288 THE ZEMSTVOS DURING THE WAR
comparatively brief delay. To the Soviets of Soldiers’ and Work-
men’s Deputies which sprang up in every important town through-
put the country and which exercised the actual power and authority
on the spot, the old zemstvos appeared to be just as reactionary as
any other public and government institution that had existed under
the old régime. Without waiting for the old zemstvos to be legally re-
placed by the democratic new ones, the Soviets, acting in “revolu-
tionary” fashion, added their own representatives to the membership
of the zemstvo assemblies which met during the spring and summer
of 1917, as well as the delegates of various revolutionary committees
and professional and national groups and organizations. The Pro-
visional Government, powerless to oppose this arbitrary procedure
of the Soviets, found it necessary, by a decree issued at the end of
March, 1917, to recognize as legitimate this method of “democ-
ratizing” zemstvo assemblies and town councils.
An inquiry conducted by the Ministry of the Interior in May,
1917, showed that, of 25 provincial and 214 district zemstvos an-
swering the questionnaire, only 8 provincial and 89 district zem-
stvos had retained their former membership, whilst in 16 provincial
and 175 district zemstvos the old membership had been supple-
mented by representatives of various revolutionary reorganizations.
[n a majority of these, the new members were more numerous than
the old, while in two provincial and sixteen district zemstvos they
had completely replaced them. The leading position in the “de-
mocratized” zemstvo assemblies was now occupied by persons who
had scarcely any experience of public work and who very often had
absolutely nothing in common with the life of the particular lo-
cality. The result was that the zemstvo assemblies which were con-
vened during the spring and summer of 1917 were incapable of
working effectively but rather resembled those revolutionary meet-
ings at which the struggle between political parties was being car-
ried on. The new, inexperienced zemstvo members paid little atten-
tion to the financial position or to the question whether the public
would be able to pay their taxes, and raised, in their revolutionary
enthusiasm, the zemstvo expenditure to fantastic heights. In a ma-
jority of provinces the revolutionary zemstvo assemblies elected new
=xecutive organs, into which they also introduced unsuitable persons
who had been lifted to the position of local leaders on the crest of
the revolutionary wave. A characteristic feature of these new “de-
