World history: Exhibition “History of the First World War in postcards” in Moscow

The department of fine editions of the Russian State Library (Moscow) to the centenary of the First World War has prepared an exhibition "History of the First World War (1914-1918) in postcards". The cards reflect the political and military conflict of the consumer side: by photographic and drawn images you can get information about the countries - members of the war, to see Russian text of the manifest of tsar, to feel the mood of the Russian society, to get an idea of the development of graphic art and photography in the early XX century. The exhibition is open until August 31.

The illustrated postcards and other visual materials, especially in the first year of the war, clearly acquainted with participating countries, representing individual tsars and rulers, the map of Europe, national flags and anthems, types of uniforms soldiers. The postcards can contain interesting fine statistics: population and armies, the volume of grain stocks. For example, on one of the cards on display is shown the number of horses warring powers: the most from Russia (33 million heads).

The idea of "Russian national" has become particularly acute in the poster and inspired many famous painters and graphic artists. Among them are Abram Arkhipov, Vasnetsov brothers, Sergei Vinogradov, Konstantin Korovin, Leonid Pasternak, Ignatius Nivinsky and others. Many of them worked for free. One of the first posters was created "to help the victims of war" by Leonid Pasternak, caused personal reaction of the tsar. This poster as a postcard can be seen on display at the RSL - then duplicated simultaneously images for posters and postcards.