On The Livelihood Activities Of Russian Zemstvos In1865-1913

The object of this paper is the livelihood activities of Zemstvos in Russia between1865-1913years. In the government's autocratic rule of the Tsar, the scope of activitiesof Zemstvos is very small, compressed to some people's livelihood areas. But thelivelihood issues are the main aspects that Zemstvos can play a role, but also the majorachievements of the reform of local self-government. This paper selects the biggestachievements of Zemstvos, the most representative of three people's livelihoodactivities-national education, health and medicine, agriculture and farmer problem toexplore the people's livelihood of Zemstvos how and why to achieveremarkable achievement.In the field of national education, the focus of Zemstvos was primaryeducation. In the beginning of the local self-government reform, the county Zemstvospractise the reward system. Reward system inevitably grade color and seriousdrawbacks, but it didn't promote a large number of the establishment of elementaryschools in rural areas. In the1890s, the provincial Zemstvos actived in thedevelopment of primary education, and further proposed the development of universaleducation. In government assistance, universal primary education, carried out invarious large-scale, had make tremendous achievements, and national education hasbecome the most important activities of Zemstvos. In a long time, the provincialZemstvos spend most of the expenditure on education t in secondary schools, after90s,along with the attention of the provincial Zemstvos of primary education and universaleducation, the expenditure the proportion of total national education budget wasgetting smaller and smaller. Training teachers was one of the main activity directionsof the provincial Zemstvos. To this end the Zemstvos, on the one hand, constructed theNormal School and provision scholarships to attract talents in other secondary schools, on the other hand, organized a large number of training courses and congresses forteachers to improve their knowledge and teaching to invite well-knowneducator level. As compared to local self-government staff, teachers and doctors,agronomists, the teachers' wage level is much lower, female teachers particularly. Inthe legal and social status of teachers on the one hand, they suffered close supervisionby the government, the other hand, under their own efforts, their status had someimprovement. In vocational education, including agricultural education and handicrafteducation, the most prominent manifestation of the Zemstvos is a lot of agriculturalschools and crafts schools, training a group of agronomists andtechnicians. Out-of-school education is a useful complement to school education, butalso improve the level of popular culture. The activities of Zemstvos in thedevelopment of out-of-school education is more complex, including the constructionof off-campus library, the organization of civil Reading Club, the founder of the adulttraining courses, published books and periodicals, the establishment of the stacks tocarry out the book trade.In the area of health and medicine, under the leadership of the provincialZemstvos, the construction of provincial hospitals and psychiatric hospitals received ahuge development; under the leadership of the county Zemstvos, the number ofmedical areas, hospitals, healers station, doctors, healers, medical and paramedicalpersonnel and hospital beds in rural areas have been made to grow substantially. At thesame time, Russia's major medical force transformed from healers to doctors, themajor medical institutions transformed from healers station to the hospital, treatmentand management of inspections from the itinerant transition to the hospitalZuozhen. The Russian health care rise from the low level on the treatment andmanagement of state, has taken a first step towards the establishment of a modernhealth care system. Outpatient treatment was free at the beginning, and later with thethe spending of Zemstvos' medical construction, the introduction of charges outpatientincreased in some places. By the end of the19th century, the vast majority of countieshave implemented the free clinic. Hospitalization was chargeable at the beginning, butin the intervention of doctors, Zemstvos put into practice the free hospitaltreatment. To the beginning of the twentieth century, the principle of free medical carewas formally established, and became the most prominent one of the hallmarks of agreat contribution to the medical profession in Russia. In order to free medical care, Zemstvos build a number of pharmacies, and purchased low-cost drugs as much aspossible and distribute drugs freely. To carry out health and disease prevention is animportant part of the local self-government health care. Zemstvos hired a number ofhealth doctors, specializing in health science research, and the established the HealthBureau and Health Committee, and some provinces also set up health surveillancestations. In order to reduce the incidence, o the Zemstvos introduced a number ofhealth regulations, builded charitable health care facilities, including medical-foodstations and summer nursery. Zemstvos took various measures to reduce the casualtyrate of epidemics and infectious diseases. The Zemstvos was responsible for the thevaccinia prevention of smallpox. In order to manage the medical staff, the provincialZemstvos set up the doctor's Congress, which played an important role in thedevelopment of local self-government health care. In addition, doctors have alsoestablished their own professional groups, most important of which is the Associationof Pirogov. Overall, Zemstvos set up a universal free medical care, and it was atremendous achievement in more than100years ago in the autocratic Russia,compared with the pre-reform medical condition, it was a leap.In the issues of agriculture and farmers, in order to overcome the agriculturalcrisis after the reform of serfdom, Zemstvos launched a series of financial institutions,loans to landlords and peasants. These agencies included: Zemstvos banks, mutualcredit and loan savings company; in the1880s, Zemstvos also issued a land mortgage;in the1880s and1890s, Zemstvos funded the development of farmers' land bank tohelp farmers purchase of land and landowners to sell land; to the late19th century andearly20th century, the Zemstvos has also launched a food mortgages, constructed of anumber of microfinance institutions. In order to solve the problem of lack of land andthe proletarianization of farmers, the Zemstvos supported them migrate to Siberia andprotected the village community, limited the land redistributions. In order to developthe rural economy, Zemstvos employed agronomists. Early20th century, Zemstvos setup the post of the agricultural district agronomist. The agronomist constructed theexperimental field, demonstration area, farm, testing station, but also to promote theplanting of grass. Agricultural warehouse is best way to promote improved farmmachinery and agricultural seed. In the problem of agricultural workers, Zemstvosprimarily consider the interests of the landowners as an employer, and later more andmore attention to protect the rights of agricultural workers. In order to develop cottage industries, in1860s an1870s, some Zemstvos began to organize farmers in buildinghandicraft labor teams, but most ended in failure. In order to solve the problem of thesale of handicraft products, the Zemstvos constructed handicraft museum in the late19th century and early20th century. In order to provide funds to the handicraft, theZemstvos established specialized handicraft bank. In order to improve the quality ofhandicraft products, the the Zemstvos constructed of handicraft teaching workshop,employing technical experts. All in all, the greatest success of the Zemstvos ofdeveloping agriculture is sending agronomists to guide agricultural production around,which actually represents a technology-driven comprehensive model of development.In the field of veterinary science, the Zemstvos hired a large number of veterinarypersonnel to prevent animal diseases, and built veterinary area planning, veterinaryhospitals and other medical measures, prompting the main task of the veterinaryscience to shift from disease prevention to treatment. Zemstvos' statisticians inpractice adhered to the statistical method by household, attached importance topersonal visits and asked the farmers to obtain the true and complete livelihoodinformation. The Zemstvos also carried out road construction activities to promote theconstruction of local infrastructure.The reason why people's livelihood activities of Zemstvos in Russia has madegreat achievements, because they adhere to three principles: First, respecting talent,planning and construction for the center to intellectuals; Second, publicwelfareprinciple, as thoroughly as possible for people's well-being, as much aspossible so that people less committed or do not bear the cost; universal principle, sothat all or the majority of people, especially the lower classes to enjoy the benefits ofthe people's livelihood activities. These three principles of our people's livelihoodconstruction are still reference.