THE ZEMSTVOS AND THE UNION 75
following year were usually held in the autumn. Sometimes the provincial
 assemblies might be postponed till January, but by the end
of January, in any case, all the zemstvos had their budgets ready
and the assessment of taxes would also be finished by the same date.
Hence, in the summer of 1914, when the hostilities began, the zemstvo
 budgets for 1914 had already been adopted and the taxes apportioned.
 After the declaration of war, when special meetings of
the zemstvo assemblies were held, they were able to make appropriations
 for the war needs either out of their current funds, which, however,
 were already assigned to specific purposes, or by borrowing
money from their capital funds or in anticipation of the 1915
budgets. Under these circumstances, of course, the zemstvo appropriations
 for the war needs could not be of very large amount in
1914. The provincial zemstvos, having at their disposal various special
 funds, were in a better position than the district zemstvos. It is
natural, therefore, that most of the appropriations should have been
made by the provincial zemstvos, and that appropriations should
have been made by only 39 out of the 440 district zemstvos. According
 to the inquiry conducted by the Central Committee of the
Zemstvo Union, the total sum appropriated in 1914 by the provincial
 zemstvos, excepting that of Kursk, for the war needs,
amounted to 12,000,000 rubles, and by the district zemstvos to only
184,000 rubles.
The assemblies of the district and provincial zemstvos in the
autumn of 1915, being now able to make provision for war appropriations
 in their budgets, considerably increased these amounts.
According to the same inquiry, the total of all appropriations made
by all the provincial (excepting Kursk) and 312 out of the 440
district zemstvos for this purpose in the course of the first year of
the War amounted to 32,056,100 rubles (20,838,600 rubles by the
provincial zemstvos, and 11,217,500 rubles by the district zemstvos),
 or more than 10 per cent of the total amount of all zemstvo
budgets and about 17 per cent of the zemstvo taxes on real estate.
Not all the zemstvos responded in an equal measure to the new
needs created by the War. Thus, for instance, the zemstvos of
Taurida province appropriated only 2.9 per cent of their budgets,
or 4.4 per cent of the assessed taxes, whereas the zemstvo of the
province of Kharkov appropriated 23 per cent of their budget, or
35.2 per cent of their total tax assessments. The size of the appro-