On July 31 in Irkutsk, a unique edition Irkutsk and Irkutsk residents in the First World War will be presented, a book based on archival documents and rare photos. It tells of Siberian rifle divisions, officer training in Irkutsk and city life in 1914 to 1917, and the appendix contains lists of St George knights and war memoirs. At the same time, the history department of the local museum will open the exhibition Scorching Years with more than a hundred items from the First World War era.

The presentation of the unique publication “Irkutsk and the Irkutsk People in the First World War” will take place on July 31 as part of the official opening ceremony of the exhibition “Scorching Years,” dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the First World War.
On the pages of the book, created by Irkutsk historians on the basis of archival documents, the combat path of the Siberian rifle divisions is described, as well as the training of officer personnel in Irkutsk for the front, and the life of the city and the people of Irkutsk in 1914–1917. The publication is illustrated with rare photographs. The appendix includes lists of Irkutsk residents awarded the Cross of St. George, found in the archives of Irkutsk and Moscow, as well as memoirs of war participants collected by staff of the historical and ethnographic expeditions of Irkutsk State University.
The exhibition will open in the History Department of the Irkutsk Regional Museum of Local Lore. The exhibition will feature more than a hundred items from the museum’s collections: photographs, documents, personal weapons, civilian clothing, military uniforms, military equipment, orders and medals, banners, books, albums, and posters from the early 20th century.
In addition, representatives of the delegation of Irkutsk residents who installed a memorial sign at the burial site of soldiers of the Russian Imperial Army in the Republic of Belarus near the villages of Cheremshitsy and Knyaginino have been invited to the exhibition opening. There, according to wartime documents, soldiers and officers of the 7th Siberian Rifle Division, which left Irkutsk for the front in 1914, were buried. The names of several Irkutsk residents who died in battles, as well as the names of their comrades-in-arms, natives of Transbaikalia and the Yenisei Governorate, have been restored. The memory of those who fell on the battlefields was immortalized by a memorial cross made of century-old oak, installed at the burial site of the soldiers, with the inscription: “To the valiant Siberian riflemen who fell in the battle near Naroch in 1916 from grateful descendants of Irkutsk.”
Based on materials from the press service of the Government of the Irkutsk Region.