CHAPTER XV

THE EFFECTS OF THE WAR UPON THE WORK
OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT

Financial Difficulties.
AT the end of 1914 the Government addressed an ordinance to the
zemstvos and municipalities, suggesting a reduction of expenditure.
At the same time the Government cut down subsidies that it was allowing
 the zemstvos for elementary education, school construction,
and improvement of agriculture. The Government also reduced the
grants of working capital to the zemstvo funds (banks).
Needless to say, the zemstvo assemblies that met in the autumn
>f 1914 in order to draw up their budgets for 1915, endeavored to
anforce strict economy, the more so as they had to reckon with new
expenditure in consequence of the War, for instance on relief of the
wounded soldiers, assistance to the families of mobilized men, and
other such measures. They were inspired by the desire to avoid complications
 in the future and by characteristic foresight. In spite of
this, however, most of the zemstvos found it impossible to make substantial
 reductions in their expenditure. An inquiry conducted in
1915 to which replies were received from 21 provincial and 110
district zemstvos, showed that those zemstvos which had reduced
their budgets numbered less than one-half of the total, namely, 10
provincial and 50 district zemstvos. As for the remaining zemstvos,
they had even increased their budgets as compared with 1914.
Judging by newspaper reports, the problem of reducing the
budgets in view of war-time expenditure was heatedly debated by
the zemstvo assemblies, and the prevailing opinion was that, having
regard to the serious difficulties with which the country would have
to contend as the War progressed, it was the duty of the local government
 to make every effort to maintain its economic, cultural, and
educational institutions, at the level at which they stood when the
War broke out. It was held that any curtailment in the activities
of the zemstvos was harmful and that it was likely, by disturbing
the normal life in the interior of the country, to have an unfavor-1
 By the editor of the publication Kalendar Spravochnik Zemskago
Deyatelya (Zemstvo Year Book).