WORK IN THE ARMY 221 
each visitor was only 201% copecks, and this included the cost of 
administration, amortization of property, and transport. 
On the northern front, which after 1915 was made independent 
of the western front, bathing facilities for the troops were provided 
on practically the same basis. Toward the close of 1916, fifty-seven 
bathhouses and fifteen laundries were in operation on this front. 
The number of men who used them in the course of a period of 
twelve months was almost 2,500,000. 
On the western front the Zemstvo Union began the organization 
of bathing facilities by opening several large laundries and bath- 
houses at important points of military concentration, such as Brody, 
Lvov, and Brest-Litovsk; as early as February, 1915, it was found 
necessary to supply each army corps with a detachment capable of 
providing fourteen bathhouses. The estimate allowed for the con- 
struction, as a beginning, of sixty bathing stations which would re- 
juire an initial expenditure of 60,000 rubles and a monthly cost of 
maintenance of 30,000 rubles. These plans, however, were not car- 
ried out immediately, for a considerable number of bathhouses be- 
longing to the Unions of Towns and to the Red Cross Society were 
available on the southwestern front. Unwilling to create needless 
competition, the Zemstvo Union came to an understanding with the 
Union of Towns by which the former was to deal with requirements 
behind the lines, whilst the Union of Towns was to attend to the 
needs of the troops at the front. By July, 1916, there were already 
twenty zemstvo detachments functioning outside the military zone. 
The staffs received a preliminary training in a training camp in 
Kiev before joining their units. 
The necessary equipment and articles of underwear were supplied 
to the detachments after their arrival at their destination by the 
nearest depot of the Zemstvo Union. The detachments operating 
outside the military zone opened from one to nine bathhouses each. 
They were not attached to a definite army unit; most of them re- 
mained in one place and they had little opportunity to show initia- 
tive. On the other hand, the Union of Towns did not succeed in 
meeting fully the requirements of the army and the Union of Zem- 
stvos received numerous applications for the establishment of bath- 
ng stations. This is why, in spite of its agreement with the Union 
2% Ibid., Nos. 64-66, pp. 8-15. 
* Ibid., No. 49, p. 144.