ORIGIN AND ORGANIZATION 35 mer being allowed a larger representation in the assemblies. Both these provisions were adopted in order to keep these zemstvos free from Polish control, as many of the great landowners in those lo- calities were Poles. This relatively democratic structure of the zem- stvos in the western provinces was not easily carried through the reactionary upper house (State Council) by the sponsor of the law, the Prime Minister and Minister of the Interior, M. Stolypin. Thus there were already forty-three provinces in European Rus- sia possessing zemstvo institutions when the War began.