152 THE ZEMSTVOS DURING THE WAR
The following instance taken from the district of Moscow, will
make it clear how complex these popular organizations of mutual
assistance sometimes became. Following a conference of the representatives
 of coSperative societies with the district zemstvo board,
the credit association of Durykino, in response to the appeal of the
zemstvo, decided to come to the aid of farms which were suffering
from war conditions. It was joined by eleven local organizations, including
 dairymen’s associations, parochial relief committees, the
zemstvo relief committee, and the committee for the relief of disabled
 soldiers. All these organizations jointly appointed a committee
 which divided the volost of Durykino into ten areas. In each area
a commission was appointed for the purpose of investigating cases
of need and determining the extent of the assistance to be rendered.
Among the members of the commissions were village elders, medical
officers, school teachers, and the clergy. The estimates and the plan
»f relief measures drawn by the commissions were examined and
approved by the Durykino zemstvo relief committee. As a result,
assistance was given to 830 households in forty rural communities.’
In some provinces the organization was better planned and more
sfficient. We have already mentioned the establishment of the volost
aconomic councils in Perm in the spring of 1916. At the close of
July, 1916, the provincial board reported to the provincial -assembly
 of Perm as follows:

According to the testimony of the district board of Kamyshlov, the
hopes of the zemstvo for a more efficient system of relief based on popular
 initiative, as represented by the volost economic councils, were
found to be fully justified. . . . In the opinion of the district board,
the zemstvo ought to follow the same procedure in its further measures
for assisting the farmers. It was ascertained, for instance, in the course
of the sowing operations that all implements, horses, and other facilities
placed at the disposal of the farmers by the zemstvo had been utilized
by the volost economic councils in a thoroughly efficient manner.
Of similar volost councils or committees we read in the reports of
those organizations in the provinces of Ufa, Samara, and Stavropol.
In other localities they were known by different names, but followed
the same plan of work and succeeded in rallying the farmers round
the zemstvos.

5 Isvestia (Bulletin), Nos. 43-44, pp. 182-183.