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 XII. The Central Committee of the union of Zemstvos in the third year of the war

Collection:: Economics Books

THE ZEMSTVOS DURING THE WAR The Legal Problem. The question of legalizing the Zemstvo Union did not arise in practice for a long time. The Union had come into existence with- out anybody’s permission, as a temporary organization in connec- tion with the needs of the War. In the opinion of the authorities, an opinion which had behind it the weight of historical tradition, the zemstvos should have been permitted to provide for the needs of the local residents only. All that the law authorized the zemstvos to do was to combine among themselves for the purpose of satisfying more effectively by joint action these purely local needs (for in- stance by the reinsurance union, the union for the purchase of iron, and so on). The All-Russian Union of Zemstvos constituted for an altogether different object of a national character, obviously did not fall within these narrow definitions. The Union existed without a statute sanc- tioned by the legislative power. An ordinance of the Minister of the Interior instructed the provincial governors to place no obstacles in the way of a discussion by zemstvo assemblies of problems connected with the working of the Zemstvo Union and to refrain from protest- ing against the assignment of funds to the treasury of the Union. This was well enough. But the trouble was that another ordinance from the same Minister might at any moment arbitrarily change this situation. Given the mutual relations of the Union and the Ministry of the Interior, one might have thought that the Union would have taken every possible measure to place itself upon a strictly legal basis, and under normal conditions only such a basis could have as- sured it safe and unmolested existence, free from any risk of arbi- trary action by the Minister. In Russia, however, practice differed greatly from such theory, and if the Union was able to win the right to exist at all, it was only thanks to its actual performances. Whether the bureaucracy liked it or not, it had to reconcile itself to the ex- istence of the Union, and not only was it powerless to change the situation, but in many instances it was even forced to seek the help of the Union and to assign to it hundreds of millions of rubles from the Treasury. In these circumstances the vague legal status of the Union was bound to have some very useful aspects. After all, what was there that the Union could possibly gain by legislation? Nothing more by . 6

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