EFFECTS OF THE WAR 
2909 
them found themselves utterly ruined by the riots and pillaging 
which swept over large parts of the country after the Revolution, 
that they were unable to meet their obligations. The chairman of the 
Moscow provincial zemstvo board, M. Gruzinov, in a speech deliv- 
ered on August 16, 1917, described the then existing condition of 
agriculture as follows: “The zemstvos are subsisting by consuming 
capital resources that ought to have been inviolable and some of 
them are living at the expense of funds accumulated in the zemstvo 
banks. If things go on in this way, the zemstvos will have to close 
their educational and philanthropic institutions, which are so impor- 
tant to the people.” 
The new “democratized” and democratic zemstvos, which took the 
place of those which had existed before the Revolution, composed as 
they were largely of persons having but slight experience in public 
work, failed entirely to reckon with the chaotic condition of local 
finances and proceeded to make considerable increases in every 
branch of zemstvo activity. The result was that expenditure became 
still more inflated, extraordinary as it had already become owing to 
the high cost of living and the depreciation of the currency. Toward 
the close of 1917 and the beginning of 1918 many zemstvos found 
themselves unable to pay the salaries of their employees, and the 
question of closing altogether a vast number of zemstvo educational 
and philanthropic institutions became acute. Here, for example, we 
have a description of the state of zemstvo finances in December, 
1917, as furnished in the report submitted to the zemstvo assembly 
by the zemstvo board of Ekaterinoslav. For the year 1917, a reve- 
nue of 5,888,000 rubles was expected from taxes and of 1,774,000 
rubles on account of arrears from previous years. Of these sums, 
however, only 689,000 rubles were actually received on account of 
arrears, and as for taxes due for the current year, not a single ruble 
was paid in. On July 26, 1917, the debt that the Ekaterinoslav pro- 
vincial zemstvo owed to the State Bank amounted to 5,200,000 ru- 
bles, and it was proposed to borrow a further sum of 4,000,000 
rubles. In the Odessa district zemstvo, not more than 689,500 rubles 
were received in the course of nine months, instead of the 1,656,500 
rubles anticipated for the year 1917, whilst expenditure was found 
to be considerably in excess of the estimates. The zemstvo board pro- 
posed to borrow from the State Bank a sufficient amount to cover 
expenditure. The provincial zemstvo of Kharkov succeeded in col-