264 THE ZEMSTVOS DURING THE WAR 
the energy of the local officers of the Union and dampened that en- 
thusiasm which inspired them to face all the dangers of the front 
and even risk their lives. Fortunately for the success of the whole 
enterprise, there were men at the head who thoroughly understood 
the mentality of the local workers. They approached the solution of 
the problem with persistence coupled with tact and consideration. 
They were also able to induce the agents of the State Audit Depart- 
ment attached to the Union to act in the same spirit. The result was 
a gradual transformation of the methods of the Union’s budgeting 
and accounting. 
At the close of 1916 the Central Committee of the Union had a 
financial department, a statistical department, an audit depart- 
ment, and a financial council. The financial department, created on 
June 30, 1916, supervised the bookkeeping and accounting in all 
the organs of the Union, prepared reports concerning the work of 
the Central Committee and of the Union as a whole, and concen- 
trated under its control the budgets of all the institutions of the 
Union, preparing accordingly the budget for the whole Union. The 
statistical department was engaged in statistical computations, such 
as, for instance, the cost of one day’s treatment of a patient in a 
hospital or a hospital train, or the cost of a bath, or of the daily 
food ration of a trench worker, and so on. The audit department, 
to which the representatives of the State Audit Department were 
attached, not only examined the accounts submitted, but also made 
preliminary examinations of each pay document, and no disburse- 
ment, in the ordinary routine, could be made without written au- 
thority. It was also empowered to inspect all the institutions of the 
Union and not only to examine the regularity of expenditure and 
the correctness of the vouchers, but also to investigate the propriety 
and economic justification of the expenditure incurred. For the co- 
ordination of the departments that in one way or another had to 
deal with the financial operations of the Union, there was estab- 
lished the financial council, to which all financial matters were sub- 
mitted for preliminary discussion. 
The routine of the work was as follows. Estimates were presented 
by the provincial committees and committees of the front and by all 
the departments and executive organs of the Central Committee for 
ordinary and extraordinary expenditure to be incurred during a 
given period. These estimates after examination by the financial