22 THE ZEMSTVOS DURING THE WAR 
The path of the zemstvos was difficult. First and foremost among 
the many obstacles they had to contend with were the inertia and in- 
difference of the people themselves. These looked askance upon the 
enterprises started by the zemstvos. Unable as yet to realize the need 
of education, they refused to let their children go to school; in case 
of sickness they continued to appeal to quacks and charlatans for 
help ; and, adhering to traditional agricultural policy, they had only 
ridicule and distrust for the expert advice of trained agronomists 
placed at their service. More than two decades of persistent and un- 
tiring effort were required before the people became at last im- 
pressed with the advantages of education and progress. 
During this period of pioneering activity the zemstvos were able 
to elaborate certain definite principles and methods for their further 
work. Among these, we mention the two following, which were 
adopted by all zemstvos, although not always consistently adhered 
to: (1) the substitution of a money tax for the services in kind which 
had survived from the period of serfdom (corvée labor), and (2) 
the institution of gratuitous service to the population, and, above 
all, of free elementary education and medical relief. 
In their constructive activities, the progressive workers of the 
zemstvos found themselves compelled to wage incessant struggle 
within the zemstvo assemblies. Here, there were at first a consider- 
able proportion of reactionary deputies who were determined to op- 
pose the effort to educate the mass of the people and who looked with 
disapproval on cultural enterprises of any kind. This element was 
composed largely of the older landlords who had owned serfs before 
the emancipation, who favored the former order of things and 
would have liked to see serfdom restored. Death and replacement by 
younger men, however, were taking their natural toll of these depu- 
ties as time went on, gradually changing the character of the assem- 
blies ; but as late as the nineties it was still possible to meet, side by 
side with zemstvos that had managed to introduce almost universal 
education (certain districts in the provinces of Vyatka and Tver, 
the district of Berdyansk in the province of Taurida, and others), 
others that had contrived, in the thirty long years of their existence, 
to open not more than half a dozen elementary schools (this was the 
case, for instance, in some of the districts in the province of Pskov).