ORIGIN AND ORGANIZATION 17

provinces of the Empire. None were established in Siberia, Turkestan,
 the Caucasus, Trans-Caucasia, Poland, the Baltic provinces,
and the Cossack territories. Nine provinces in the west and northwest,
 where many of the big landlords were Poles, were also denied
zemstvo government. But even where the zemstvos were established
they were considered “not as links in the machinery of government,
nor as authoritative organs of public law, but as private corporate
associations formed in order to satisfy such local interests as are
distinct from the interests of the State.”
This way of regarding the zemstvos as mere civil law corporations
competent to concern themselves only “with local benefits and
needs,” as the law put it, persisted in government circles till the
revolution of 1905, serving as a source of incessant recriminations
and conflicts between zemstvo and government. This was inevitable
because the activity of the zemstvos, even though carried on within
the limits of their own particular districts or provinces, was essentially
 of nation-wide importance and rested upon principles far
exceeding the narrow confines of the “local benefits and needs”
deliberately imposed by the Government.
The competence of the zemstvo institutions was wide from the
outset, nevertheless. The law of 1864 left to the zemstvos the charge
of public education, health, welfare, agricultural development,
stock-breeding, trade, industry, construction and upkeep of roads,
bridges, and harbors, fire insurance and measures of fire prevention,
 food supply, local postal service, and similar matters. In
short, there was hardly a branch of local activity that was left outside
 the competence of the zemstvo.
In addition to the care for local needs, the zemstvos were entrusted
 with a number of duties and obligations of an official nature.
Thus, they were required to maintain Jails, pay the expenses of
traveling police authorities and judiciary officials, and assume other
similar responsibilities. In case of war the zemstvos were obliged to
assist the families of men called to the colors from the reserve, in
accordance with regulations provided by law. The zemstvos were
empowered, moreover, to issue certain ordinances of a police character,
 and, upon confirmation by the government administration.
these ordinances acquired all the force of laws.
® Kisevetter, Mestnoe Samoupravlenie (Local Government), Moscow,
1910