gh REFORMS AFFECT OUR HEALTH

How did the welfare of the nation change after the abolishment of the serfdom? To answer the question one may study, what town dwellers and countryside people ate in Russia in the middle of the 19th up to the beginning of the 20th century. Boris N. Mironov, Doctor of History, leading research assistant at the Institute of Russian History, Russian Academy of Sciences, St.-Petersburg, conducted the research work. He used the data of provincial statistic committees, censuses and polls.

To find out the ration of town-dwellers was not difficult. There is much information about how much food was sold in Russian towns per year. Knowing how many people inhabited each town, one can easily count up the ration per capita. Local food preferences also become clear. For example, St.-Petersburg-dwellers would eat two times more eggs per year, than those, who lived in Kiev (62 to 29 eggs), while Kiev-dwellers consumed three times more fish, than those of the then capital (12 to 4 kg). An average town-dweller ate 600 g grains, 150 g of potatoes, 120 g of vegetables, 120 g of meat and 20 g of fish per day. The ration differed from the one of our days. People consumed less milk, eggs and sugar, but more bread, salt and vodka.

Was all the above mentioned enough for a town-dweller to feel satisfied? Such a ration provided for about 3000 kcal per day. Male adults consumed more than children, women and old people - approximately 4000 kcal per day. 4000-5000 kcal are known to be enough to sustain a male adult of an average build engaged in hard physical labor for about ten up to twelve hours. So everything was OK. And even when in the end of the 19th century the average norm decreased a little bit, it was not a catastrophe.

At the same time the ration of peasants decreased as well. In this case the data are approximate. There were no statistic committees to watch, what peasants ate. They ate, what they grew up. Knowing what the harvests were and subtracting the necessary expanses, one can count up the ration of peasants. During the first several years after the reform there was less bread and potatoes in the ration. But starting from the nineties of the 19th century there was no lack of bread and potatoes and these products were consumed four times more, than in the middle of the century. The problem was that these products were almost the only to make the ration of peasants then. After the reform the former serfs ate two times less meat and milk.

The scientist believes that even a slight deterioration of nourishment and monotonous ration in the first years after the reform managed to affect the health of the nation. It can be measured by the percent of those army conscripts, who were rejected. The percent was constantly growing since the middle of the 19th century up to the beginning of the 20th. Then the requirements to the physical condition of the conscripts were diminished. That did help, but not for long. During the last quarter of the 19th century the percent of those rejected doubled (from 11 up to 22%). The main problem was the small height of the conscripts. The author believes that it was the deterioration of the nourishment during the first years after the reform that was the cause. The situation seemed to start improving in the beginning of the 20th century.

The source: "History of the Fatherland", 2002, №4.

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