#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”

ȚĂRII CRIȘURILOR MUSEUM – MUSEUM COMPLEX

January 16 – March 1, 2024

On January 16, 2024, the Museum of Victims of Deportations and Political Repressions of the National Museum of History of Moldova together with the Țării Crișurilor Museum - Museum Complex, in partnership with the Bihor County Council and the Oradea City Hall, in cooperation with the Embassy of the Republic of Lithuania, organized the opening of the photo-documentary exhibition "Childhood in the Gulag" (curator Dr. Ludmila Cojocaru).

The exhibition "Childhood in the Gulag" presents photo-documentary images that reflect the life of Bessarabian children condemned to deportation, starvation, Russification, indoctrination and forced separation from their families based on the repressive policies of the totalitarian-communist regime in the Moldavian SSR, in the periods 1940-1941 and 1944-1953. The exhibition brings together about 180 photo-documentary images, accompanied by memories and archival documents from the collections of the National Museum of History of Moldova, the Edineț County Museum, the Museum of History and Ethnography in Soroca, the Pro Memory Institute, from the archives of the local memory communities, as well as from the family archives of the totalitarian-communist regime's victims.

The vernissage was opened by the public speeches by Prof. Dr. Gabriel Moisa, manager of the Oradea Țării Crișurilor Museum - Museum Complex, Dr. Cristina Liana Pușcaș, museographer, and via video by the curator Dr. Ludmila D. Cojocaru, Museum of Victims of Deportations and Political Repressions, branch of the National Museum of History of Moldova. Among those present at the Opening were: SE Virgil Bercea, the Greek-Catholic bishop of Oradea, deputy Ioan Mang, as well as students from the "Iuliu Maniu" Greek-Catholic High School, the "Emanuil Gojdu" National College and the Orthodox High School "Roman Bishop Ciorogariu" of Oradea.

The exhibition is hosted by the Oradea City Museum section (Emanuil Gojdu Street no. 39-41) until March 1, 2024, and can be visited from Tuesday to Sunday, between 9:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m.

The photo-documentary exhibition "Childhood in the Gulag" was made with the support of "The Development Cooperation and Democracy Promotion Programme" of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Lithuania.