#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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World Refugee Day marked with music and art exhibition in Chisinau

21 iunie 2022

World Refugee Day was marked in Chisinau with an art exhibition and a concert given by several artists from Moldova and Ukraine. Among the performers were Pasha Parfeni and Adrian Ursu from Moldova and saxophonist Igor Znatokov and singer Olga Gornyh from Ukraine. Olesya Shevchenko, the wife of His Excellency the Ambassador of Ukraine to Moldova, gave an enthralling performance in Romanian, sending a message of gratitude to the Moldovans for hosting Ukrainians in their time of need.

The event was organised by the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) at the National Museum of History and brought together Ministers, Ambassadors, heads of UN and international agencies as well as Ukrainians fleeing the war who have found safety in Moldova. Among them was Anastasia Ciorninkaia, who spoke about the suffering her compatriots have gone through and thanked Moldovans for their hospitality: "Thousands of us left our homes and crossed the border into Moldova. You met us at border, fed us, sheltered us. I promise from this stage that I will pass on to the next generations how you helped us!".

Francesca Bonelli, UNHCR representative in Moldova, also expressed her gratitude to the people and government of the Republic of Moldova, donors, humanitarian partners and all others who helped respond to the refugee crisis. "In my few months in the Republic of Moldova, I have witnessed the great hospitality Moldovans have accorded to refugees. And I discovered that this is rooted in the CASA MARE tradition which reserves the best room in the house for guests," Ms. Bonelli appealed for increased international support for refugees and the local population.

The event was also attended by Marcel Spatari Minister of Labour and Social Protection and Jana Costachi, State Secretary of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The two senior officials commended the efforts of all those involved in responding to the refugee crisis. "The greatest credit goes not to the Ministry, not to the Government, but to the community and volunteers. We can have the best ministers, the best development partners, the best action plans, but we won't achieve anything if we don't have the most important thing of all - Peace!" Mr. Spatari said.

The head of the Joint Refugee Crisis Management Cell, Colonel Adrian Efros, said that since February more than half a million Ukrainian refugees have transited through Moldova and more than 80 thousand were still in the country, half of them children. According to Colonel Efros, more than 100 Ukrainian babies were born in the Republic of Moldova since February and more than 6,000 children have been enrolled in schools.

World Refugee Day was first celebrated on 20 June 2001 and was created by the United Nations to honour refugees around the world. Each year, the event celebrates the strength and courage of people who have been forced to leave their homeland to stay alive because of conflicts or persecution. Currently, more than 85 thousand refugees are in the Republic of Moldova, including more than 80,000 Ukrainians and more than 3,700 people from other nationalities.