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The number of members of the Union changed according to the situation at the front.
Members' contributions are collected by the local committees and sent over to the provincial branches of the Union.
The Union is based on the principle of democratic centralisation. The Annual All-Russian Congress represents the supreme organ of the Union; in the intervals its functions are assumed by the Central Committee elected by the All-Russian Congress. Then come the provincial branches, at present their number amounts to 60; then come the district Departments and finally local committees are formed in the local Post and Telegraph offices.
The principle of centralisation is carried out from top to bottom. An immense amount of work has been accomplished by the Union in the districts liberated from the counter-revolutionary bands.
It is evident that the white guards, supported by the Allies, had abolished the Unions wherever they had the possibility of doing so. But as soon as the Ukraine and the Crimea were liberated from the white guards and the bands of Petlura in the spring and the summer of 1919 the Central Committees sent 7 members to the Ukraine; these members organised, after the calling of provincial Congresses, 7 provincial branches. All the provincial Congresses unanimously acknowledged the principle of centralisation; they protested against an independent Union in the Ukraine. After the provincial Congresses the Central Committee convened a Conference of the South of Russia; the latter also confirmed the principle of centralisation. The occupation of the South of Russia by the white bands put an end to the work of the Union; and everything was destroyed. It is only thanks to the victory of the Red Army that the work
