FAMILIES OF MOBILIZED MEN : 145 
during their stay at these institutions. In some of the provinces the 
cost of maintaining one hundred children in a nursery for a period 
of one month and a half was found to be about 500 rubles. The man- 
agement was often in the hands of the local school teacher. 
It must not be imagined, however, that institutions of this kind 
were established all over Russia, and in sufficient numbers. This 
organization was very different from the vast enterprise by which 
hospital facilities were provided for the sick and wounded soldiers. 
In the latter case there was a codrdinated, nation-wide plan, pre- 
pared and carried out by the Unions of Zemstvos and of Towns, 
after they had succeeded in convincing the authorities that it was 
absolutely necessary for the Government to allocate adequate funds 
for this purpose. The day nurseries, on the contrary, were sup- 
ported merely by local enterprise on a modest scale, aided only in 
a few favorable instances by the official charitable organizations. 
The problem of what particular form, or forms, the care of war 
orphans should take was discussed many times in the course of the 
War by various government institutions, but no definite action was 
ever decided upon. There were numerous committees which were 
supposed to look after these matters, but they proved incapable of 
making any concentrated effort and of creating local organs for the 
realization of their plans. It must be conceded, therefore, that the 
care of war orphans, as also the relief of disabled soldiers, left much 
to be desired. 
A third form of assistance, agricultural relief, was at first granted 
only to the families of mobilized men; gradually, however, the zem- 
stvos found themselves compelled to extend their aid to many other 
categories of peasant homes, which had suffered heavily as a result 
of the War. This matter will be dealt with in the following chapter.