170 THE ZEMSTVOS DURING THE WAR
namely 0.14 per cent. In the whole of European Russia, 2,625,806
refugees settled, and of this number 552,714 took up their residence
 in the provincial towns, constituting 21 per cent of the total
number. A comparatively small number of refugees, 76,949, went as
far as Siberia. Still fewer, 38,518, made their way to Central Asia,
and fewest of all, 23,758, to the Caucasus.’
By nationality, refugees were distributed as follows: Russians,
57.9 per cent; Poles, 14.2 per cent; Letts, 9.8; Jews, 6.3 per cent;
Lithuanians, 2.8; others, 9 per cent.*
As regards the provinces of origin of the refugees, information
was available only in 806,000 cases. In the first place came the province
 Grodno with 80.6 per cent of the total number of refugees;
then followed Volhynia with 24.07 per cent, Kholm with 11.18 per
cent, and Kovno with 6 per cent. The total number of refugees
registered from Poland was only 6.46 per cent, and from Galicia,
3.39 per cent. The remaining provinces furnished between 0.16 per
cent (Bessarabia) and 4.82 per cent (Minsk). The overwhelming
majority of refugees consisted of women, children, and the aged.
Adult males constituted only 22 per cent of the total. It should not
be thought, however, that even these males were fully capable of
performing hard physical labor. The fact was that a considerable
aumber of the men were sick and all of them were utterly exhausted
and undernourished. However, the vast majority, having been
forced to abandon their homes at a moment’s notice, and having lost
all they had in the world, finding themselves in strange places without
 future prospects, and having suffered untold hardships, had
lost all energy and simply given up the struggle in hopeless resignation.
 The total number of refugees mentioned above cannot be
considered exact. Subsequent figures would appear to bring the
total number of refugees settled in new places as high as 3,200,000.
It was even advanced, although without sufficient proofs, that the
total number of refugees must have been between 10,000,000 and
15,000.,000.12

» Izvestia (Bulletin), Nos. 45-46, p. 129.
10 Ibid., No. 47, pp. 84-85.
lt Ibid., Nos. 48-44, p. 121.
iz Tyyd; (Proceedings) of the Commission for the Investigation of the
Effects on Public Health of the War of 1914-1920, Moscow, 1923.