#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.

Virtual Tour

Exhibitions

“Dictatorship and Democracy in the Age of Extremes. A View on European History of the Twentieth Century”

June 17 – July 17, 2014

The exhibition is organized at the National Museum of History of Moldova by the Embassy of Germany in the Republic of Moldova.

Exhibition “Dictatorship and Democracy in the Age of Extremes. A View on European History of the Twentieth Century”

It is performed by the Institute for Contemporary History in Munich, Deutschlandradio Kultur and the Federal Foundation for the Reappraisal of the SED Dictatorship, Germany.

The 26 photo-documentation panels of the exhibition present a brief review of the European development in the twentieth century between dictatorship and democracy.

The twentieth century was full of events that changed the world. Oscillating between antagonistic manifestations, it became the century in which democracy was widespread, but the invasion of totalitarian regimes (fascist and communist) periodically destroyed democratic gains.

The authors of the exhibition by means of photographs and documents attempted to reconstruct the crucial moments of the twentieth century, which have made major political, economic social and military changes in Europe. The First World War, the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia, the establishment of the Weimar Republic, the establishment of the Stalinist regime in the Soviet Union, the establishment of a fascist regime in Italy, Great Depression, the rise of the National Socialists led by Hitler in Germany, the Second World War, persecution and extermination of Jews, the end of the war and the division of Europe, the Cold War, confrontation between capitalism and communism, the process of liberalization in Western Europe, the bankruptcy of the communist regime, European integration and the creation of the European Union - these are the topics covered in the exhibition.

The exhibition aims to promote the idea of building a united Europe based on historical values and remembering a common past, on the increasing intercultural dialogue and concepts such as tolerance, solidarity, democracy, equality of opportunity and mutual understanding. A united and social Europe is the only chance for a better future of our continent.