Military Bureaus
Military Bureaus
(in Russian, voinskie prisustviia—military presences), provincial (district, city) bureaus in charge of compulsory military service in prerevolutionary Russia. They were set up in 1874. The military bureaus were in charge of calling up into the army persons subject to military service. The bureaus were subordinated to the Ministry of Internal Affairs. A provincial military bureau was com-posed of a chairman, who was the head of the local civilian authorities (a governor or oblast chief), and several members, including the vice-governor, the chairman of the zemstvo (local elected administration) executive board, the captain of the nobility, the public procurator, members of the zemstvo executive board, and a representative of the local garrison (but not lower than unit commander). The bureaus were abolished in January 1918.