102 THE ZEMSTVOS DURING THE WAR 
by the Zemstvo Union, local zemstvos, or sometimes at the joint ex- 
pense of the two. If we take all the hospitals established by the Zem- 
stvo Union, irrespective of their means of support, we find the larg- 
est number in rural districts, a smaller number in the district towns 
and fewest of all in the chief towns of the provinces. However, the 
provincial hospitals were larger, with an average of 106 beds; next 
came the district hospitals, averaging 74.8 beds; and the smallest 
were the rural hospitals, where the average number of beds was 43. 
Accordingly, the total number of beds maintained by the zemstvos 
in the chief towns of the provinces will be found much larger than 
in the district towns or rural localities. The exact figures covering 
1,729 hospitals opened during the War were as follows: 
Distribution of War-Time Zemstoo Hospitals. 
Percentage Average 
of total number of 
number beds per 
of beds hospital 
“0.2 106.0 
1.9 74.3 
£8.9 43.0 
100.0 68.4 
6 
Total 1,729 
100.0 
At the outset it was expected that the hospitals would be main- 
tained by the organizations providing the money for their equip- 
ment. As the War dragged on, however, many organizations, pri- 
vate persons, and even local zemstvos began to find the financial 
burden unbearable and were forced to seek the aid of the Zemstvo 
Union. In the second year of the War 88 per cent of all zemstvo 
hospital beds were already being maintained either entirely or in 
part with funds received by the Union from the Government. 
Most of the hospitals opened by the zemstvos in the chief towns 
of the province or district were not far away from the railway sta- 
tions; as a rule, not more than two miles distant. In the rural lo- 
calities, however, about one-half of all the hospitals were at a con- 
siderable distance from the stations, at times even as much as twenty 
miles. In these cases the transfer of the sick and wounded was 
greatly complicated, especially since so many of these hospitals 
could be reached only by very bad country roads which became im-