#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

“The 40th Anniversary of the Solidarity Revolution”

August 2-25, 2021

On the occasion of the 41st anniversary of the founding of the Solidarity Polish trade union, which contributed to the fall of communism in Central and Eastern Europe, Chisinau residents can watch an open-air exhibition on its history, in the city center, until August 25, 2021.

Under the leadership of Solidarity, through peaceful means, the 1980 revolution led to the fall of communism in Poland in the summer of 1989. It also caused an avalanche that affected the entire so-called Eastern Bloc and ended with the fall of the Berlin Wall, and later with the end of Nicolae Ceaușescu's dictatorship in Romania.

The Solidarity Independent Trade Union was officially registered on September 17, 1980, due to a large wave of labor strikes, and gathered at the peak of its activity 10 million Poles. The union gave hope for a dignified, better life in freedom.

The great Solidarity social movement led by Lech Wałęsa helped the people to organize and express their wishes, and the communist authorities in the country were forced to negotiate and conclude agreements with the trade unionists (late August 1980). The slogan "There is no freedom without solidarity" became the message of a peaceful revolution and remained in the minds of Poles for years.

Due to the determination of thousands of people, in 1989 Poland became the first country of the so-called Eastern Bloc, in which, following the discussions at the Round Table, an agreement was reached, which in June 1989 led to the organization of partially free parliamentary elections and the collapse of the communist system. Other countries followed the path of Poland.

The exhibition "The 40th Anniversary of the Solidarity Revolution", prepared by the Polish Institute in Bucharest in the Romanian language version, tells the story of the creation of Solidarity and its impact on the fate of Central and Eastern Europe. The event is organized in partnership with the National Museum of History of Moldova in Chisinau.

The exhibition can be seen on the fence of the National Museum of History of Moldova (31 August 1989 Street, no. 121 A, MD 2012, Chisinau) from 2 to 25 August 2021.

We invite you to the closing of the exhibition, in the presence of Mrs. Natalia Mosor, director of the Polish Institute of Bucharest, on August 25, 2021, at 12.00 at the National Museum of History of Moldova.