Slovenians and the First World War 1914-1918

Ninety years ago, the cannons on the battlefields fell silent and the First World War ended. The exhibition, The Slovenes and The First World War 1914–1918, was prepared by the National Museum of Contemporary History in collaboration with the Gorica Museum, Kobarid Museum and Military Museum of the Slovene Army who co-financed the project. The exhibited selection of museum items and photos tells a story of life in the hinterland and in trenches, having divided European states between 1914 and 1918.  More about

The exhibition is divided into four thematic chapters: Slovenian Regiments and Soldiers, the Front, the Hinterlands and Memory. Most of the attention is focused on Slovenian regiments in the Austro-Hungarian Army and the battlefields they fought on. Many were not listened to while they were still alive trying to tell their war stories. Special attention is also paid to the Isonzo (Soča) Front, where soldiers of different nationalities bled, and of whom we are reminded today by a mass of cemeteries and cultural heritage remains.

‘The Great War’ as it is called by European historians, is a continuation of the processes initiated in the era of industrialization and is a breaking point between the 19th century and modernity, the ‘modern times’. A characteristic thought of a war veteran, later essayist, who experienced life in the trenches, is that the War was a great 'total mobilization', throwing all human and material resources into the War and fatally impacting the 20th century. The First World War changed the political map of Europe, causing traditional empires to crumble. Slovenians were especially influenced by the important and fatal dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Monarch and the creation of new states, the State of Slovenians, Croats and Serbs among them. With the First World War we start talking about global world history in its present sense. Generations of mobilized soldiers in the trenches designed their own views of the world. The new models of thought deeply influenced the post-war era. Political life in Europe was fatally defined by authoritarian social systems, trying to implement the acquired military patterns of community into civil life. The War thus left an indelible seal and unpredictably influenced the later European development. After a long period of peace, the First World War was the first larger military conflict in Slovenian territory, causing huge casualties and material damages. Many of the survived Slovene soldiers were not listened to when they tried to tell about their war experiences while they were still alive. Consequently, special attention at the exhibition was put to forming memory of the war and to our relationship to the cultural and historical heritage.

The exhibition was open in the rooms for temporary exhibitions of the National Museum of Contemporary History between June 12 and October 20, 2009. Between July 27 and August 17, 1008, the selected chapters of the exhibition were presented in Kranjska Gora. Between October 25, 2008 and October 12, 2009, the exhibition was on view at the Kobarid Museum. Individual exhibited objects and selected chapters have been included in the permanent exhibition of the National Museum of Contemporary History, in the room devoted to WW1.

At the invitation of the Institute of Contemporary History, a short journey through the exhibition has been prepared for the Sistory portal on the internet, based on the photographs of the museum instalation at the rooms of the National Museum of Contemporary History. It is, of course, not possible to present all the formerly exhibited objects from the collections of the three museums, galleries and private collectors who kindly gave us the objects on loan for the exhibition. Part of the material from the exhibition is on view at the permanent exhibition of the National Museum of Contemporary History.

The exhibition was given a sub-title, Will I seeyou then, or never again? from the song, Balade 1917, by Vida Jeraj. The wish of many that the war in the period 1914–1918 were the last one did not come true. The exhibition on the First World War would like to help spread the culture of peace and tolerance. The preserved tangible and intangible heritage and many cemeteries bind us to that. Let weapons remain silent for good.

Marko Štepec