 Each district was intended to command combat formations, as well as act as a military-administrative organ on a regional scale - 'the War Ministry on a local level'.The Kazan Military District, with its headquarters in Kazan, took in the Orenburg, Kazan, and Ufa Governorates, part of the Perm Governorate, and the Ural and Turgay regions.In 1911, the 16th and 24th Army Corps were formed in the district, and just before the First World War, the district's staff was reorganised as the 4th Army.