Faces of war (1914-1918)

REMEMBERING FOR THE SAKE OF Reminding

In the world conflict known as the First World War, the European or the Great War, which lasted four years from the summer of 1914. by the fall of 1918, more than thirty countries participated, and about seventy million people were mobilized. About ten million must have lost their lives, and another twenty million soldiers were maimed. There are no accurate data on the millions of civilian casualties.

The war was led by the two major coalitions and their allies: the Entente (France, Great Britain, Russia, Italy, Romania, Serbia and Greece) and the Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, Turkey and Bulgaria). The history of mankind did not remember such a war until then, but Macedonia and its population did not manage to escape from its network. As a matter of fact, in contrast to the states that fought for dominance, the Macedonian people and members of other nations from Macedonia fought in the armies of the states, for interests that had no meaning for them.

In 1915, the Macedonian Front was formed (with a length of 450 km on the territory from Lake Ohrid to the Orphan Bay of the Aegean Sea), on which until the end of 1918 soldiers from the world's strongest armies were recruited and died: German, Bulgarian, French, English, Austro-Hungarian, Russian, Serbian, Montenegrin; camps for prisoners of war, hospitals for the wounded were established and cemeteries for the dead sprang up. More than one million soldiers fought on the Macedonian front, of which 150,000 died, 330,000 were wounded, and 100,000 disappeared. A large number of difficult battles were fought, such as those at Crna Reka, Gornichevo, Kajmakchalan, Dobro Pole and Dojran, which together with the city of Bitola were almost completely destroyed by the constant shelling of the two opposing sides.

Macedonia turned into a territory where the rules and principles of the warring states were implemented, but at the same time a field where human lives were constantly exploited (more than 65,000 people in the Serbian army, about 130,000 people in the Bulgarian army and 20,000 people part of the Greek army).

The Great War left huge consequences on the Macedonian territory. The economy, trade, education were destroyed, but mostly the population, which was a victim of the battlefields, of the many diseases and of the mass migrations to preserve life.

In order not to forget the destinies of our ancestors, the State Archives of the Republic of Macedonia under the auspices of the President of the Government of the Republic of Macedonia organizes the exhibition "Faces of War: Macedonia and the Macedonians in the Great War 1914-1918". Through the exhibition, the State Archives for the first time presents photographs and documents from the archive funds of the Serbian and Bulgarian administration until 1918, as well as personal archive funds such as: "First World War (1914-1918)" (microfilms), "Milton Manaki" " (photos), "Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Serbia - Belgrade (1839-1918)", "Royal Serbian Legation - London (1879-1918) "Macedonian Military Inspection District (1915-1918)", "Ninth Stage Regiment, I Battalion, Veles (1915-1918), "Ninth Stage Regiment, II Battalion - Skopje (1915-1918), "Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Great Britain (Foreign Office)" etc.

The State Archives, through 60 exhibition panels with more than 200 photographs and 300 documents with the exhibition, tried to ask and answer questions such as:

• Why should we remember? Because remembering is an exclusively human trait.
• What should we remember? On the destinies of our ancestors and on their hope, which was like a walking dream, because their soul remains alive if we remember it.
• What is the purpose of the exhibition? To show the fate of the Macedonians in the Great War. To revive the memory of the sacrifices made by the Macedonian people.
• What is shown in the exhibition?
• The beginning of the First World War;
• The Faces of War;
• The mobilization and recruitment of Macedonians by Serbia and Bulgaria;
• The Albanian Golgotha;
• Macedonian military-inspection district and administrative division;
• The Macedonian (Thessaloniki) front – an occasion for common memory of the battles on the territory of Macedonia and the breakthrough of the front;
• Fates and courage shown on the front—when it was most difficult to survive in the background of the war, it was human to show one's courage in everyday life;
• Women and war, regardless of age and nationality; the woman through the humanitarian work, women's rights, emancipation and feminism, the woman in the background, in the then established hospitals, dispensaries, the woman in the charitable societies, the woman as disabled, widow, single mother, head of the family, worker, farmer, etc.;
• Foreign armies – Serbian, Bulgarian, French, German, Italian, Austro-Hungarian, prisoners of war and refugees;
• The clergy and its role on the front and in everyday life;
• The consequences throughout the entire period and after the Great War – war orphans, widows, disabled, dead and missing Macedonians, the ruins of the bombings, the looting of cultural heritage, destroyed properties, broken families, etc.;
• Military cemeteries and their care;
• "Creating memory" – celebrating anniversaries, building monuments and chapels, establishing associations to honor the victims of the Great War.

Remembering weighs, but dealing with it is just as difficult. The memory of the war is absolutely important to all the direct and indirect participants concerned at the time, who deserve to be depicted as recorded by official documentation. A measuring unit of the humanity of a society is the attitude of people towards the preservation of memory for the participants in the liberation struggles, in the wars, for the victims of the repressions, etc.

The war is slowly leaving living memory, so let the Centenary of the Great War as well as the documentation from the State Archives remind us that every human life is important, indirectly or directly involved in the events.