Encyclopedia of Russian History

By 1912 zemstvos had established 40,000 primary schools, approximately 2,000 hospitals, a network of libraries, reading halls, pharmacies, and doctors’ centers. Their budget increased to 45 times its 1865 level, amounting to 254 million rubles. In 1912, 30 percent of zemstvo expenditure went to education, 26 percent went to healthcare, 6.3 percent went to the development of local agriculture and the local economy, and 2.8 percent went to veterinary services. In 1912 zemstvos employed approximately 150,000 specialist teachers, doctors, agriculturists, veterinarians, statisticians, and others. By 1916 zemstvos were operating in 43 of the 93 provinces and regions.

After the beginning of World War I, on August 12, 1914, zemstvos created the National Union of Zemstvos in aid to sick and wounded soldiers. In 1915 this Union united with the National Union of Cities. For the coordination of the two organizations, a special committee called “Zemgor” was created. Besides aiding the wounded, it also helped supply the army and helped refugees. After the March Revolution of 1917 the Zemgor chairman, prince Georgy Lvov, became the prime minister of the Provisional Government. The chairmen of the zemstvo executive boards were appointed the plenipotentiaries of the Provisional Government in their districts and provinces. Zemstvos were instituted in 19 more provinces and regions of Russia and volost zemstvos were created, forming the lowest institutions of local self-government. Re-elections were held in all levels of the zemstvo on the basis of universal, direct, equal, and secret voting. After the October Revolution, on January 17, 1918, by decree of the Soviet Government (Sovnarkom), the main committees of the Zemstvo and City Unions were dismissed and their possessions were given to the Supreme Council of National Economy. By July 1918 zemstvos in the territories controlled by the Bolsheviks were removed, but were reinstated in territories controlled by the White Armies and abroad. In 1921 a Committee of Zemstvos and Cities, once again called Zemgor, was established in Paris to provide aid to Russian citizens living abroad. Divisions of the Zemgor also operated in Prague and the Balkans. The Paris Zemgor exists to this day. See also: LOCAL GOVERNMENT AND ADMINISTRATION

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Eklof, Ben, Bushnell John, and Zakharova Larissa, eds. (1994). Russia’s Great Reforms, 1855-1881. Bloom-ington: Indiana University Press. Emmons, Terence, and Vucinich, Wayne S., eds. (1982). The Zemstvo in Russia: An Experiment in Local Self-Government. Cambridge, UK; New York: Cambridge University Press. Starr, Frederick S. (1972). Decentralization and Self-Government in Russia, 1830-1870. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Zaionchkovskii, Petr Andreevich. (1976). The Russian Autocracy under Alexander III. Gulf Breeze, FL: Academic International Press.

OLEG BUDNITSKII

ZERO-OPTION

Originally conceptualized in 1979 by the Social Democratic party of West Germany, the concept of a “zero option” led to the first, albeit more symbolic than substantive, nuclear disarmament treaty between the United States and the Soviet Union. Although it began as a simplistic rhetorical slogan among West German anti-nuclear activists, the concept of having zero nuclear missiles on the European Continent was embraced by U.S. President Ronald Reagan and eventually codified as the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty.

On November 18, 1981, Reagan announced the United States’ support for canceling the deployment of intermediate-range nuclear missiles in Europe, in exchange for Soviet withdrawal of nuclear missiles already positioned in its Eastern European satellite states. Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev immediately dismissed the idea, noting its asymmetric nature: The Soviets were being asked to dismantle an entire class of weapons (from Asia as well as Europe) in exchange for the United States’ non-deployment in Europe alone. As a result of a continued stalemate, Reagan ordered the deployment of nuclear missiles into Western Europe in 1983. Neither Reagan nor Brezhnev and his successors, Yuri Andropov and Konstantin Chernenko, were willing to compromise.

Credit for the eventual success of the zero-option concept, as solidified through the signing of the INF Treaty, rests largely in the hands of Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, who applied a new spirit to Soviet foreign policy. Gorbachev offered a series of unilateral concessions that essentially meant acceptance of a final treaty mirroring Reagan’s initial 1981 proposal. Ironically, as the 1980s progressed and the INF Treaty gained political momentum, it was the Western European nations that balked, voicing fears about Soviet conventional superiority in Europe.

ENCYCLOPEDIA OF RUSSIAN HISTORY

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ZHDANOV, ANDREI ALEXANDROVICH