ORIGIN AND ORGANIZATION 17 
provinces of the Empire. None were established in Siberia, Turkes- 
tan, the Caucasus, Trans-Caucasia, Poland, the Baltic provinces, 
and the Cossack territories. Nine provinces in the west and north- 
west, where many of the big landlords were Poles, were also denied 
zemstvo government. But even where the zemstvos were established 
they were considered “not as links in the machinery of government, 
nor as authoritative organs of public law, but as private corporate 
associations formed in order to satisfy such local interests as are 
distinct from the interests of the State.” 
This way of regarding the zemstvos as mere civil law corporations 
competent to concern themselves only “with local benefits and 
needs,” as the law put it, persisted in government circles till the 
revolution of 1905, serving as a source of incessant recriminations 
and conflicts between zemstvo and government. This was inevitable 
because the activity of the zemstvos, even though carried on within 
the limits of their own particular districts or provinces, was es- 
sentially of nation-wide importance and rested upon principles far 
exceeding the narrow confines of the “local benefits and needs” 
deliberately imposed by the Government. 
The competence of the zemstvo institutions was wide from the 
outset, nevertheless. The law of 1864 left to the zemstvos the charge 
of public education, health, welfare, agricultural development, 
stock-breeding, trade, industry, construction and upkeep of roads, 
bridges, and harbors, fire insurance and measures of fire preven- 
tion, food supply, local postal service, and similar matters. In 
short, there was hardly a branch of local activity that was left out- 
side the competence of the zemstvo. 
In addition to the care for local needs, the zemstvos were en- 
trusted with a number of duties and obligations of an official nature. 
Thus, they were required to maintain Jails, pay the expenses of 
traveling police authorities and judiciary officials, and assume other 
similar responsibilities. In case of war the zemstvos were obliged to 
assist the families of men called to the colors from the reserve, in 
accordance with regulations provided by law. The zemstvos were 
empowered, moreover, to issue certain ordinances of a police char- 
acter, and, upon confirmation by the government administration. 
these ordinances acquired all the force of laws. 
® Kisevetter, Mestnoe Samoupravlenie (Local Government), Moscow, 
1910