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Objects of the First World War in the Collection of Sholokhov Museum-Reserve

The National M.A.Sholokhov Museum-Reserve keeps objects of the First World War period. Among them there is Adrian helmet which is a part of the outfit of the Russian riflemen, and a filing of “L’Illustration” periodical published in 1915 in France. These objects are going to be displayed at the thematic exhibitions of the Museum-Reserve.

M.A.Sholokhov in his novel “And Quiet Flows the Don” recreated the scenes of the First World War with amazing accuracy; he told about the inner state of the soldiers fighting in it. Some episodes describe the frontline life and the outfit of the soldiers.

The Adrian helmet designed in 1915 to protect the head from shell fragments and shrapnel was used in the outfit of the Russian riflemen who were sent to France in the years of the First World War. The metal helmet was named after the designer Louis Auguste Adrian, a French army general. The helmet was cheap and easy to manufacture, it weighed less than the foreign analogues. That is why, by the end of the First World War it had been used in the armies of Belgium, Greece, Italy, Russian Empire, Japan, Luxembourg, Mexico, Morocco, Peru, Poland and Yugoslavia. In the mid 1916, Russia ordered 2 millions of such helmets, but by the end of the year only 340 thousand of them had been delivered. The helmets got a name of “M1916” and differed from the French ones only in the front emblem and a light ocher colour.

The Adrian helmet was a prototype for the first Russian helmet of 1917 (“Solberg”), and beginning from 1924, the helmets in stock were used in the outfit of the Red Army; the helmets were repainted khaki and the old emblem was replaced by a big metal star. According to some data the Adrian helmets were in the Red Army until 1939.

The magazine “L’Illusration” of May–August, 1915, which copies are kept in the Museum-Reserve of M.A.Sholokhov, contain the materials about the First World War, about Cossacks fighting in battles, about Russia and Nicholas II. There are a lot of photographs, coloured and black-and-white illustrations, articles of the officers, war correspondent reports, frontline chronicles, description of important events taking place in the combatant states.

The large-size multi-page illustrated weekly with the circulation of 100 thousand copies was very popular both in France and abroad. Alphonse Daudet and Gustave Flaubert collaborated in the magazine, which was published from 1843 to 1944.

“L’Illustration” was a mirror of all the big events and everyday life in France and in the world. In the years of the Second World War the magazine became the voice of Nazi propaganda and lost its popularity. In 1944, after the liberation of Paris the periodical was closed.

Marina Pribytkova