The Russian Series was in the first instance planned by one of the 
most distinguished of Russian scholars who had long been a resident 
of England, Sir Paul Vinogradoff, Corpus Professor of Jurispru- 
dence at the University of Oxford. To the planning of the Series Sir 
Paul gave much time and thought. His untimely death in December, 
1925, prevented him from seeing its fruition or from assuming the 
editorial responsibility for the texts. Nevertheless, the Series as a 
whole remains substantially as he had planned it. 
The present volume presents a unique chapter in the history of 
the World War and, indeed, a unique chapter in human history. 
Most of the other volumes in this collection deal either with national 
organization and administration or else with the effects of the War 
upon social and economic life. This deals with both. By a paradox 
the very inadequacy of the Russian Imperial Government in eco- 
nomic and social matters threw back upon the organs of local self- 
government, especially the zemstvos, the task of improvising what 
might be termed an auxiliary supply organization. The service thus 
inaugurated became almost a state within a state and the register of 
its activities to a very large degree the measure of the direct impact 
of the War upon Russian social and economic life. 
The term “zemstvo” became a familiar word in the literature of 
the Western Powers during the hard-pressed years 1915 and 1916. 
Wherever confidence was lacking in the capacity of the Russian 
bureaucracy, the American and British public were reassured by 
statements in the daily press that Slavic initiative had risen to the 
task of organizing Russia’s gigantic resources and that an organiza- 
tion had sprung to the fore capable of taking over all the unper- 
formed tasks of war-time government. A fantastic myth was created 
of the capacity of this body to supply the Russian armies at the 
front and the population behind the lines; its scope of action was 
said to cover everything from the work of a national Red Cross to 
that of a War Industries Board. 
The pages which follow will show, for the first time, just what 
was accomplished. It is the only authoritative, historical record yet 
published of the work of the zemstvo. Its authoritative nature can 
hardly be questioned, for the judicious, careful, and sober story 1s 
not only convincingly told and bears the marks of personal fa- 
miliarity with the details of zemstvo history, but the narrative is 
EDITOR’S PREFACE 
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