ORIGIN AND ORGANIZATION 33 
The attitude of the Government toward the zemstvo likewise 
changed after the revolution of 1905. This was due, on the one 
hand, to the fact that the political disposition of the zemstvos them- 
selves was now more to the taste of the Government, and on the 
other, to the fact that there was now a Duma. As the Duma had be- 
come the national arena of the political struggle, the political ac- 
tion of the zemstvo assemblies lost all importance and came to a 
standstill.’ Besides, in the four decades of their existence, the zem- 
stvos had won so conspicuous a place in the organization of the 
empire and had become so closely knit with the administration of 
the whole country that it would have been idle to think of restricting 
or abolishing them. Thus it came about that, after the revolution of 
1905, at the same time that a constitutional régime was made the 
basis of the Russian Empire, the zemstvos won the unconditional 
and definite recognition of the Government. 
The Zemstvos after 1905. 
During the interval between the revolution of 1905 and 1917 the 
zemstvos developed vigorously in many different branches of eco- 
nomic and cultural life. This, as above indicated, was now facili- 
tated by the better relations established with the Government and by 
the special attention that was paid to their needs by the Duma. It 
is true, up to the World War the conservative majorities of the 
Third and Fourth Dumas were not eager to promote any radical 
reform of the rather obsolete basic principles of zemstvo administra- 
tion ;° but they were nevertheless in favor of the principle of local 
government and persuaded the Government to extend financial sup- 
port to existing zemstvos and to establish new ones in provinces 
where none as yet existed. 
The financial subsidies from the Government took the form of 
very liberal appropriations for agronomic assistance to the peas- 
antry and of special funds for the rural and urban local government 
bodies, to enable them to provide enough schools for an ultimately 
Only in 1916 did the zemstvos again commence political action, being 
driven to this by the entirely abnormal political situation that arose during 
the War. 
‘ The first two Dumas intended to introduce radical zemstvo reforms, to 
be based on universal suffrage. This plan was frustrated by their dissolu- 
tion.