260 THE ZEMSTVOS DURING THE WAR 
carbon, and the Union was compelled to recruit a large staff of 
skilled technicians to prepare a sufficient quantity of this substance. 
The manufacture of the tin boxes was in part carried out at a spe- 
cially constructed zemstvo factory and in part assigned to con- 
tractors. The reception of the separate parts of the masks and the 
assembling of the masks themselves likewise required a large num- 
ber of trained employees and a great deal of floor space. A whole 
block of hutments was built for this purpose on the outskirts of 
Moscow. Over 2,000 men and women were employed in the work of 
assembling the gas masks and their daily output was estimated at 
25,000 gas masks. Up to May 20, 1917, the Union sent to the front 
about 8,500,000 gas masks of the new type valued at some 15,000,- 
000 rubles. 
The task of the Union did not end with the dispatch of the gas 
masks to the army. It was soon observed that the soldiers did not 
know, at the critical moment, how to make prompt use of the new 
gas masks and did not fully realize their importance. The Union 
therefore opened at Moscow a school where the purpose and use of 
gas masks were taught. The military units located around Moscow 
detailed officers and men to receive instruction, and these trained 
others to act as instructors to the units in the field. In the military 
district of Moscow anti-gas training soon bore excellent fruit, so 
that after July no troops were sent to the front from that district 
without having received proper anti-gas training and without prac- 
tical experience of going through poison gas with their masks on. 
Much more difficult was the task of providing anti-gas instruction 
at the front. For a considerable time the higher military authorities 
were unable to see any urgent necessity for the zemstvo anti-gas in- 
structors at the front. It was only after the appearance of the first 
anti-gas units which found difficulty in obtaining permission to be- 
gin their work in the army that the military authorities changed 
their view. The zemstvo anti-gas units worked on a single plan pre- 
pared by Moscow. Each unit consisted of nine chemists with a con- 
siderable staff of assistants and transport facilities. They carried 
with them laboratory equipment, in sections that could be quickly 
assembled, besides a supply of gas, gas masks, and remedies for gas 
poisoning. On their arrival at their destination at the front, the 
anti-gas unit would proceed to erect a chamber, fill it with gas, 
demonstrate to the troops the effects of gas on animals, instruct