The conflict that started after the assassination of Sarajevo (July 28^th, 1914) was an unprecedented historical event by the number of countries involved, the military effort, and the extent of sacrifice. The military conflagration between the years 1914-1918 is cataloged as the first mass war that changed the face of history of the 20^th century. World War I (labeled as such after the war), called at the time the Great War or the War of Nations, made ​​history as it changed not only the world, but also because it as a "new kind of war." For the first time warring countries have resorted to total mobilization of men while women participated in the battlefield as sisters of charity. The progress of military industry has enabled modern destructive technologies such as fighting in the trenches, in the air, on the water; it was the time of the first tanks, armored vessels, heavy guns and chemical weapons.

The exhibition is part of an international commemoration of the centenary from the outbreak of World War I and aims at the valorification of the photo-documentary heritage of the National Museum of History of Moldova. The message of the exhibition is informative and documentary with photographic images documenting life on the front line from combatants to the upper echelon. Selection of original photographs from war albums, newspapers, maps, postcards reveal scenes of war, weapons and ammunition, the soldiers life in hours of respite, medical personnel on the battlefield and behind the front lines, also the horrors left by the military conflagration.
The exhibition is channeled in two directions:

a. Aspects from the battles on the Western front (German armies acting against French, British and Belgian armies), on the Eastern front (German and Austro-Hungarian army fighting against the Russian army) and on the Balkan front where part of Austro-Hungarian army fought against Serbs. War battle scene is completed by Romania's involvement in World War I in 1916, which inscribed a separate page in the war history with the battles from Mărăști, Mărășești and Oituz (1917).

b. Bessarabia and the Bessarabians in World War I. Incorporated into the Russian Empire, Bessarabia had an important contribution under economic and social aspects, the human dimension being most valuable. A big part of future members of Sfatului Ţării and other well-known personalities are found among the participants of the Great War; or common solders called to duty found their rightful place in the exhibition. The research and the valorification of the photographic heritage has allowed us to discover a range of Bessarabian soldiers, participating in that hellish carnage, complementing the list of Bessarabian soldiers. Among them we mention Simion Murafa (v. Cotiujenii Mari, Soroca), who led a sanitation team on the Romanian front, Onufrii Şerevschi (v. Sofia, Drochia), Petru Cebotari (v. Moșeni, Râșcani), Ion Tcaciuc (v. Ivancea, Orhei), Gheorghe Beschieru (v. Samașcani, Orhei), Ion Spătărel (Chișinău) etc. A special page in the history of war was signed by the sisters of charity, including the Bessarabian Iulia Dicescu (one of P. Dicescu' daughters), Sofia Cantacuzino, Elena Ivanov-Spătărel, Eugenia Colodiev, Zinovia Radu-Maiorova etc.

The exhibition message is also conveyed by the newspaper „Iskry" (supplement of „Russkoe slovo") from 1915, with reportages from the battlefield and from behind the front line, a mini-collection of postcards and war map.