Russian local government during the war and the Union of Zemstvos

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Monograph

Identifikator:: 1794855874

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-179223

Document type:: Monograph

Author:: Polner, Tichon I. http://d-nb.info/gnd/172311195

Title:: Russian local government during the war and the Union of Zemstvos

Place of publication:: New Haven

Publisher:: Yale Univ. Press

Year of publication:: 1930

Scope:: XXV, 317 S.

Digitisation:: 2022

Collection:: Economics Books

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Chapter

Document type:: Monograph

Structure type:: Chapter

Title:: Chapter V. The Zemstvos and the Zemstvo Union

Collection:: Economics Books

THE ZEMSTVOS AND THE UNION 87 country and supported by the popular representatives,” and that “it 1s necessary to resume at once the work of the legislative institu- tions.” The zemstvo assembly of the province of Kostroma re- affirmed that “the struggle against the enemy can be successful only if the Government is headed by a ministry enjoying the confidence of the people and responsible to the Duma.” The provincial zemstvo assembly of Nizhni-Novgorod insisted on the need of “summoning to the Government such persons as enjoy popular confidence.” Similar resolutions were passed by the provincial zemstvo assemblies of Moscow, Smolensk, Samara, Astrakhan, and a number of other localities. This political movement on the part of the zemstvo and munici- palities, beginning in 1915, was similar to the movement observed at the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth centu- ries, in that it expressed the sentiments of the more moderate circles of Russian society, who, better organized than the other classes, were able to take the initiative in uttering a warning to the authorities. But, as on the previous occasions, the authorities utterly ignored this warning. Just as in 1905, so in 1917, the struggle against the Government was taken up by unorganized popular forces and these forces, suppressed in 1905, succeeded in 1917 in ushering in a lengthy period of revolution. Among other causes of discontent in the zemstvos, we may men- tion the general policy of the Government in the matter of food supply and the organization of provisioning the army, in which institutions of local government were allowed only a secondary part. Later on, no doubt, circumstances forced the authorities to abandon this work to the zemstvos. At the close of 1915 and all through 1916, leaders were often invited to attend various government con- ferences dealing with the problems of food supply (price regula- tion, grain levies, cattle requisitions, and other such matters), but these were not always settled in accordance with the wishes of the zemstvos. How acute the misunderstandings on this ground had be- come, and how keenly some of the zemstvos resented the economic measures of the Government, may be seen from the following reso- lution passed by the provincial zemstvo assembly of Orenburg a month before the outbreak of the Revolution: it declared that “if the Government will not announce, on March 1, 1917, that the vote of the zemstvo shall be decisive, and not merely advisory, in deter-

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