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

80 THE ZEMSTVOS DURING THE WAR the non-Russian nationalities (a government official), representa- tives of the clergy, the Red Cross, and of some of the Asiatic tribes. The district committees were more uniform in composition, as the district centers naturally had a much smaller variety of institutions and of educational and charitable organizations, and, generally speaking, included fewer persons willing and able to assist the Un- ion in its activities. In many districts the duties of the committees of the Zemstvo Union were performed entirely by the district zem- stvo boards, who would enlist in the service any person that might prove useful. There were, however, a large number of district com- mittees of the Zemstvo Union specially created. Thus, for instance, in the provinces of Astrakhan, Kostroma, Nizhni-Novgorod, Penza, Stavropol, Ufa, and Yaroslav, committees of the Union were or- ganized from the very beginning of the War in every district, while in the provinces of Vitebsk, Simbirsk, Smolensk, and some others, such committees were established in a majority of districts. Institutions for Smaller Areas. The mobilization of the public forces of Russia by the zemstvos did not, however, confine itself to this. As the problems presented by the War continually increased both in number and complexity, the movement spread and affected wider and wider circles of the population. The district was still too large a unit. It formed on the average a territory of about 8,000 square versts with a population of over 200,000. Each district, it is true, was divided into twenty- five to thirty-five volosts with their own self-governing institutions for the peasantry, for purposes of police and tax collection. But these organs did not include among their members intellectuals of the non-peasant class, and they were, moreover, under the strict con- trol of the officials of the central administration. These institutions were found unsuitable for efficient public work. Besides, the Government itself, by the law of June 25, 1912, had charged, not the volost administrations, but special volost relief committees (popechitelstvo) formed in the event of mobilization, with the duty of looking after the needs of the families of mobilized men. The law permitted educated residents of the volost outside the peasant class to work on these committees. The latter, however, were not everywhere organized in 1914, and, where they did exist, they sometimes showed little initiative; not to mention the fact, that, liv-

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