92 THE ZEMSTVOS DURING THE WAR 
ber of trains to each clearing hospital. As this number, however, was 
far from satisfying the actual requirements, the result was that the 
stream of evacuation was soon blocked and the Zemstvo Union was 
compelled to carry on a vigorous campaign for an increase in the 
number of trains serving the clearing hospitals. The results of this 
campaign were that the number of these trains for Moscow in- 
creased from fourteen in September to thirty-one in December; for 
Kharkov, from three to seven in the same period; and at Petrograd. 
from none to twelve. 
The stream of sick and wounded soldiers flowing into the clearing 
hospitals fluctuated greatly. There was a very sharp rise in the 
spring and summer of 1915, the period of severe fighting and of the 
great retreat of the Russian army. The evacuation of a large num- 
ber of hospitals operating in the war zone (Warsaw, Riga, Kovno, 
Grodno, Brest, and Mitau) became necessary. As a rule, about one- 
fourth of all the sick and wounded were given first aid and other 
attention in the vicinity of the front and were not subject to further 
evacuation to the rear. When the hospitals close to the front had 
to be removed, the whole mass of sick and wounded soldiers had to 
be directed to the clearing hospitals. The new crisis was overcome 
more or less successfully, but it required a speedy increase in the 
number of beds in the interior provinces and another change in the 
plan of evacuation. This work was done once more by the Zemstvo 
Union. It was found necessary to open additional hospitals with a 
capacity of 69,000 beds, for which purpose the hospitals which had 
been transferred to the interior were chiefly utilized. The scheme was 
approved by the General Staff, but the figures proposed by the Cen- 
tral Committee of the Union were somewhat reduced. 
At this time steps had moreover to be taken to shift to the interior 
the hospitals of the Union from the provinces of Kiev, Volhynia, 
Podolia, Vitebsk, and Minsk, with a total of about 3,500 beds. 
Accommodation was found for them at Rostov and Voronezh. 
However, the halt in the German offensive made it unnecessary to 
complete the transfer, so that only a very few zemstvo hospitals 
(Baranovichy, Rezhitsa, and Proskurov) were moved from the vi- 
cinity of the front farther into the interior. In the winter there was 
a lull in the evacuation work. Upon the whole, it may be said that 
the number of casualties dealt with by the clearing hospitals in the