World history: The exhibition “World in Flames: people and events of the First World War I in the collection of the Manuscript Department of the National Library of Russia” in Saint-Petersburg

18 September 2014
Source: The National Library of Russia

September 18, 2014 in the Manuscripts Departments of the National Library of Russia (St. Petersburg) opens the exhibition "World in Flames: people and events of the First World War in the collections of the Manuscript Department of the NLR".

The exhibition features 100 original documents, which reflect the events of the First World War. Among the exhibits - field books, letters, diaries, maps, articles, autographs of famous politicians and cultural figures.

First you will see the autographs and letters of Emperor Nicholas II and his cousin and the main enemy of Kaiser Wilhelm, Rasputin and Grand Duke Konstantin Romanov. Here are also prophetic verses of Igor Severyanin and full of anxiety and uncertainty diaries of Zinaida Gippius, dry reports, colorful sketches and maps of places of military operations and uncensored documents.

Unique, miraculously preserved collection of handwritten leaflets is exhibited for the first time. They were written by Russian soldiers in the trenches, addressing the soldiers and officers of the German army. The calls were recorded on the plywood, fabric, wrapping paper. At the beginning of the war, they were full of hatred for the enemy and in 1917 - a sincere desire to stop the bloody nobody wanted confrontation.

The exhibition features the most valuable documents of the time - the handwritten journals of Russian prisoners.

The exhibition in the Manuscript Department is a kind of documentary chronicle of the First World War. Exhibits not only tell in detail about the stages of the war and the people involved in it, but also convey the atmosphere of the time.

The exhibition is opened in the framework of the events dedicated to the First World War Centenary, and will complement a full-scale exhibition "Faces of the Great War: the First World War in the collections of NLR".

The exposition will run until October 18.