THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE 247 
ing that some machines were out of repair and that it would cost too 
much to make them serviceable. On the suggestion of the Zemstvo 
Union, the military authorities thereupon requisitioned the factory 
and handed it over to the Union’s committee of the southwestern 
front to be set working once more. Within a fortnight the entire 
plant was cleaned, repaired, equipped with new machinery, and put 
into operation. At first, in the spring of 1915, it produced 10,000 
to 12,000 puds of tanning extracts a month, as against a maximum 
of 10,000 puds which it had been producing before the War; later, 
the output was increased to 18,000 puds. With 15,000 puds a 
month it was already possible to assure the tanning of 50,000 hides a 
month, which furnished sufficient material for 150,000 pair of army 
boots. Hides and tanning extracts were supplied exclusively to those 
organizations which undertook to supply boots to the army, in 
quantities corresponding to the contracts that they signed. The 
Union’s committee of the southwestern front also entered into con- 
tracts with several private factories for the production of consider- 
able quantities of sole leather, of which the shortage was acute. The 
hides and tanning extracts were issued to these factories from the 
zemstvo warehouses. The Union was thus able to sell sole leather at 
thirty rubles a pud, when the market price was ninety rubles. 
Starting with thirty-five depots of hides in March, 1915, the 
committee had already seventy-four depots by September, and by 
the end of the summer the average monthly receipts of hides 
amounted to 100,000 pieces. In June the collection of hides became 
very difficult, owing to the retreat of the Russian army from Galicia. 
[n September, 1915, in view of the successful work accomplished in 
the collection and distribution of the raw hides, the Army Supply 
Department offered the Union of Zemstvos to extend its activities 
to the western and northern fronts. This proposal was accepted, 
and a number of receiving depots were established, with the princi- 
pal storehouse at Minsk, and later at Smolensk. 
In August, 1915, a similar agreement was concluded in the Cau- 
casus between the Zemstvo Union and the Army Supply Depart- 
ment. Collecting more than 20,000 hides a month, the Tiflis Com- 
mittee provided also for the salting and drying, and dispatched the 
hides to Moscow at the earliest opportunity. It did not assume any 
obligation, however, for the distribution of the raw hides for manu- 
facturing purposes. Thus a certain quantity of raw hides from the