Before the war, Galishcha supplied leather goods to the whole of Austria, and there were up to 109 tanneries there. Most of these factories, after the occupation of Galishchi by Russian troops, ceased production, and they still had reserves of tanning extract, which could be used for tanning leather.
[fragment illegible in the scan of the first edition]
IE et 48 Same thing. Ch ShSZ ZI
`cattle.’ The skins were either buried in the ground or fell into the hands of buyers, who received a large profit from trading in skins and sometimes sold them to the enemy..
Representatives of separate zemstvos and agents of the All-Russian Zemstvo Union began to cooperate with private buyers, and in February this business was transferred to the Zemstvo Union.
On March 6, the Committee entered into an agreement with the Commissariat, according to which the Union was granted the exclusive right to purchase the skins of cattle slaughtered in the army area of the Southwestern Front. The price of the leather was set at 3 rubles. The commanders of military units were given the responsibility of delivering skins removed from slaughtered livestock to supply stores, from where agents of the Zemstvo Union received them. The Committee was obliged to sell the leather it collected at a procurement price only to military and civilian organizations working for the Army. This agreement was not immediately and not universally implemented: at first, representatives of the Union were not very accurately informed about the situation. found! and consumable stores, skins were sometimes not transferred
Union, but were sold to private individuals,
However, gradually the business of collecting leather was established, and with each month the number of leather received increased, as the following data show:
a yb oe her 90 o O E 2 AY I I her 0987 |
A significant part of the collected skins was transferred in raw form to the zemstvo councils, which took over the contract for the army. At the same time, the Committee began producing leather goods and concluded an agreement with the Akron plant in Odessa, according to which the plant agreed to produce the corresponding number of pounds of soles from the 10,000 leathers delivered to it.
To process the collected leather, it was necessary to have larger supplies of tanning extract. Meanwhile, the only tanning extract plant in the south of Russia, located near Kev, stopped working and could only be put into operation if its management had passed into the wrong hands.
In view of this, the question of sequestering the plant was raised. On February 18, the Supreme Commander-in-Chief decided this issue positively, and a few days later the Committee received a proposal to accept the plant into its authority. The plant was in very poor condition: the boilers were dirty and required repairs, the water basins had cracks, and some machines were broken. No less, the Union managed to put the plant into operation in a short time, and already on March 15th the first production of the extract was made.
Thus, already in the first period of work on collecting and processing leather, the Union managed to do a lot.
However, taking into account what was done later, we must consider this period only as a preparatory period, when the forms of future work were begun through experience and developed.
Another new thing that arose during this period was the establishment of the Technical Bureau.
For the institutions of the Union, it was difficult to carry out technical work: arrange water supplies, construct buildings, carry out various repairs and small orders.
The Committee, meeting on March 23, decided to concentrate the work in a special Technical Bureau.
A repair shop was set up in the Lviv Bureau, which was supposed to repair equipment located in various institutions of the Committee. In April, more than thirty people were already working in the workshop. After the necessary materials had been received, the workshop could begin manufacturing items needed for medical institutions: boilers, boilers, beds, etc.
But at this time the evacuation of Galishchi began, and it was necessary to stop work. On May 25, the workshop was transported to Brody, but as soon as it was possible to set it up here, they had to leave the city and transport the machines to K!ev.
Finally, already during the evacuation of Galisha, a new business arose, which later became one of the most important enterprises of the Union.
On May 14, at the meeting of the Committee, it was reported that about twenty-five thousand people, partly military ranks, and partly residents of Lvov and Ozhentsy, are taking part in the fortification work near Lvov. They do not receive enough hot food, there are no boilers in the places where they work, and there is a risk of spreading infectious diseases.