80 THE ZEMSTVOS DURING THE WAR
the non-Russian nationalities (a government official), representatives
 of the clergy, the Red Cross, and of some of the Asiatic tribes.
The district committees were more uniform in composition, as the
district centers naturally had a much smaller variety of institutions
and of educational and charitable organizations, and, generally
speaking, included fewer persons willing and able to assist the Union
 in its activities. In many districts the duties of the committees
of the Zemstvo Union were performed entirely by the district zemstvo
 boards, who would enlist in the service any person that might
prove useful. There were, however, a large number of district committees
 of the Zemstvo Union specially created. Thus, for instance,
in the provinces of Astrakhan, Kostroma, Nizhni-Novgorod, Penza,
Stavropol, Ufa, and Yaroslav, committees of the Union were organized
 from the very beginning of the War in every district, while
in the provinces of Vitebsk, Simbirsk, Smolensk, and some others,
such committees were established in a majority of districts.

Institutions for Smaller Areas.
The mobilization of the public forces of Russia by the zemstvos
did not, however, confine itself to this. As the problems presented
by the War continually increased both in number and complexity,
the movement spread and affected wider and wider circles of the
population. The district was still too large a unit. It formed on the
average a territory of about 8,000 square versts with a population
of over 200,000. Each district, it is true, was divided into twentyfive
 to thirty-five volosts with their own self-governing institutions
for the peasantry, for purposes of police and tax collection. But
these organs did not include among their members intellectuals of
the non-peasant class, and they were, moreover, under the strict control
 of the officials of the central administration.
These institutions were found unsuitable for efficient public work.
Besides, the Government itself, by the law of June 25, 1912, had
charged, not the volost administrations, but special volost relief
committees (popechitelstvo) formed in the event of mobilization,
with the duty of looking after the needs of the families of mobilized
men. The law permitted educated residents of the volost outside the
peasant class to work on these committees. The latter, however, were
not everywhere organized in 1914, and, where they did exist, they
sometimes showed little initiative; not to mention the fact, that, liv-