#Exhibit of the Month

One of the great technical achievements that revolutionized the idea of time and space, opening a new era in the history of communication, is telegraphy. It is based on the transmission of electrical signals through a cable over long distances, allowing people to communicate instantly. The telegraph spread very quickly and a network of wires stretched around the world.

In 1837, the American painter and physicist Samuel Morse invented the first electromagnetic device for telegraphy, patented in 1840. To send messages by wire, Morse developed in 1838 a simple code of dots and dashes, which represented the letters of the alphabet, known as "Morse code ".

Both Morse code and the telegraph machine were improved over time, with the telegraph becoming the most widespread system of communication and information transmission for more than a century, until the advent of the Internet. The telegraph system consisted of a series of stations repeaters along the transmission line route. Each station had an operator who received and transmitted messages by telegraph. The Morse machine transmitted about 25 words per minute, which were recorded in code on a paper tape. The operator in charge of transmitting the message would decode it and write it on paper using a special typewriter.

In Bessarabia, the telegraph entered in 1860: on April 8, the Bender telegraph station began its activity, and on April 24, the one in Chisinau, following the construction of the first Odesa-Chisinau-Leova telegraph line. Currently, telegraph services have been discontinued. The only ones who still use coded communication are radio amateurs.

The Morse telegraph machine shown comes from the Osinoostrovsky electrotechnical plant, Soviet Union, and dates back to 1934. The exhibit was restored by Mihail Culașco.

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Exhibitions

“CHILDHOOD IN THE GULAG”

Drochia Museum of History, Ethnography and Art

April 1 – 27, 2022

The Museum of Victims of Deportations and Political Repressions (a branch of the National Museum of History of Moldova) in cooperation with the Embassy of the Republic of Lithuania organized on April 1, 2022, at 14:00, the opening of the photo-documentary exhibition "Childhood in the Gulag" at the Museum of History, Ethnography and Art in Drochia (16 Strugurilor Street), with on-site and online presence.

The exhibition brings together about 180 photo-documentary images, accompanied by memoirs and archival documents from the collections of the National Museum of History of Moldova, the Edineț Regional Museum, the Soroca Museum of History and Ethnography, the Archive of the ProMemoria Institute, archives of memory societies from the villages of the Republic of Moldova and especially from the family archives of the victims of the totalitarian-communist regime in the Moldavian SSR.

H.E. Kęstutis Kudzmanas, the Ambassador of the Republic of Lithuania to Chișinău made a welcoming speech at the opening of the exhibition. Ms. Rodica Lozovan, the representative of the Culture, Tourism, Youth and Sports Directorate spoke on behalf of the local authorities. Mr. Dumitru Postovan on behalf of the Drochia Museum of History, Ethnography and Art addressed all participants with the invitation to visit the exhibition from April 1 to 27. Dr. Ludmila Cojocaru, Head of the Museum of Victims of Deportations and Political Repressions, presented to the audience the concept and the main compartments of the photo-documentary exhibition.

The exhibition was accompanied by a round table moderated by Dr. Virgiliu Bîrlădeanu, Head of the Modern History Department at the Institute of History. The round table was attended by representatives of regional museums, students of the Alecu Russo State University Bălți and the State University of Moldova, as well as victims of deportations and political repressions in the Moldavian SSR.

The event ended with a classical music concert in memory of the victims of Stalinist deportations and repressions, as well as the recent child victims of the war in Ukraine.

The photo-documentary exhibition "Childhood in the Gulag" is realized within the Project "Strengthening the European culture of memory by disseminating historical knowledge and promoting democratic values: exchange and implementation of the best practices between Lithuania and the Republic of Moldova" (VB52-1), with the support of The Development Cooperation and Democracy Promotion Program of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Lithuania.