The exhibition “On War, Love and Faith…: The First World War in the Regional Dimension” is dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the beginning of the First World War of 1914-1918.
In 2014, the entire world community and scientific circles are celebrating the 100th anniversary of the beginning of the First World War, in which both sides (adversaries) were involved, mostly European countries and other regions of the world, and which brought millions of victims, the destruction of the population of many countries. The war had its consequences, it had a negative impact on the life of the Katerynoslav province – our region.
The exhibition, presented by the Dnipropetrovsk National Historical Museum, presents unique materials from the museum’s funds that reveal the regional dimension of this terrible world war, which began in Europe on August 1, 1914. For the first time, the exhibition displays photographs, campaign posters, postcards, newspapers from Ekaterinoslav, who patriotically called on the population to defend the Motherland. Mobilization took place in all regions of the country.
During the war, Katerynoslav turned into a hospital rear center, as evidenced by the numerous photos and belongings of the doctors exhibited at the exhibition. Only in the Zemstvo hospital (Regional Hospital named after I.I. Mechnikov) 200 beds were prepared for wounded soldiers. But already the first batch of wounded exceeded the capacity of the hospital — there were 282 people. The premises of the Potemkin Palace, the English Club, the girls’ gymnasium, and the Alekseevsky Asylum on St. Sevastopol, children’s hospital named after I.M. Alekseev. The factories of Katerynoslav manufactured hospital beds (one of them is exhibited at the exhibition in the interior of the infirmary) and equipped wagons for transporting the wounded, all medical workers were mobilized, and ordinary residents of the city became sisters of mercy and orderlies (photos in the exhibition). By the end of 1914, there were 11 hospitals in Katerynoslav for 2,000 wounded. Newspapers published lists of those killed in the war and the dead, which increased every month. Our compatriots were among those who died.
