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 XV. The effects of the war upon the work of local government

Collection:: Economics Books

300 THE ZEMSTVOS DURING THE WAR lecting only 1,160,000 rubles between January and July, 1918, as against the estimated revenue of 23,700,000 rubles.’ A partial idea of the growth of the zemstvo budgets during 1918 may be gained when we consider the position of the Odessa zemstvo, which raised its 1918 budget to 4,377,000 rubles, thus exceeding the budget of the preceding year by some 3,000,000 rubles. In this con- nection it is worth noting the fact that the cost of administration alone increased fourfold within that year. The indebtedness of the zemstvos was mounting rapidly. The provincial zemstvo of Khar- kov, for example, owed on January 1, 1918, 19,000,000 rubles of which 6,000,000 had been contracted during the autumn of 1917. Service of debts formed one of the principal items of expenditure in the zemstvo budgets for 1918. Thus, in the budget of the provincial zemstvo of Kharkov for 1918, totaling 23,700,000 rubles, service of debt amounted to 4,300,000 rubles, that is, more than one-sixth of the total budget. In the budget of the district zemstvo of Uman we find a debt of 427,500 rubles as against 92,500 in the previous year. [t would be easy to multiply these examples. The food supply opera- tions of the zemstvos, in which hundreds of millions of rubles were invested and which had shown no loss in 1915 and 1916, were giving rise to enormous deficits in 1917, and there were no sources from which these losses could be met. Under these truly hopeless conditions, some of the zemstvos de- cided upon a last desperate measure and issued appeals to the pub- lic asking for financial support. The provincial zemstvo of Cherni- gov, for example, issued an appeal to the public, asking them to pay local taxes regularly, to enable it to maintain schools, hospitals, and other important institutions. The provincial zemstvo of Perm sug- gested the floating of a zemstvo loan, for otherwise, the appeal de- clared, “it will be necessary either to mortgage the property of the zemstvo or to close down the schools, hospitals and other institu- tions.” Needless to say, appeals of this nature, dictated by despair, had no effect. It was becoming clear that, if they were to tide over the grave financial crisis produced by the War and aggravated by the Revolution, the zemstvos would have either to issue bonds se- cured on zemstvo property and guaranteed by the Government, or to be taken over temporarily by the Government and maintained at its expense. Neither of these courses, however, was adopted, for the 5 In 1918 the province of Kharkov was not yet occupied by the Red Army

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