FAMILIES OF MOBILIZED MEN 141
footwear, opportunities of employment, day nurseries for infants
and children—such were the principal forms of relief reported by
the various committees of the Zemstvo Union.
In comparison with the enormous sums of money spent by the
Government in regular allowances prescribed by law for the families
of mobilized men, the disbursements of zemstvos and private chari-
table organizations were insignificant. Nevertheless, this tireless
and enthusiastic work for the benefit of the soldiers’ families, espe-
cially during the first year of the War, raised the morale of the
army, while in the interior of Russia it tended to introduce certain
correctives to the official government program of relief and to sup-
plement it.
Relief of Orphans.
From the very first few months of the War the local organiza-
tions were confronted with the problem of war orphans. Both zem-
stvos and the committees of the Zemstvo Union recognized clearly
that it was upon them that the duty fell of creating local bodies for
the coordination of all efforts on behalf of the orphans, and they
were fully aware of the immensity of the task. According to investi-
gations conducted by some of the zemstvos, the average number of
children who had lost their fathers in battle six months after the
outbreak of the War was found to be as high as 1,500 per province.
This figure was naturally increasing daily. In the province of Khar-
kov, there were found to be 2,300 such orphans in May, 1915, and
in the province of Perm 1,270 were reported in March of the same
year.
The organization of the relief of the aged and of orphans in Rus-
sia had never been satisfactory. According to the law the care of the
aged and disabled and of children having lost both parents and hav-
ing no relatives able to provide for them, in the rural districts, had
been made one of the communal duties of the mir, or peasant com-
munity. Actually, however, allowances to such persons, if granted
at all, were mostly in kind. Those in need were simply made to move
from house to house and provided with scanty food and lodging for
the night. Cash disbursements for their assistance, and the organ-
ized relief, had never been adequate. Thus, in 1894, the average
expenditure on relief of the needy per volost in forty-seven prov-
