“For many Europeans and Russians the decades before World War I were a golden age. 100 years ago the world was experiencing its own form of global economy. Even as centuries-old European and Russian imperial orders loosened their grip, citizens enjoyed greater rights. The arts, literature, and philosophy flourished. Philosophical, religious, and political thought had broken the bonds of deep tradition and new created visions and hopes for the future. And yet the seeds of discontent had been sown. The years of war (1914-1918) and revolution (1917-1921) would reap the whirlwind, changing Europe and Russia forever, destroying old empires and laying the groundwork for both new, hopeful, independent states, like Czechoslovakia, and the nightmares of totalitarianism in Russia and Germany that eventually devoured the brightest and most creative flowers of the war generation.

Scholars investigate the World War I era because in every sense it was a major turning point that affects our lives even today.”


Edith W. Clowes
Professor, Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures
Director, Center for Russian, Eastern European, and Eurasian Studies

 

This exhibition is the result of collaboration between the University of Kansas, Haskell Indian Nations University and the National World War I Museum. KU Libraries is honored to highlight the work of
its partners and of KU scholars.


Research, Remembrances and Reflections of the Great War

February 18 through April 2, 2010