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 mobilized
 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 beginning
 to be seriously felt, affecting, in the first instance, the financial
 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 zemstvo
 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 September
 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.