72 THE. ZEMSTVOS DURING THE WAR
risen to 187,467,244 rubles.* If we deduct from this the 72,000,000
rubles disbursed during the first year, we obtain an expenditure of
115,266,194 rubles for the second half of 1915, which makes al-
ready an average of 19,000,000 rubles a month. We thus see that
during the third half-year of the War the average monthly expendi-
ture of the Zemstvo Union had increased threefold. For the later
period we have no accurate figures at our disposal, but if we accept
the same rate of increase for the remaining two years of the War,
we obtain an average monthly expenditure of approximately 60,-
000,000 rubles. That this figure is not in the least exaggerated will
be apparent if we bear in mind that in the second half of 1916 the
monthly budgetary expenditure of the committee of the western
front alone amounted to 10,000,000 rubles, and when we consider
that five such committees were in existence at the different fronts.
In addition to this, the Union had to maintain throughout Russia
about 8,000 hospitals, bear the expenses of its hospital trains, exe-
cute the steadily increasing orders of the Army Supply Depart-
ment, etc. If we take into account, furthermore, such amounts as the
Government, unwilling to enhance the importance of the Zemstvo
Union, preferred to pay directly to individual zemstvos for the re-
lief of refugees, orphans, and war invalids, and to fight epidemics,
we find that the total sum of such government appropriations for
both the individual zemstvos and the Union of Zemstvos for the
thirty-eight months of the War must be reckoned, at the very least,
at 1,500,000,000 to 2,000,000,000 rubles. However, it should be
borne in mind that these figures do not yet cover all the undertak-
ings of the Zemstvo Union.
Munitions and War Material.
In the spring of 1915, when it was found that all munitions were
exhausted, so that the practically unarmed Russian army were
forced to retreat under exceptionally difficult conditions, the Zem-
stvo Union thought it its duty to come to the relief of the army by
taking a most active part in the supply of munitions. On June 5,
1915. a conference of zemstvo representatives decided that such
t See financial report of Central Committee for January 1, 1916, in
Kratki Ocherk Degyatelnosti (Outline) of the work of the All-Russian Union
of Zemstvos, Moscow, 1916.
