REFUGEES 161 
tire communities migrating under the leadership of the village 
priest, or the village elder or schoolmaster. At other times they were 
merely panic-stricken mobs. In leaving their homes the refugees 
tried to carry with them some of their belongings, moving along in 
disorderly and seemingly endless lines of wagons and other vehicles, 
surrounded by domestic animals. 
Organization of Relief Work. 
The work of the zemstvo organizations became more complicated 
when the refugees had to be moved farther into the interior. There 
was now the additional burden of finding room for them on the rail- 
way trains, helping them to dispose of their cattle and equipment, 
improving railway facilities, providing food along the road, and 
establishing isolation hospitals to prevent the spreading of infec- 
tious diseases in the interior of the country. Special committees were 
established for the relief of refugees, and they made arrangements 
with other organizations working for the relief of the refugees, such 
as the Union of Towns, the Committee of the Grand Duchess Tati- 
ana, and the various national committees (Polish, Jewish, Lettish, 
and Lithuanian). 
At the end of July, 1915, the Minister of the Interior also took 
measures for the relief of refugees. He dispatched two assistant min- 
isters to the war zone. One of them organized the so-called “South- 
ern Relief” (Yugo-Pomoshch) on the southwestern front and the 
other established a similar organization, known as the “Northern 
Relief” (Severo-Pomoshch) on the northwestern front. 
Apart from the activities of various organizations which came to 
be gradually formed to deal with the refugee problem, the work of 
the zemstvo institutions at the front steadily expanded. Along the 
routes taken by the refugees, whether by rail, water, or road, can- 
teens and dispensaries were established, together with hospitals and 
temporary shelters for orphans and lost children. The Union’s com- 
mittee of the southwestern front provided also guides, who were in- 
structed to look after the needs of a particular group of refugees, 
to comfort them, to see that the crowds were properly managed 
when boarding trains or ships, to protect them in every way, and to 
see that food and medical care were supplied along the road. The re- 
ports of the guides presented a gloomy picture of the migration of