“The Great War in images and pictures” is a periodic publication that was published from 1914 to 1917, with a total of 14 issues. They contain appeals, manifestos, essays describing events at the frontline, hospitals, the rear, and a war diary. Dozens photographs of particular value from Russian and European photojournalists are included. Prominent representatives of the artistic and literary world of that era designed the publication and wrote the texts: academicians K. E. Makovsky and N. K. Roerich, artists N. S. Samokish, V. A. Serov, as well as many representatives from the military-literary field: general M. I. Botyanov, poet S. Gorodetsky, prince P. D. Dolgorukov, prince M. M. Kochubey, professor V. D. Kuzmin-Karavaev, academician A. P. Semenov-Tyan-Shansky, count A. N. Tolstoy, prince E. Trubetskoy, S. N. Bulgakov.

Despite the soft cover, this publication got a lot of attention, and the best materials were used for publications. Firstly, it is necessary to note the luxurious design of both the issues themselves and the folder. The best artists of that time designed the issues. Even the smallest details were worked out. Although the issues were published in some of the most difficult times for the country economically, this did not affect the quality. An individual cliché was made for each album. The publishers chose only the best compositions for printing and personally selected the paper. Pictures were glued to the page. This is due to the fact that all the pictures were printed separately using chromolithography.

Chromolithography is essentially colored lithography. While creating a picture, each individual form is given its own color (sometimes there were more than 20 forms). The forms were made out of metal or stone.

Large pictures were pasted onto a separate sheet of paper (a thick sheet of paper with tinting and fine embossment) and separately protected with tracing paper.

Of course, the content of the albums was not inferior to its design. Nobody knew yet that it was only the First World War and then it was called “The Great” or “The Second Patriotic” war. Practically, this war not only marked the beginning of the 20th century, but showed a completely new war with the use of completely new types of weapons to the whole world. The albums show various historical notes that were made during the war. In them you can read how soldiers got acquainted with the appearance of armored vehicles, submarines, explosive bullets, weapons of mass destruction, guns, tanks and other things at the frontline. You can read about the war directly from various soldiers from every country of Europe and Asia, complete with a description and historical essays of events that took place. Also, you can have a look at statistical data during the course of the war. At that time, the authors of the publication were active military commanders who went through the war, historians and correspondents of that time.