CHAPTER XV 
THE EFFECTS OF THE WAR UPON THE WORK 
OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT 
Financial Difficulties. 
AT the end of 1914 the Government addressed an ordinance to the 
zemstvos and municipalities, suggesting a reduction of expenditure. 
At the same time the Government cut down subsidies that it was al- 
lowing the zemstvos for elementary education, school construction, 
and improvement of agriculture. The Government also reduced the 
grants of working capital to the zemstvo funds (banks). 
Needless to say, the zemstvo assemblies that met in the autumn 
>f 1914 in order to draw up their budgets for 1915, endeavored to 
anforce strict economy, the more so as they had to reckon with new 
expenditure in consequence of the War, for instance on relief of the 
wounded soldiers, assistance to the families of mobilized men, and 
other such measures. They were inspired by the desire to avoid com- 
plications in the future and by characteristic foresight. In spite of 
this, however, most of the zemstvos found it impossible to make sub- 
stantial reductions in their expenditure. An inquiry conducted in 
1915 to which replies were received from 21 provincial and 110 
district zemstvos, showed that those zemstvos which had reduced 
their budgets numbered less than one-half of the total, namely, 10 
provincial and 50 district zemstvos. As for the remaining zemstvos, 
they had even increased their budgets as compared with 1914. 
Judging by newspaper reports, the problem of reducing the 
budgets in view of war-time expenditure was heatedly debated by 
the zemstvo assemblies, and the prevailing opinion was that, having 
regard to the serious difficulties with which the country would have 
to contend as the War progressed, it was the duty of the local gov- 
ernment to make every effort to maintain its economic, cultural, and 
educational institutions, at the level at which they stood when the 
War broke out. It was held that any curtailment in the activities 
of the zemstvos was harmful and that it was likely, by disturbing 
the normal life in the interior of the country, to have an unfavor- 
1 By the editor of the publication Kalendar Spravochnik Zemskago 
Deyatelya (Zemstvo Year Book).