The World War I through the eyes of witnesses – at the Presidential Library

To commemorate the 100th anniversary of the First World War in 2014, the Presidential Library will open an exhibition titled "Do not break the thread of culture" August 29 at 16.00.

The exhibition, covering the entire period of hostilities between 1914 and 1918, will occupy two exhibition halls of the Presidential Library. It will feature the Russian culture of the period of the World War I. The audience will see both original materials and digitized copies. Among them - archival documents, letters and diaries of the representatives of the artistic intelligentsia - the direct participants in the events, artistic and journalistic works, periodicals of the time, paintings and drawings, lithographs and photographs, posters and billboards, newsreels of the World War I, and more.

War dictated its new conditions for all spheres of human life. Russian artistic culture responded the most keenly to the demands of the times: new themes, directions appeared; the language of art works changed. However, the active civic stand of the representatives of Russian culture, which was expressed in their work, in many ways shaped the public mood that influenced the course of military operations.

The question of attitude toward the war divided the representatives of culture and art into two camps: the "patriots" and "pacifists". The first group advocated the idea of a fair liberation war to the bitter end. "My eternal Russia soars to unprecedented power" - these lines from a poem by Sergei Gorodetsky represent the leitmotif of their creativity. The second group was united by the rejection of war as such, and the denial of the need for Russia to take part in it. "I refuse to be a soldier, as a European, as an artist, as a poet," wrote Maximilian Voloshin.

A series of black-and-white lithographs by Natalia Goncharova "Mystical images of war" present it as the universal catastrophe. Zinaida Hippius, "denying the war not only metaphysically, but historically...", however did not agree to accept "a stupid nickname of the “defeated.” You have to go fighting... not lying to yourself or to others – not "sinking" internally,” she writes it in her diary in 1914, a digital copy of which will be featured at the exhibition.

Many artists and writers during the First World War, went to the front as volunteers, someone was mobilized and sent there on a commission. Their works depict the war through the eyes of witnesses, such as "Notes of a cavalryman" by Nikolai Gumilev, or front-line sketches made by the members of artistic expedition of the Trophy Commission. These copies digitized by the Presidential Library will also be on display. The exhibition will run through October 10, 2014.

The exhibition will also feature digital copies of cheap popular prints created during the war by Kazimir Malevich and Vladimir Mayakovsky, who worked in the publishing house "Today’s popular print." Their work demonstrates the synthesis of traditional Russian folk prints and the avant-garde art.

In addition to the Presidential Library, the exhibits were also provided by: The National Library of Russia, M. Gorky Scientific Library of St. Petersburg State University, Fundamental Library of St. Petersburg State Polytechnic University, Empress Maria Feodorovna Fundamental Library of the A. I. Herzen Russian State Pedagogical University, St. Petersburg Branch of the Gosfilmofond of the Russian Federation, St. Petersburg Theatre Library, Central State Archive of Film and Photo Documents.

The first national electronic library of Russia is preparing to celebrate the most important date in the world and Russian history - the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of the First World War. This week it will launch an exhibition, and the Presidential Library website will feature a collection including unique materials about the war of 1914-1918. In September, as part of the Day of Knowledge, the Presidential Library will host a conference and a video lecture on the First World War.