In July 1914, the long-standing tension between the two military-political blocs in Europe escalated into an Europe- and world-wide military conflict of unprecedented proportions. Bulgaria’s declared neutrality soon became inconvenient to both warring sides, and Bulgaria recognised it could only achieve its national ideals through direct involvement in the war. In the hall dedicated to the war, visitors can learn of the reasons for Bulgaria’s involvement in the conflict on the side of the Allied Powers and follow the army’s participation. Represented are the manoeuvring period of the war, with the successful actions of the Bulgarian army and its allies against the Serbian, Romanian, and Russian troops in Eastern Serbia, Vardar Macedonia, and Dobrudzha, and the positional defence of the Southern Front, stretched over 500 kilometres from Shkumbin River near Lake Ohrid to the Maritsa Delta, covered predominantly by the Bulgarian forces. The exhaustion of the Bulgarian troops, together with the overall advantage of the Allied forces in September of 1918, led to the breakthrough at the Bulgarian Dobro Pole positions. In the wake of the defeat came the signing of the Armistice of Salonika, which arranged the conditions for cessation of hostilities; a year later the Treaty of Neuilly was signed. It severed further 11,278 sq. km of territory with a predominantly Bulgarian population, banned compulsory conscription, and introduced a volunteer system of army staffing, capping the total army personnel at 20,000, and the country was prohibited from maintain an Air Force and a Navy.
The First World War is represented through a great variety of artifacts, due in part to the fact that the founding of the War Museum coincided with the global conflict, explicitly for the preservation of the memory of the unfolding events. The museum narrative is illustrated with uniforms and weapons of the belligerents, as well as an array of personal items of the Bulgarian commanders and common soldiers.
