WORK IN THE ARMY
followed and, angered by the persistent objections of the Zemstvo
Union, Prince Oldenburg finally issued an order to confiscate the
zemstvo trains and hand them over to the Red Cross Society. On
second thought, however, he rescinded his order. Nevertheless mili-
tary commanders were gradually appointed to an increasing num-
ber of zemstvo trains and conflicts broke out. Petitions began to be
received from the zemstvo staffs, asking for permission to resign
their posts, and there seemed real danger that the entire organiza-
tion would collapse. The Central Committee of the Union, having
exhausted all possibilities of an amicable settlement, was compelled
in November, 1916, to request the Ministry of War to take over the
zemstvo trains.’ Until the outbreak of the Bolshevik Revolution,
however, the trains were not transferred to the Ministry but con-
tinued to operate under the direction of the Zemstvo Union.
After the downfall of the Empire in March, 1917, the Provisional
Government dispatched several zemstvo trains to Siberia with orders
to take up and bring back to Petrograd and Moscow the political
prisoners of the old régime who were languishing in prisons through-
out Siberia.
199
Field Detachments: Organization and Purpose.
It has already been shown under what conditions the first two
field detachments of the Zemstvo Union left Moscow for General
Brusilov’s army.” These detachments were organized in great haste
and it was not yet known exactly what work they were to do. Ad-
vantage was taken, no doubt, of the experience gained in the Japa-
nese War in 1904, when the zemstvo detachments adapted them-
selves to the changing conditions, organizing large, permanent
hospitals far in the rear, field hospitals and canteens along the
routes of the reinforcements and of the convoys of sick and
wounded, as well as first-aid stations at the front. In 1914 the field
detachments were equipped in a manner which would ensure a maxi-
mum of adaptability to rapidly changing conditions.
The staff of the first detachment was composed of two repre-
sentatives of the Zemstvo Union, three doctors, and thirteen male
® See report of Central Committee of December 9, 1916, referring to the
refusal of the Executive Committee to continue the management of the hos-
pital trains, pp. 1-9.
' See below, p. 68.
