Museums of Great War: projects and perspectives

The Great War 1914-1918 must have been presented in the museum expositions. Just after the beginning of the war, the organization of the first temporary exhibitions started in Russia. However, we know about these projects only from the documents, because they didn’t survive the revolution of 1917. This activity was interrupted by the revolution, as the theme of political events had become more actual for the museum workers. Some projects dedicated to the Great War have been realized during the Soviet era, but their theme was much more limited than during the war, that is why the First World War has been presented «impersonal», «forgotten», «unknown» in Russian and foreign historiography. In spite of the numerous commemorative projects elaborated during the war, there are not enough museums with expositions dedicated to the WWI in Russia. The most known are: the Military-Historical Museum of Artillery, Engineer and Signal Corps and the museum «Russia in the Great War» in Ratnaja Palata. So that, the museumfication and the re-foundation of the memorial places of the Great War has become actual again in the last 20-25 years. That is why the experience of making the expositions and of communication with visitors in foreign museums must be used as an example in Russia. The expositions of two French museums - the Museum of the Great War in Meaux and the Museum of Army in Paris - are taken as the examples.