303
thing. Of course, this expectation could not always be realized in
practice. Whilst the agents of the unions scarcely ever refused a re-
quest made by the army, it was only natural that there should be
instances where things could not be done, or where they had to be
Jone otherwise than as these agents themselves would have wished.
Such failures, however, were quickly forgotten and did not in the
least injure the high reputation generally en Joyed by the Union at
the front.
Radically different was the attitude toward the zemstvos of the
high government functionaries in Petrograd. The Government
lacked determination to strike at the very root of the Union of Zem-
stvos which had come into being in spite of it. Distrusting and fear-
ing the Zemstvo Union, the Council of Ministers tried to Limit its
field of work and to place obstacles in the way of its further devel-
opment. In the face of the extraordinary and tragic experiences
through which the nation was passing, the Government proved ut-
terly impotent. Fate seemed to have decreed that in those days of
emergency there should not be found in the ranks of the bureau-
cracy men of sufficient caliber to cope with the situation. The meas-
ures taken by the Government was added to the complication and
confusion. No one had confidence in the Government, and it was, of
course, difficult to achieve results in the atmosphere of universal dis-
trust. In consequence, every active element of the nation preferred
to cooperate with the Unions of Zemstvos and of Towns. Watching
zealously this process, the higher functionaries at Petrograd attrib-
uted it to purely political causes. In the opinion of this bureaucracy,
the unions were covertly conducting a political campaign and rally-
ing around them a revolutionary opposition to the Government. In
the early days of the War, however, this view was utterly mistaken;
there was no desire in zemstvo circles to quarrel with the Govern-
ment. It was only when the systematic demonstrations of distrust,
the incessant bureaucratic bickerings and demands, and the insist-
ence on red tape in matters of vital importance and great urgency
had produced exasperation, that even the most moderate members
of the zemstvo organizations turned against the authorities. In the
Duma and at the conferences of the leaders of the unions, speeches
were delivered against the Government, such as the ears of the Rus-
sian bureaucracy had never been accustomed to hear. The Govern-
ment retaliated by proroguing the Duma and prohibiting the zem-
CONCLUSION
