WORK OF THE UNION 
ment for the institutions maintained by the Zemstvo Union, and 
14,151,970 rubles worth of drugs, to be bought in the Russian and 
foreign markets.” 
By this time, the Zemstvo Union had opened two factories of its 
own at Moscow for the manufacture of drugs. One of them, which 
employed seven hundred hands representing twelve different 
workers’ guilds, produced 4,000,000 rubles worth of goods a year 
at prices 15 to 40 per cent lower than the market prices. Another 
chemical work, converted from a brewery bought by the zemstvo, 
began to function in July, 1916. Expanding gradually and in- 
creasing its output under the management of the best chemists 
available, this plant was able by July, 1917, to manufacture 800,- 
000 rubles worth of goods every month. 
The scarcity of medical supplies during the War was so acute 
that many of the zemstvos were unable to dispense with the assist- 
ance of the Union not only for the war hospitals but even for their 
regular peace-time hospitals. How extensively this help was given to 
them will become apparent from the fact that by 1916 more than 
three-quarters of all the zemstvos were receiving their medical goods 
from the Central Committee of the Union. 
This experience stimulated many of the zemstvo boards to con- 
template the maintenance of zemstvo associations for the common 
purchase of medical supplies also in peace time. On June 10-12, 
1916, a number of conferences were held by the Central Committee 
of the Zemstvo Union to discuss this subject, and were attended by 
150 representatives from the provinces. As such an undertaking re- 
quired, however, formal resolutions of the zemstvo assemblies, it was 
impossible to carry out the plan before the Revolution. 
Evacuation of Wounded and Sick Soldiers. 
Large masses of sick and wounded soldiers had been passing 
through the important railway junctions from the very first day of 
the War. In the overwhelming majority of cases these men were 
traveling from the front under very bad conditions. The evacuation 
authorities of the Ministry of War had at their disposal about 
twenty magnificent hospital trains, each of them having cost hun- 
? Izvestia (Bulletin) of the Central Committee of the All-Russian Union 
of Zemstvos, Moscow, 1917, Nos. 54-55, p. 185.