In 1867, Vereshchagin volunteered for service in the Russian army in Turkestan (a region encompassing parts of present-day Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan) and participated in military actions against the Emir of Bukhara. For his bravery in the defense of Samarkand he was awarded the highest military decoration of Russia: the Order of St. George. His ‘Turkestan series,’ painted on the basis of sketches and studies done during the war, also brought him considerable fame and recognition in the Russian upper class.
Scenes of Central Asian barbarism and death made a great impression on the artist. Philosophical reflections on catastrophic consequences of all war are reflected in his picture “The Apotheosis of War” , which shows a pyramid of skulls amidst burnt desert, the ruins of a city in the background. On the frame the painter wrote his dedication "to all conquerors, who were, who are, and who will be": an unambiguous condemnation of war.
