80 THE ZEMSTVOS DURING THE WAR 
the non-Russian nationalities (a government official), representa- 
tives of the clergy, the Red Cross, and of some of the Asiatic tribes. 
The district committees were more uniform in composition, as the 
district centers naturally had a much smaller variety of institutions 
and of educational and charitable organizations, and, generally 
speaking, included fewer persons willing and able to assist the Un- 
ion in its activities. In many districts the duties of the committees 
of the Zemstvo Union were performed entirely by the district zem- 
stvo boards, who would enlist in the service any person that might 
prove useful. There were, however, a large number of district com- 
mittees of the Zemstvo Union specially created. Thus, for instance, 
in the provinces of Astrakhan, Kostroma, Nizhni-Novgorod, Penza, 
Stavropol, Ufa, and Yaroslav, committees of the Union were or- 
ganized from the very beginning of the War in every district, while 
in the provinces of Vitebsk, Simbirsk, Smolensk, and some others, 
such committees were established in a majority of districts. 
Institutions for Smaller Areas. 
The mobilization of the public forces of Russia by the zemstvos 
did not, however, confine itself to this. As the problems presented 
by the War continually increased both in number and complexity, 
the movement spread and affected wider and wider circles of the 
population. The district was still too large a unit. It formed on the 
average a territory of about 8,000 square versts with a population 
of over 200,000. Each district, it is true, was divided into twenty- 
five to thirty-five volosts with their own self-governing institutions 
for the peasantry, for purposes of police and tax collection. But 
these organs did not include among their members intellectuals of 
the non-peasant class, and they were, moreover, under the strict con- 
trol of the officials of the central administration. 
These institutions were found unsuitable for efficient public work. 
Besides, the Government itself, by the law of June 25, 1912, had 
charged, not the volost administrations, but special volost relief 
committees (popechitelstvo) formed in the event of mobilization, 
with the duty of looking after the needs of the families of mobilized 
men. The law permitted educated residents of the volost outside the 
peasant class to work on these committees. The latter, however, were 
not everywhere organized in 1914, and, where they did exist, they 
sometimes showed little initiative; not to mention the fact, that, liv-