SICK AND WOUNDED 131 
Nevertheless it was found impossible to initiate joint action satis- 
factorily. In order to draw up the estimates for the institutions 
most urgently required, it was important to know the number of the 
lisabled men in each group. The Union, therefore, decided to take a 
census of the disabled soldiers with the aid of its local organs, and 
applied for the necessary funds to the Special Committee. The lat- 
ter, however, intended to take such a census on its own account and 
refused to grant the necessary funds, with the result that the pro- 
posed census was never taken. 
How slowly the needs of the war invalids were being attended to 
oy the bureaucratic institutions may be seen from the manner in 
which the supply of artificial limbs was dealt with. Under the law, 
every disabled soldier was entitled to be provided with any artificial 
limb that he required. There were only three institutions in the 
whole of Russia that could manufacture such limbs: the Institute of 
the Empress Marie at Petrograd, the Committee of the Grand 
Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna at Moscow, and the Committee of 
the Grand Duchesses Militsa and Anastasia at Kiev. Under the most 
favorable conditions, however, these three institutions were able to 
satisfy not more than one-twelfth of the yearly supply that was 
found to be required during the War. Invalids would thus be com- 
pelled to wait their turn for long periods, which might run in cer- 
lain cases to twelve years. Yet these three institutions in fact alone 
enjoyed those special privileges without which it was impossible to 
furnish artificial limbs to discharged soldiers; that is to say, they 
alone had the right to request the local military commanders to 
send the invalids at government expense to the nearest workshops 
for artificial limbs; they alone were entitled to obtain parts of arti- 
cial limbs from the government factor at Petrograd; and to them 
alone was the Ministry of War permitted to make payments for 
artificial limbs furnished according to a definite scale. 
In spite of the difficulties above mentioned, something was never- 
theless accomplished in this matter by the zemstvos. Thus, the pro- 
vincial zemstvo assembly of Voronezh as early as the end of 1914 
placed 30,000 rubles at the disposal of the zemstvo board for the 
relief of disabled soldiers, but especially for the supply of artificial 
limbs to them. Later on, the same zemstvo opened a small workshop 
for this purpose. The Kharkov zemstvo had likewise conceived the