Russian local government during the war and the Union of Zemstvos

Bibliographic data

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 VIII. Assistance to farming

Collection:: Economics Books

150 THE ZEMSTVOS DURING THE WAR sinister symptoms of serious trouble were becoming apparent. For one thing, the equipment of the peasantry was deteriorating and getting to be less and less serviceable. Then there was the drain upon the labor supply as each successive mobilization took more men from the fields. The consequence was that those who still re- mained were compelled to work to the point of exhaustion. Another difficulty was that in the consuming provinces there was often con- siderable delay in the delivery of the seed provided by the zemstvos. Live stock was growing scarce with the resulting shortage of ma- nure. Mineral fertilizers, ordinarily imported from abroad, could no longer be obtained. It was impossible to obtain a sufficiency of agri- cultural implements, not only expensive machinery, but even the most common tools. There were neither scythes nor sickles, and there was no way of obtaining steel parts for plows and harrows, iron for wagon tires, and nails and leather, so that even ordinary repairs could not be properly executed. In these circumstances it was useless to lease additional land from the large estates, the peas- ant being unable to take care even of his own land. Under these conditions the area cultivated by the peasants was shrinking more and more and gradually coming down to the level of their bare requirements. The peasants were sowing chiefly rye and partially neglecting their spring crops. With increasing frequency one now finds in the zemstvo reports appeals for help, not only for ‘he wives of the soldiers. but for “farms undermined by the war” generally. On the estates of the landlords conditions were even worse. Rents were declining, much land ordinarily leased out to the peasants was now lying fallow, labor was almost unobtainable, and wages were mounting so high as to leave no assurance that the cost of produc- ing the grain could ever be covered. The area under cultivation was shrinking perceptibly. The reports describing these conditions were beginning to appear in the newspapers, often in an exaggerated form, and, coupled with the declining consignments of food to the -ities, began seriously to alarm the public. In the first half of 1916 the Ministry of Agriculture, yielding to the demands of the Unions of Zemstvos and of Towns, at last de- cided to take an agricultural census which would show, among other things, the available supplies of labor and live stock and the area cultivated. The census was taken by the zemstvos in twenty-one dif-

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