War and Peace

part in the first actions of the campaign. It had been neither 
at Pultusk nor at Preussisch-Eylau and, when it joined the 
army in the field in the second half of the campaign, was at-
tached to Platov’s division.
Platov’s division was acting independently of the main 
army. Several times parts of the Pavlograd regiment had 
exchanged shots with the enemy, had taken prisoners, and 
once had even captured Marshal Oudinot’s carriages. In 
April the Pavlograds were stationed immovably for some 
weeks near a totally ruined and deserted German village.
A thaw had set in, it was muddy and cold, the ice on the 
river broke, and the roads became impassable. For days nei-
ther provisions for the men nor fodder for the horses had 
been issued. As no transports could arrive, the men dis-

---

War and Peace
730
persed about the abandoned and deserted villages, searching 
for potatoes, but found few even of these.
Everything had been eaten up and the inhabitants had 
all fledif any remained, they were worse than beggars and 
nothing more could be taken from them; even the soldiers, 
usually pitiless enough, instead of taking anything from 
them, often gave them the last of their rations.
The Pavlograd regiment had had only two men wound-
ed in action, but had lost nearly half its men from hunger 
and sickness. In the hospitals, death was so certain that sol-
diers suffering from fever, or the swelling that came from 
bad food, preferred to remain on duty, and hardly able to 
drag their legs went to the front rather than to the hospitals. 
When spring came on, the soldiers found a plant just show-
ing out of the ground that looked like asparagus, which, for 
some reason, they called ‘Mashka’s sweet root.’ It was very 
bitter, but they wandered about the fields seeking it and dug 
it out with their sabers and ate it, though they were ordered 
not to do so, as it was a noxious plant. That spring a new 
disease broke out broke out among the soldiers, a swelling 
of the arms, legs, and face, which the doctors attributed to 
eating this root. But in spite of all this, the soldiers of Den-
isov’s squadron fed chiefly on ‘Mashka’s sweet root,’ because 
it was the second week that the last of the biscuits were be-
ing doled out at the rate of half a pound a man and the last 
potatoes received had sprouted and frozen.
The horses also had been fed for a fortnight on straw 
from the thatched roofs and had become terribly thin, 
though still covered with tufts of felty winter hair.

---

731
Free eBooks at 
Planet eBook.com
Despite this destitution, the soldiers and officers went on 
living just as usual. Despite their pale swollen faces and tat-
tered uniforms, the hussars formed line for roll call, kept 
things in order, groomed their horses, polished their arms, 
brought in straw from the thatched roofs in place of fod-
der, and sat down to dine round the caldrons from which 
they rose up hungry, joking about their nasty food and 
their hunger. As usual, in their spare time, they lit bonfires, 
steamed themselves before them naked; smoked, picked out 
and baked sprouting rotten potatoes, told and listened to 
stories of Potemkin’s and Suvorov’s campaigns, or to leg-
ends of Alesha the Sly, or the priest’s laborer Mikolka.
The officers, as usual, lived in twos and threes in the 
roofless, half-ruined houses. The seniors tried to collect 
straw and potatoes and, in general, food for the men. The 
younger ones occupied themselves as before, some play-
ing cards (there was plenty of money, though there was no 
food), some with more innocent games, such as quoits and 
skittles. The general trend of the campaign was rarely spo-
ken of, partly because nothing certain was known about it,