THE ZEMSTVOS DURING THE WAR 
To make books cheaper and more accessible, many of the zem- 
stvos opened bookstores which operated as independent commer- 
cial establishments, but charged only enough to obtain a return on 
the invested capital sufficient to keep the business going. Bookstores 
were found to be maintained by eighty district and seventeen pro- 
vincial zemstvos. Their turnover differed widely. The average turn- 
over of the district zemstvo stores was 28,000 rubles, with a mini- 
mum of 500 rubles and a maximum of 97,000 rubles. The average 
turnover of the provincial zemstvo stores was 125,000 rubles a year 
with a minimum of 385,000 rubles and a maximum of 190,000 rubles. 
During the few years immediately preceding the War the whole 
work of primary education was being gradually shifted from the 
Government to the zemstvos. The latter were granted the right to 
open higher schools also. In a majority of provinces the zemstvo 
boards organized special departments of elementary education, 
which gradually concentrated under their control the schools. They 
began modestly with the collection of school statistics but eventually 
extended their activities to all branches of the school life. 
Thus the long struggle of the zemstvos to secure the control of 
elementary education was crowned with success and ended in com- 
plete victory. 
Public Health. 
Previous to the establishment of the zemstvos the rural popula- 
tion was left practically without any medical attendance. Half a 
century later, however, on the outbreak of the War, the average 
radius of a medical district, that is an area having at least one hos- 
pital or dispensary, and providing free medical aid, was only a little 
more than ten miles. In the densely populated provinces of central 
Russia this radius was, of course, even smaller. In 1914 there were 
in forty zemstvo provinces® 3,300 such medical districts, of which 
2,459 had permanent, fully equipped hospitals, while the rest had 
small dispensaries. In addition to these, there were in these districts 
3,441 public health stations under the immediate supervision of a 
junior medical officer (feldsher) and under the general control of 
the district physician. One zemstvo hospital served about 40,000 
rural population and the residents of the district towns, while one 
8 This does not include three provinces where zemstvo institutions were in- 
troduced only in 1918.