300 THE ZEMSTVOS DURING THE WAR
lecting only 1,160,000 rubles between January and July, 1918, as
against the estimated revenue of 23,700,000 rubles.’
A partial idea of the growth of the zemstvo budgets during 1918
may be gained when we consider the position of the Odessa zemstvo,
which raised its 1918 budget to 4,377,000 rubles, thus exceeding the
budget of the preceding year by some 3,000,000 rubles. In this con-
nection it is worth noting the fact that the cost of administration
alone increased fourfold within that year. The indebtedness of the
zemstvos was mounting rapidly. The provincial zemstvo of Khar-
kov, for example, owed on January 1, 1918, 19,000,000 rubles of
which 6,000,000 had been contracted during the autumn of 1917.
Service of debts formed one of the principal items of expenditure in
the zemstvo budgets for 1918. Thus, in the budget of the provincial
zemstvo of Kharkov for 1918, totaling 23,700,000 rubles, service of
debt amounted to 4,300,000 rubles, that is, more than one-sixth of
the total budget. In the budget of the district zemstvo of Uman we
find a debt of 427,500 rubles as against 92,500 in the previous year.
[t would be easy to multiply these examples. The food supply opera-
tions of the zemstvos, in which hundreds of millions of rubles were
invested and which had shown no loss in 1915 and 1916, were giving
rise to enormous deficits in 1917, and there were no sources from
which these losses could be met.
Under these truly hopeless conditions, some of the zemstvos de-
cided upon a last desperate measure and issued appeals to the pub-
lic asking for financial support. The provincial zemstvo of Cherni-
gov, for example, issued an appeal to the public, asking them to pay
local taxes regularly, to enable it to maintain schools, hospitals, and
other important institutions. The provincial zemstvo of Perm sug-
gested the floating of a zemstvo loan, for otherwise, the appeal de-
clared, “it will be necessary either to mortgage the property of the
zemstvo or to close down the schools, hospitals and other institu-
tions.” Needless to say, appeals of this nature, dictated by despair,
had no effect. It was becoming clear that, if they were to tide over
the grave financial crisis produced by the War and aggravated by
the Revolution, the zemstvos would have either to issue bonds se-
cured on zemstvo property and guaranteed by the Government, or
to be taken over temporarily by the Government and maintained at
its expense. Neither of these courses, however, was adopted, for the
5 In 1918 the province of Kharkov was not yet occupied by the Red Army
