From the very first days of the 1914–1918 war, Russia was swept by a broad patriotic movement to organize comprehensive aid to the fighting army, including wounded and sick soldiers, their families, and refugees. The imperial family itself set an example, in particular Empress Alexandra Feodorovna and her elder daughters, Olga and Tatiana.
One area of work was the collection of clothing and linen for the wounded, which were sent to the front and to rear-area infirmaries and hospitals. The Empress specifically organized the "Ladies' Circle for Supplying Clothing to the Wounded," small in number and made up mostly of "society ladies," and yet working very effectively. Suffice it to say that in a short time a large stockroom of linen was created in the Winter Palace, to be dispatched to the front.
Donations were accepted both as ready-made clothing and as money. In the latter case, arranging "charity sales" was widely practiced, the essence of which was as follows. The Ladies' Circle would order special money of various denominations to be printed, and donors at an evening of "charity sales" would buy a set of the circle's "money" corresponding to their donation; with it they could buy from the organizers a purely symbolic souvenir (not worth even a hundredth part of the donated sum) or keep the received "notes" as a memento.