L60 THE ZEMSTVOS DURING THE WAR
increase in the number of refugees. They appeared not only in the
south but also in the north, so that on June 2 and 11, 1915, con-
ferences of the two unions were called at Smolensk to consider the
situation and draft plans to meet the emergency. At that time the
unions were the only organizations capable of handling the prob-
lem of refugees. The Zemstvo Union in particular had at its dis-
posal a dense network of organs at the front and in the immediate
rear of the army working effectively among the civilian population
and providing them not only with medical assistance, but also with
food. It was natural, therefore, that the first and most difficult steps
in caring for the refugees should have been left to the initiative of
the unions. After the month of June the civil and military authori-
ties began to appeal to the Central Committee of the Zemstvo Union
to take charge of this entire work. In view of the vast expenditure
involved, the zemstvos, as well as the local committees of the Union,
asked for immediate instructions concerning the methods of work.
The Central Committee promptly responded to this urgent demand
and directed its organization at the front to take whatever meas-
ures might be necessary. At the request of the Central Committee,
the Government allocated for the use of the Zemstvo Union con-
siderable funds to meet the initial expenditure.
About the middle of June the movement of the refugees assumed
a mass character. The action of local officials and sometimes even the
direct orders of the army authorities undoubtedly played a part in
the size of the movement. Some of the army commanders had no
hesitation in ordering wholesale destruction on the theory that the
advancing enemy must find nothing but a desert. Moreover, army
authorities felt a strong distrust of certain groups of the popula-
tion, especially the Jews, and at one time expelled all persons of
Jewish faith from a zone twenty miles wide adjoining the front.
However, even such measures cannot fully explain the wholesale
character of the refugee movements; the fact is that vast masses of
refugees left their home spontaneously, in fear of the enemy’s in-
vasion. Many of these settled down immediately behind the war
zone, hoping for Russian victories which would permit them to re-
turn at an early date to their abandoned homes. This class of refu-
gees would often pitch their camps in forests at considerable dis-
tances from inhabited places; others, again, would pour into the
cities, villages, and railway stations. At times they represented en-
