256 THE ZEMSTVOS DURING THE WAR
concentrated entirely in the hands of official institutions such as the
Red Cross Society. There was also the Committee for the Relief of
Russian Prisoners of War, under the patronage of the Empress
Alexandra. These institutions were in a position to obtain funds
from the Treasury. Nevertheless, they proved incapable of developing
 the distribution of material relief on a large scale.
Among semi-official organizations, a committee formed by the municipality
 of Moscow was the only one that attempted to do something
 in this direction.® At the close of 1915 a small conference met
at Stockholm, which was attended by representatives of the Red
Cross Societies of Russia, Germany, Austria, and several neutral
countries. The conference drew up regulations which greatly facilitated
 the practical efforts that were being made to relieve the hardships
 of prisoners of war. On this occasion the representatives of
the Russian Government officially acknowledged the committee of
the municipality of Moscow among the organizations engaged in the
relief of Russian prisoners of war. This made it possible for the
Unions of Zemstvos and of Towns to undertake similar work and to
form jointly with the committee of the municipality of Moscow, a
body known as the “United Organization for the Relief of Prisoners
of War.” A corresponding department was established under the
Zemstvo Union on November 6, 1915. In December this department
addressed an appeal for assistance to all the local organs of the
Union, and in January, 1916, it was already functioning smoothly.
The encouragement of initiative among the population was considered
 in this field, as in all others, the principal task of the Zemstvo
 Union. Needless to say, there was everywhere a sincere desire
to come to the aid of brothers, fathers, and sons languishing in captivity
 in enemy countries. The difficulty, however, was that there
were very few people in the backward rural communities of Russia
who knew exactly how to set about it. Gradually the Union established
 contact with 436 local organizations for the relief of prisoners
 of war. These organizations were supplied with 60,000 free
copies of a pamphlet describing in simple language the conditions
ander which Russian prisoners had to live in Germany and Austria,
and suggesting ways and means of relief. Hundreds of thousands of
¢ See Astrov, Effects of the War upon Russian Municipal Government and
the All-Russian Union of Towns in the volume The War and the Russian
Government (Yale University Press, 1929), p. 258 sqq.