CHAPTER III

ORIGIN AND ORGANIZATION OF THE ALL-RUSSIAN
UNION OF ZEMSTVOS

Public Organizations for the Relief of War Sufferers.
WHENEVER grave public calamities threatened the country, the
more intelligent elements of Russian society were found to be not
only keenly alive to the needs of the situation, but anxious to do
their best in the work of relief, through direct participation. They
were not merely inspired by sentiments of philanthropy and humanity,
 but they were determined to offer their contributions to the
relief work through representatives in whom they could have absolute
 confidence; they were anxious thereby to comfort and encourage
the sufferers, mitigating the purely official and sometimes formalistic
 attitude of the authorities. This sentiment had been noted in
Russia repeatedly in the past, and more particularly in cases of war.
The Government did not always look with favor upon public endeavors
 of this nature, seeing in them expressions of distrust and a
desire to control the acts of the authorities. Moreover, in the opinion
of the Government, the participation of public bodies in such activities
 could only complicate the work that had to be done and would
impose restrictions on the procedure that would only interfere with
the prompt and categorical character of the official measures. This
explains why it was only gradually and in the face of much opposition
 that the public was able to attain its objects in cases like these.
In spite of this official attitude, attempts of the kind above described
 had already been made under the rather harsh and severe
rule of Nicholas I. In the Crimean War, in 1854, ladies belonging to
the best Russian society made their appearance in the military hospitals
 at Sebastopol, having at last induced the Emperor to grant
them permission to render direct aid to the sick and wounded soldiers.
 The military authorities, however, as well as the medical staffs
of these hospitals, received them in a spirit that was anything but
cordial. But the command of the Tsar, coupled with the irreproachably
 tactful bearing of these women, at last forced their male opponents
 to acquiesce and make their peace with this “unheard-of innovation.”