#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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Events Archive

Launch of the project „Historic site Camp of King Charles XII of Sweden - valorisation and promotion"

April 8th, 2016

Friday, April 8, the National Museum of History of Moldova organised a special event in the village of Varnița - the official launch of project „Historic site Camp of King Charles XII of Sweden from Varnița - valorisation and promotion"/SITVAR. The museum is the main partner of NGO Woman. Hope. Future (Varnița) which will implement the project in the period of April 1, 2016 - May 1, 2017, in partnership with the municipality of Varnița and the Agency for Inspection and Restoration of Monuments.

The event was attended by the representatives of diplomatic missions, state secretary of the Ministry of Culture of Moldova, some guests from Sweden (Vetlanda), Moldavian scholars, local public administration and community.

The event was hosted by the mayor of Varnița, Alexandru Nichitenco, and the general director of the National Museum of History of Moldova, dr.hab. Eugen Sava. In his welcoming speech, Al. Nichitenco noted the necessity and usefulness of the project, thanked everyone for their presence at the event and expressed hope that in March 2017 will witness the opening of the historic site Camp of King Charles XII of Sweden in Varnița for the public.

E. Sava in his speech made a chronological presentation of the events that preceded the development and launch of the project. He noted that in the period 2013-2015 in Moldova, Turkey, Sweden and Greece was implemented another project called "When Sweden was governed from Moldova" which had as aim to preserve historical memory, to valorise a common segment of the Moldovan-Swedish-Turkish history and to mark the 300th anniversary of the "kalabalik" from Varnița. This project was conducted in Moldova by the National Museum of History of Moldova.

Starting April 1, 2016, the museum will contribute to the realization of this project and will soon come up with new ideas regarding the 300th anniversary in 2018 from the death of King Charles XII of Sweden.

The project „Historic site Camp of King Charles XII of Sweden - valorisation and promotion" is funded by the European Union in the framework of the international program on the development of cultural heritage - CHOICE/Cultural Heritage: Opportunity For Improving Civic Engagement. Valeria Suruceanu, president of ICOM Moldova made a short presentation of the project at the event, mentioning that this project is implemented in Moldova by the NGO National Committee ICOM Moldova in partnership with the Association of Agencies for Local Democracy ALDA (France) and it provides a scheme for funding under the program of small grants to non-governmental organisations that propose innovative projects on the protection and interpretation of national cultural heritage. Besides Moldova, this program also operates in Belarus, Ukraine and Armenia with advisory and informational support of partner organisations: International NGO "EuroBelarus" (Vilnius, Lithuania), Centre for Cultural Management (Lviv, Ukraine), Millennium Foundation (Erevan, Armenia) and Social Organisation "Centre for cultural innovations" (Minsk, Belarus).

Her Excellency, Mrs. Signe Burgstaller, Ambassador of Sweden in Moldova, welcomed the participants to the event focusing in her speech on the cooperation relations between Moldova and Sweden, the need to preserve and promote historical memory, the common segment of the Moldovan and Swedish history from the beginning of the eighteenth century.

Andrei Chistol, State Secretary at the Ministry of Culture of Moldova, highlighted the role of cultural institutions, including museums, in preserving and popularizing cultural heritage in the country and abroad. He stressed that many projects were implemented in Varnița, including cultural projects, and expressed the hope that the community will support the project that was launched at the event.

Launch of the project „Historic site Camp of King Charles XII of Sweden - valorisation and promotion

Dr. hab Elena Ploșnița presented the project „Historic site Camp of King Charles XII from Varnița - valorisation and promotion". She noted that the historic site from Varnița dates back from the 18th century. King Charles XII of Sweden, after the defeat from Poltava in 1709, settled down at Bender (Tighina), and later at Varnița, together with around 1000 Swedish soldiers. On February 1, 1713, in the king's camp from Varnița took place the so-called kalanalik when the kind was captured and taken to Timurtash (today Erdine, in the European part of Turkey). He was killed in 1718 in Norway. In 1925, in the memory of the king's stay at Varnița, on the place of the former camp was erected a monument - an obelisk. The purpose of the project is the rehabilitation and public valorisation of the historic site by a series of actions: restoration of the monument of King Charles XII of Sweden, scientific valorisation and popularisation of the cultural heritage from the historic site, site development. E. Ploșnița mentioned that several actions are planned in the framework of the project, including historic and documentary research, archaeological surveys, restoration of the monument, conservation of heritage, an international scientific conference, a publication, an exhibition stand, fence around the site and the opening of the rehabilitated site to the wide public and visitors.
Veronica Ştefaniuc, president of NGO Woman. Hope. Future (Varnița) made a brief presentation about Varnița's history and present and showed information about the results of several projects unfold in the village with the support of local non governmental associations.

Architect Ion Budeci from the Agency for the Inspection and Restoration of Monuments presented a draft project for the valorisation of the site from Varnița. He presented several sketches, ideas and innovative solutions to be considered and, possibly, implemented.

Paul Diaconu, representative of the Society for the Study of History Nordisk Historia och Kultur Fömedlingen from Sweden proposed new ways of presentation of the cultural heritage from the rehabilitated historic site. He launched the idea of cooperation with the municipality of Vetlanda from Sweden and promised support to the project.
In the second part of the event, the participants visited the historic site and gave interviews for the mass-media.

Elena Ploșnița