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

Usage license:: Get license information via the feedback formular.

Chapter

Document type:: Monograph

Structure type:: Chapter

Title:: Chapter IX. Relief of refugees

Collection:: Economics Books

REFUGEES 175 months which had been appointed for that purpose, but a month or two later, at earliest. It was necessary, therefore, to issue advances, but this could not possibly satisfy all demands and merely tended to introduce a state of nervousness and uncertainty into the whole business. Moreover, there were inexplicable delays in the remittance of such funds as had been appropriated. Thus, on January 16, 1915, a credit of 40,000 rubles had been sanctioned for the governor of Yaroslav, but the money was actually transmitted on March 9; on January 27, the sum of 30,000 rubles was appropriated for the governor of Novgorod, to be forwarded only on February 26; on January 27 the governor of Poltava was allowed the sum of 100,000 rubles, but it was not received until March 2. Numberless instances of this kind might be cited. We have not space to go into the technical details which were responsible for the delays in the approval of estimates at Petrograd. It will be sufficient to point out that any budget was in danger of being rejected by the Special Council on purely formal grounds. The Unions of Zemstvos and of Towns received endless complaints about the lack of funds, while refugees were left for months and months without food and rent allowance, and frequently suffered actual starvation. The local population, who at first had generally shown a hospitable disposition toward the refugees, gradually changed their attitude when they saw that they had to deal with people incapable of paying their rent or buying food. Sorely tried by these clamoring, starving masses, the members of the relief com- mittees simply deserted their posts and refused to discharge their duties. In many districts the situation became desperate and there were fears of disorders and riots. The provincial committee of Ekaterinoslav called the attention of the governor to the total lack of funds and the desperate situation on not less than eighteen dif- ferent occasions between September 1, 1915, and F ebruary 11, 1916. Repeated complaints of a similar nature were being made by the representatives of the unions in the provinces of Tambov, Kos- troma, Samara, Kazan, Simbirsk, and many others. In another respect also the relief work proved exceedingly diffi- cult. At the request of the Duma, all the work of refugee relief had, by the law of August 30, 1915, been handed over to the zemstvos and municipalities, which had been granted full independence in the matter of organizing the work locally. In practice this independence

Access restriction

Copyright

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

Monograph

Chapter

Table of contents

Download

Monograph

Chapter

This page

Image fragment

Citation links

Citation recommendation