296 THE ZEMSTVOS DURING THE WAR 
the sphere of the zemstvo work was greatly expanded, in view of the 
various new undertakings to which the War gave rise. It will be 
understood, therefore, that its quality in spite of the self-sacrificing 
efforts of the staffs, was bound to suffer. 
In a report presented by the district zemstvo board to the zemstvo 
assembly of Vitegra, province of Olonets, during the autumn session 
of 1915 we read the following description of the condition of the 
medical service in that district: 
To begin with, four out of five zemstvo doctors in the district and a 
proportional number of junior medical officers were mobilized. The mo- 
bilized doctors are only partly replaced by the one doctor who attends 
at the dispensary and the hospitals, besides visiting the more remote 
medical stations. The vacancies of junior medical officers have been 
partly filled by new appointments and partly left vacant; sometimes 
their duties are performed by the medical officers of adjoining districts. 
. , . Many medical supplies formerly imported from abroad cannot 
now be obtained. . . . Prices have increased 100 per cent and even 
more. 
High Cost of Living. 
Toward the close of 1915 the high cost of living was already be- 
ginning to be seriously felt, affecting, in the first instance, the finan- 
cial situation of the northern zemstvos, that is, localities that did 
not produce any surplus of grain. In the reports of some of the 
northern district zemstvo boards which were presented at the zem- 
stvo assembly meeting in the autumn of 1915, complaints were made 
of the diminution in the receipts from taxation, and some of the 
zemstvos were already becoming apprehensive of a financial crisis. 
Thus, the chairman of the district zemstvo board of Makarev, 
province of Kostroma, at a conference convened by him on Septem- 
ber 18, 1915, reported that the average monthly receipts of the 
board from taxation amounted to only 22,000 rubles, whilst the 
monthly expenditure was approximately 100,000 rubles; in other 
words, the zemstvo appeared to be approaching inevitable financial 
disaster.* 
At this period the financial position of the southern zemstvos in 
the black soil belt, that is to say, a territory depending chiefly on its 
surpluses of grain, which had greatly risen in price, was as yet 
¢ Vestnik (News) of the Kostroma zemstvo, 1917, No. 80.