w reor­ga­niz­ing food procurement in the newly liberated territories where agriculture, industry, and infrastructure lay in ruins.69 On April 7, 1942, Sovnarkom and the Central Committee directed local organs to transfer all unused state land around the towns to facto­ ries and other institutions for subsidiary farms and personal gardens.70 The number of subsidiary farms increased rapidly. Many factories re­ ceived land in time for spring sowing and ­were able to gather a harvest in the fall. Piggeries, which proved especially easy to maintain, accounted for one-­quarter of all subsidiary farms attached to canteens. The subsid­ iary farms made an important contribution to factory canteens, allowing many enterprises to provision workers with their own potatoes and vege­ tables without drawing on central state stocks.71 The state, aiming to ?????

 ​The practice of attaching land to factories for farming and animal husbandry was not new. The party promulgated the policy in 1939 at the Eigh­teenth Party Congress, endorsing the creation of farms and gardens around industrial centers to supplement meat, milk, and vegetables for retail stores and factory canteens.