EFFECTS OF THE WAR
able effect upon the prosecution of the War itself. Even those zem-
stvos which had decided to curtail their budgets had reduced chiefly
those items of expenditure which provided for the creation of new
institutions such as the building of new schools, hospitals, and the
like, rather than to the maintenance of those already existing.
The result was that the total budget of the 43 provincial and 440
district zemstvos for 1915 amounted to 342,800,000 rubles as com-
pared with 847,500,000 for 1914. When we compare the pre-war
budgets of all the zemstvos for 1914 (they were drawn up before the
outbreak of the War) with the war-time budgets for 1915, item for
item, we find a very slight difference between the two, as may be seen
from the following table:
293
Zemstvo Budgets.
1914
13.7
23.4
1.9
17.5
107.0
5.1
82.5
28.9
20.8
22.2
Rs =
Share in government expenditure
Administration
Maintenance of jails
Construction and upkeep of roads
Schools
Public charities
Public health
Assistance of economic development
Sundry expenditure
Service of debts
Capital accumulation, ete.
1916
15.1
23.5
1.8
16.0
93.0
%.1
82.8
+1.4
+0.1
-0.1
1.5
0
5.0
2.8
"8
8
9
5.2
~
’
Total
347.5
8492.
4&7
The only expenditure cut down was that on schools and on
subsidies to economic developments, and this was due mainly to the
reduction in the government grant for the erection of school build-
ings and for the improvement of agriculture. As for the increase on
other items, it should be noted that this was due largely to war-time
charges. The increased share in the government expenditure may be
explained by expenses in connection with the mobilization, whilst the
increased outlay on public welfare, by appropriations made for the
care of the families of mobilized men. The item of sundry expenses
included new items rendered necessary by the War and which were
not provided for in the pre-war budgets. Lastly, there was a heavy
increase in the expenditure on the service of debts, since the zem-
