#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

Events Archive

DAY OF REMEMBRANCE FOR VICTIMS OF STALINISM

July 5-6, 2022

From July 5 to July 6, 2022, a series of events dedicated to July 6, the Day of Remembrance for Victims of Stalinism, was held at the National Museum of History of Moldova.

On July 5, 2022, the Scientific-Practical Conference "Memory of Stalinist deportations and repressions: practices, problems and prospects of museum exploration" took place. The event brought together representatives of the museum community, along with historians, anthropologists, philologists and lawyers concerned with museumification the memory of Stalinist deportations and repressions from the perspective of responsibilities, roles and challenges facing museums in presenting the totalitarian-communist past of the Moldavian SSR.

On July 6, 2022, in the Blue Room of the National Museum of History of Moldova, a memorial event "Gulag Stories" was held with the participation of victims of deportations and political repressions, representatives of the younger generation, the media and civil society. The opening event was attended by the Consul of the Republic of Lithuania in the Republic of Moldova, Egle Broznelene, who spoke about bilateral projects implemented in the field of recovery and historical development of the memory of the victims of the totalitarian-communist regime and joint activities to form a European culture of memory.

As part of the commemorative events, the presentation of the animated short film "Mâța Fără Nume" took place. The film was made by Ghenadie Popescu based on the testimonies of survivors of the Stalinist repressions and is dedicated to the memory of the victims of deportation from the Moldavian SSR. The project was supported by the National Center for Cinematography in cooperation with the National Museum of History of Moldova, the Impact-Plus Production House and the HomoDiversus Association.

The commemorative actions were accompanied by the opening of the photo-documentary exhibition "Testimonies from the Gulag. Memory of the victims of the totalitarian-communist regime". The exhibition was elaborated by Virgiuliu Bîrlădeanu, Ludmila D. Cojocaru, Elena Postică and others within the project "Memory culture for societies in the process of democratic transformation: promoting good practices between Lithuania and the Republic of Moldova", with the support of the Program for the Promotion of Democracy and Cooperation for Development of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Lithuania.

The exhibition can be visited until July 25, 2022.