Vasilii Vereshchagin's individual exhibition in Vienna begins a series of the artist's individual exhibitions in the West. The popular success of the exhibition was matched by a large number of press reviews, many of which commended the anti-war message of the Balkan Series. A group of students of different Slavic nationalities organised a dinner in honour of Vereshchagin, in which realism was declared 'the ideal of the Slavonic people'.