B2 THE ZEMSTVOS DURING THE WAR
tions.* With the cooperative societies the zemstvos established very
close contact both in Moscow and all over the country, working hand
in hand wherever the opportunity presented itself.
There was a scarcity of suitable persons to direct local work and
this was one of the main obstacles to the development of the undertakings
 of the zemstvos. Service with the army, both voluntary and
compulsory, proved a severe drain on the supply of energetic and
intelligent workers, of whom there had always been too few in the
Russian villages. This is why the zemstvos were sometimes compelled
 to abandon the very idea of establishing their own organs
within the districts. Whenever it was possible, they utilized the services
 of the volost committee for the relief of families of mobilized
men. But the difficulty was that in many localities relations between
the zemstvo and the government officials were not sufficiently cordial
to permit proper coSperation.
The number of volost and village committees varied greatly in
the different sections of the country. Moreover, all these organs were
somewhat unstable; they would come into existence only to disappear
 again shortly; and, besides, there had never been anything like
a proper enumeration or registration of them. We are, however,
able to furnish data obtained by an inquiry made on June 25, 1916,
in fifty-two districts. In forty-nine of these there were found volost
committees created under the law of June 25, 1912. In fifteen districts
 no other organizations of this kind were found and the zemstvos
 were compelled to operate with their assistance. In ten districts
 there existed, apart from the committees mentioned above, only
the parish committees, and it was only in two districts that the
zemstvos succeeded in utilizing the cooperation of these agencies.
Three districts had nothing but zemstvo institutions. For the
twenty-four districts which had both kinds of organizations, the inquiry
 furnished complete and detailed figures. There were 576 committees
 of relief established under the law of June 25, 1912, making
an average of twenty-four per district.
As long as the work was of a charitable character, it was possible
to carry it on with this motley organization. But when it became a
matter of stemming the decline of agriculture and fighting the high
* See Kayden and Antsiferov, The Cobperative Movement in Russia during
 the War (Yale University Press, 1929) in this series of the Economic
and Social History of the World War.