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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



increased from 50 to 302. The societies 

 for wholesale purchase have increased 

 from 40 to 400. 



There are now 60 credit unions work- 

 ing, with some 10,000 separate coopera- 

 tive credit societies. In Moscow there 

 has been organized a Central Cooperative 

 Credit Bank, which in 191 5 did a busi- 

 ness of $140,000,000. 



It is. impossible to imagine how wide- 

 spread have become the ramifications of 

 these unions and societies. There are 

 now building or in operation flour mills, 

 oil works, starch works, paper and sugar 

 plants, and machine shops. In one town 

 we have an electric-light plant, giving 

 people light for a dollar a year. 



There is no doubt that in thus helping 

 their members to the number of millions 

 these societies have in no small degree 

 contributed to the military successes of 

 Russia, for in every instance they can be 

 found working in close harmony with the 

 committees of the zemstvos engaged in 

 the buying and furnishing of the enor- 

 mous quantities of supplies needed by the 

 armies. 



Under the leadership of devoted and 

 able administrators, the numberless com- 

 mittees appointed by the various zemstvos 

 have been untiring in reaching out for 

 new fields of activity, and only the sus- 

 picion and jealousy of the official classes 

 has prevented them from turning Russia 

 into one great communistic settlement. 



The catalogue of the work undertaken 

 and carried to success by these commit- 

 tees would be long and meaningless. 

 Some of the more interesting of these 

 phases, however, may properly be 

 touched upon. 



Let us take, for example, almost any 

 point on any railroad leading from the 

 interior to the fighting front of Russia 

 at the present time. As you emerge from 

 your railroad car at the station, you prob- 

 ably see on a switch in the yard a long 

 train of cars painted gray, with big, red 

 crosses on the sides, and, on looking 

 closer, you can read, "Hospital train for 

 active army service of the . . . Zems- 

 tvo." Into this train stretcher-bearers are 

 carrying wounded men from motor am- 

 bulances outside the station, similarly 

 marked, which have just come in from 



the temporary hospitals established by the 

 same committee just behind the lines of 

 trenches. 



IN COOPERATIVE EFFORT RUSSIA CAN 

 TEACH US MUCH 



Nurses, orderlies, doctors, medicines, 

 and dressings — all are provided by these 

 same units and without expense to the 

 government. In each city, town, and vil- 

 lage women are organized into groups — 

 sewing, making bandages, knitting warm 

 sleeping things, or doing something else 

 useful — much as they are in all the other 

 belligerent countries, but with a far 

 greater degree of coordination and less 

 of confusion and duplication of effort 

 than is to be found anywhere else. 



In a country so singularly inefficient as 

 Russia is in many ways, there is yet much 

 for us to learn in the way of cooperative 

 effort and aid. 



One of the most interesting private in- 

 stitutions, which works along the same 

 lines as do the committees just de- 

 scribed, is what is known as "Purushke- 

 vitch Points." Mr. Purushkevitch has 

 been a member of several of the Dumas, 

 and at the beginning of the war organ- 

 ized at his own expense a number of 

 "points." 



I visited and made a thorough inspec- 

 tion of a "point," situated not far from 

 the city of Dvinsk, on the northern front 

 of Russia. We started out in a fast 

 American automobile and, after going as 

 far as was thought safe for the car to- 

 ward the front-line trenches, we left it 

 and proceeded on foot to the point. This 

 was a settlement some couple of miles 

 behind the front trenches. 



A Sister of Mercy was in general 

 charge of the whole work. Under her 

 were three doctors — men too old for the 

 active work at the front, but quite ready 

 to perform any minor operations or give 

 any necessary dressings or other aid. 

 They had a well-equipped hospital in a 

 tent surmounted by a large Red Cross 

 flag. 



Other tents were dining, dressing, and 

 sleeping rooms, and still others contained 

 supplies and quarters for the large staff 

 of orderlies and attendants. 



The sister in charge told me that there 



