Very often people were called into our service who were completely unsuitable in their scientific training and unworthy in their moral qualities. The documents preserved in our archives provide many interesting details. After reading them, we can be convinced of how frivolously and unconscionably we treated the choice of foreigners who expressed a desire to instruct us wisely.
There were examples that a foreigner who had just been recruited into the service, whom no one had yet managed to recognize, was given the authority to invite, at his discretion, other foreigners to the Russian service?).
There are no exact connections! It is difficult to say anything reliable about the number of foreigners who served in the Engineering Troops under Peter the Great. What is known is that there were quite a few of them, that they all enjoyed the special favor of the government, received good support and owned estates, entire volosts “in feeding.” Lower rank foreigners were also exempt from guard duty.
1) P.S. Zak. R.I. t. [No. M, No. 1910. 2) Mater. for History Artil. Ex. in Russia, N. E. Brandenburg, 1876
In general, one cannot but reproach our government of that time for the fact that it trusted foreigners too much, did not know how to benefit from them, and did not take timely measures to stop the evil that foreigners caused us.
The public knowledge of that time about foreigners serving in Russia was expressed especially clearly in the note submitted by No-° Soshkov to the Sovereign in 1701 (the original manuscript “0 rapyom behavior” is kept in the Public Library published in 1842).
This note says: “I am truly the Sovereign, little by little I was amazed and was not puzzled to say: Nmitsyr are wise and truthful, but teach everything in untruth. They should protect and exalt themselves and their brothers, but not regard us at all.... They are not direct to us for the sake of goodwill and teaching, and25 it is not very necessary to believe, I think, that in every way they will deceive us and turn us into complete fools.”
1712 For the first time, on February 8, 1712, the staffs for the miner company for the Engineering and Pontoon units were approved by the Highest (see Appendix [).
The miners corresponded to the Field Engineer Troops of the present time, and the Engineers did not constitute a special corps at that time. “Engineering knowledge” was looked at as free art and as additional random qualities of a person. It was possible to be an artilleryman, a cavalryman and a lawyer and, at the same time, an engineer. So, according to the state of 1712, Engineers were listed under the Field Artillery! There, among other things, it is said: “Engineers who do not have a rank in the artillery are given a salary, against the rest of the regiment officers.” On June 23, 1712, additional salaries were assigned to 3 engineers serving in the cavalry and 2 engineers in the army.
According to the states on February 8, 1712, the Mineral Company consisted of 3 chief officers (1 captain, 1 lieutenant and 1 second lieutenant) and 72 lower ranks.
The officers received only one salary, the salaries of which were about half of those currently existing, namely:
a O o k a o JUICE -IOVUSIE V ria s congestion ns and r
Compared to other officers of that time, salaries in the Mineral Company were slightly less than in the Artillery!) (Capital
1) On the states on February 8, 1712, it was written in the Emperor’s own hand “To the Russian artillery servants and officers against the Russians, to foreigners against foreigners, a degree above the salary.”
sy the tan received 300 rubles), the same as for foreign officers of the cavalry and field infantry (according to the states on February 19, 1711) and too twice the salary of Russian officers of the last two branches of arms (Captain of the Russian infantry received 100 rubles) 1).
[fragment illegible in the scan of the first edition]
other types of weapons, namely: Salaries per year:
| Cavalier. | Pzhot. Miner. OVR: oka ao. 12. | 2 18.
| PRIVATE wants noses No. | 10.r: 96 k. | 19r.20k.
So, we see that the salary of an ordinary miner was twice as much as that of a sapper, pontooner or telegraph operator at the present time.
In addition to the salary, all ranks of the Mineral Company received raschons, which corresponds to the current food supply; when they were outside the prey of the Empire, they also received raschons. One portion consisted daily of: bread - 2 lb., meat - 1 lb., wine - 2 glasses and beer - 1 garnets; per month they were given: salt - 2 Ff., cereals - 1! garnetsa. In addition, the apartments provided “service, vinegar, firewood, candles and bedding.” One ration per day consisted of oats—2 garnets and one sheaf of straw.
HOUSEHOLD