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Updated: June 29, 2025
His reply was, "It has come to my attention that recently some people have been carried away by senseless dreams that the representatives of the zemstvos should take part in internal affairs. Let it be known to all that I shall guard the autocracy as firmly as did my father." This was his program and it deeply disappointed the people.
In October, 1916, a conference of chairmen of province zemstvos adopted and published a resolution which declared: The tormenting and horrifying suspicion, the sinister rumors of perfidy and treason, of dark forces working in favor of Germany to destroy the unity of the nation, to sow discord and thus prepare conditions for an ignominious peace, have now reached the clear certainty that the hand of the enemy secretly influences the affairs of our state.
Landowners were always in the majority and in general the zemstvos reflected the ideas and ideals of the enlightened wealthy and cultivated classes. The peasant representatives in the zemstvos were generally peasants of the most successful and prosperous type, hating the revolutionists and all their works.
Presently, the leaders of the zemstvos followed the example of the revolutionists and held a secret convention at which a program for common action was agreed upon. Thus they were resorting to illegal methods, exactly as the Socialists had done.
Before adjourning for the Christmas holidays the Duma passed another resolution, aimed chiefly at Protopopov and Sturmer, protesting against the sinister activities which were undermining the war-making forces of the nation, and praising the work of the zemstvos and working-class organizations which had struggled bravely to sustain the army, feed the people, care for the sick and wounded, and avert utter chaos.
And this dated from the time when well-to-do peasants who had factories, shops, and inns of their own were members of the Zemstvos, were dissatisfied with them, and took to swearing at the Zemstvos in their factories and inns. They talked of God's not sending the snow; they had to bring in wood for fuel, and there was no driving nor walking in the frozen ruts.
If during the revolutionary month preceding the general political evolution expressed itself in the fact that the influence of the fusionist parties was being replaced by a decisive influence of the Bolsheviki, it is quite plain that this process found its most striking and fullest expression in the Soviets, while the dumas and zemstvos, notwithstanding all their formal democratism, expressed yesterday's status of the popular masses and not to-day's.
Instead of being very limited in their powers as the old zemstvos were, the new zemstvos were charged with all the ordinary functions of local government.
A similar telegram was sent by a Congress of 496 engineers to the Moscow Town Council, in which the burning political questions had been freely discussed. In other large towns, when the mayor prevented such discussions, a considerable number of the town councillors resigned. From the Zemstvos and municipalities the spirit of opposition spread to the provincial assemblies of the Noblesse.
Another spontaneous and democratic organization which came into existence to support the army against the Germans was the Union of Towns, representing 474 municipalities in Russia and Siberia. It, too, carried on a work similar to that of the Zemstvos, raising and spending vast sums of money. Then came the cooperative societies, supplying the army with food.
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