#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

The compartment „Bessarabia in the 19th Century”

(Permanent Exhibition “History and Civilization”)

This compartment of exhibition reflects the history of Bessarabia in the modern time. As a result of the Russo-Turkish War of 1806-1812 (that were fought in the area of Romanian Principalities of Moldova and Wallachia and ended with the conclusion of the Treaty of Bucharest of 16 / 28 May 1812) the Russian Empire annexed the eastern part of the Principality of Moldova (the territory between the Prut and Dniester) and incorrectly extended the name of Bessarabia to all the lands between the Danube and Hotin (the Turkish rayahs of Hotin, Bender, and Ismail were also annexed). The exhibition also aims to reflect the main events which determined the evolution of Bessarabia for 106 years of foreign domination.

The compartment „Bessarabia in the 19th Century”

Administration. One of the main instruments of the imperial policy of integration, standardization, and / or Russification was the provincial administration, a phenomenon illustrated by the Statute of 1828 or "The Concise Code of Laws" by Andronache Donici (1850). The second half of the 19^th century - the era of "great reforms" - have led to the establishment of "zemstvo" in Bessarabia (1869) - a body of local self-administration, focused primarily on the issues related to the daily needs of the population: taxes, welfare, education, medicine, agriculture. In this sense, it should be noted the construction of the impressive buildings of the hospital in Costiujeni and the Zemstvo Museum.

Chisinau is presented in the exhibition as a place of residence of the tsarist military administration, and then as the administrative center of the region (since 1818). Russification has influenced even the architectural look of the town. The intense process of urbanization can be traced through the exhibits: the architectural project of a house from Chisinau, town views of the times: Shumsky's House, Swiss Hotel, as well as the images of outstanding persons: Carol Schmidt, a mayor of Chisinau (1877-1903) and the city's chief architect Alexander Bernardazzi, both of which contributed greatly to the modernization of the city.

Economy. The main features of Bessarabian economy in the period between 1812 and 1918 are presented by items related to agricultural and industrial work. They confirm the almost exclusively agrarian character of the economy of the province, which to some extent also contributed to the process of Russification of the population.

Cultural and scientific life of the province is marked by the appearance of local press. It is official press written almost entirely in Russian. However, there are some publications in Romanian: "Buletinul Eparhiei Chișinăului" („Bulletin of the Eparchy of Chisinau") (1868) "Luminatorul" ("Luminary") (1913), "Cuvant Moldovenesc" ("Moldavian Word") (1915). Other original exhibits reflect the formation of educational system in Bessarabia (a photograph of a group of teachers from the Chisinau Non-Classical Secondary School, "The Initial Course of Romanian language" by I. Doncev (1865), various certificates of graduation) and the activities of some scientific societies from Bessarabia ("Report on the status and activities of the Bessarabian Church Historical and Archaeological Society", "Proceedings of the Bessarabian Society of Naturalists").

In the segment of the exhibition devoted to the rural and urban life of the province the original household items and furniture are incorporated into the reconstructions of a shop showcase, a living room, and a study of the 19^th century. Russian influences in the urban environment clearly contrasts with preserved traditionalism in the villages of Bessarabia.