The First World War did not represent only a displacements of troops, unpredicted situations and series of events, but also a radical and painful shifts of events, with strong implications in the social and political spheres.
The First World War caused the collapse of a world and the emergence of another, one where the older generations could not adapt or identify with anymore. The attempt to find a refuge where time might have miraculously stopped, became an imaginary landmark for the older generations. A more difficult situation was being faced by the generation that had fought the war, a generation that at 20 years old had been definitely and irreparably torn from its families.
Without realizing it, a barrier between the two worlds appeared: those left at home and those fighting in the trenches. After four or five years of war, the ones in the trenches come back home with different customs and radical thoughts.
The war affected the entire society, changed characters, caused powerful collective traumas.
The project “War Journal” wishes to offer the public a fragmentary representation of life in Bucharest one hundred years ago. Although Europe was being caught in the flames of war, in Romania and in Bucharest, people lived in an apparent peace that gradually became a very strong factor of pressure.
The exhibition is hosted by the Bucharest Municipality Museum, at the Suțu Palace, from November 19th to December 15th 2014. The opening of the exhibition will take place on November 19th, 13:00, at the Suțu Palace, and will be joined by the Military Tradition Association (www.traditia-militara.ro) which is a member of the oldest nucleus of historical-military reenactment of the 19th – 20th centuries in Romania, also the first one to be officially added, and is representing Romania at the European Union of Historical-Military Associations. The honorary president of MTA is academician Dinu C. Giurescu and Military Consultant is Col. Dr. Vasile Popa – former Director of the National Military Museum. Starting with 2004, MTA took part in many specific events (www.traditia-militara.ro/forum/YaBB.pl?board=2) in the country and in nine other states: France, Italy, Germany, Austria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Bulgaria, Ukraine and Russia. In March 2007 the association gained juridical status and its current name was adopted in 2008. Starting with the 1st of December 2009, MTA is the only organization of its kind to take part in the annual military parade at the Arch of Triumph on the National Day.