ACTIVITIES BEFORE THE WAR 49
vincial zemstvos were included in this union. In the same year the
amount of 532,758 rubles was collected in premiums by this organization,
 while 93,625 rubles was paid out against claims. The funds
were used by the provincial zemstvos not only for the insurance
business proper, but also for various measures of fire prevention, on
which large amounts of money were spent. Most of the zemstvos
supervised the building plans for new settlements with a view to the
reduction of the fire peril, and many other zemstvos issued loans and
paid bonuses for the construction of fireproof buildings, besides establishing
 brickyards and tile works, opening stores to sell iron roofing
 material, and taking other measures useful in the prevention of
fire. In 1915 the insurance organization of the Moscow provincial
zemstvo alone sold 1,281,215 puds of iron roofing. Four provincial
zemstvos, those of Tambov, Simbirsk, Novgorod, and Saratov, had
special schools to demonstrate fireproof buildings. Extensive construction
 of fireproof school buildings served to popularize the idea.
These activities of the zemstvos were frequently financed by the
Government.
The zemstvos exerted themselves greatly to form fire brigades in
the rural districts. During the three-year period, 1912-1914, they
spent 2,138,658 rubles on the purchase of fire-extinguishing apparatus.
 Thanks to all these measures of prevention, the ravages
that fire had been causing among the houses of the peasantry were
being rapidly reduced.

Road Construction and Maintenance.
The care of the roads, with the exception of some state highways
ander the direct administration of the Ministry of Transport, was
left to the zemstvos. For a long time this branch of their activities
made very slow progress. Only after 1895, with the passage of a law
authorizing the zemstvos to establish a special road fund, and later,
when a portion of the government funds appropriated for road construction
 and upkeep was turned over to the zemstvos, did the latter
proceed more energetically with the improvement of the public highways.
 In 1913 the provision made for this purpose by the budgets of
all the zemstvos amounted already to 17,500,000 rubles.
In the same year, the network of roads under the control of the
zemstvos attained a total length of 189,682 versts.® These included
8 One verst = 0.7 mile.