CHAPTER II 
ACTIVITIES OF THE ZEMSTVO INSTITUTIONS 
ON THE EVE OF THE WAR 
Revenue and Expenditure. 
In 1918 the territory in which the zemstvo institutions functioned 
covered an area of 3,200,000 square versts," with a population of 
112,500,000, of whom 98,200,000 were rural. The whole of Euro- 
pean and Asiatic Russia, excluding Finland, had an area of 18,- 
B00,000 square versts, with a population of 170,900,000. 
The budget of all the provincial and district zemstvos in the forty- 
three provinces possessing these institutions amounted to 347,512,- 
000 rubles in 1914. The zemstvo revenues were derived from the fol- 
lowing sources? 
Revenue in 191). 
Taxation: 
Land and forests 
Urban real estate 
Factories and other property outside cities 
Total revenues from real estate 
Government subventions 
Other revenues 
Grand Total 
In rubles 
Percentage 
142,543,000 
21,353,000 
86.224.000 
42.4 
6.4 
10.8 
59.6 
20.1 
20.3 
886.373.0000 100.0 
We have already had occasion to point out how rapidly the finan- 
cial support of the zemstvos by the Government increased after the 
revolution of 1905. Quite insignificant as late as 1908, the govern- 
ment subsidies in 1914 already amounted to one-fifth of all the reve- 
nues. Still, the principal source of revenue remained the same as it 
had been at the time the zemstvos were established ; that is, taxation 
of land and forests (42.4 per cent). 
1 One square mile = 2.7 square versts. 
* These figures cover forty out of the forty-three zemstvo provinces.