ABSTRACT
Before the era of great reforms, few people were seriously concerned with satisfying either the basic or the cultural needs of the lower strata of society, especially in rural areas. After the peasant reform, there was a need for special institutions to assume the task of raising the standard of living and the cultural level of the people, and on January 1, 1864, the government issued the “Statute on Provincial and District Zemstvo Institutions.” In the uiezdy “uiezd zemstvo assemblies” were organized; they were composed of “uiezd zemstvo assemblymen,” who were elected by three categories of voters: landowners, urban communities, and peasant communities. To all statements by liberal members of the zemstvo, the government invariably answered that they were going beyond the rights and powers of the zemstvo outlined in the Statute of 1864. An important area of zemstvo work was medical assistance to the rural population.
