Also zem(p)stwo. [Russ., f. zemlya land.] An elective district or provincial council in Russia for purposes of local government, created by Alexander II. in 1864.
1865. Saunder’s Newsletter, 8 Feb. He … sneered at the upstart ambition of the Zempstwo class, by which is meant the mere owners of certain acreable amount of the soil.
1877. D. M. Wallace, Russia, xiv. (ed. 2), I. 326. The Zemstvo is a kind of local administration.
1896. Jewish Chron., 17 Jan., 8/1. The Zemstwo of Odessa.
Hence Zemstvoist, a member of a zemstvo.
1905. Times, 8 May, 5/3. The Zemstvoists have split over the question of universal suffrage.
