#Exhibit of the Month

The Chișinău Diocesan Girls' School opened its doors on May 3, 1864, addressing a pressing need: in Bessarabia there were no institutions dedicated to the education of clergy's daughters. According to the 1864 circular, teaching was conducted in the Romanian language, a provision applied throughout the diocese. The school's first headmistress was noblewoman Anastasia Dmitrievna Rizo, invited by Archbishop Antonie.
The curriculum, approved by the Ministry of Public Education and the Chișinău Diocese, combined theoretical subjects with practical training. Students studied religion, reading and writing in Romanian, Slavonic, and Russian, arithmetic and mental calculation, world history and geography. The program was complemented by church singing and practical skills such as sewing, embroidery, knitting, as well as household management - baking bread and prosphora, preparing meals and preserves, caring for livestock, and cultivating gardens.
The vignette, created in 1911 at the photographic studio of Z. N. Sumovski in Chișinău, depicts 29 graduates and 13 teachers. At the center are portraits of Bishop Serafim (Ciciagov), headmistress N. R. Mihelson, teacher V. E. Bejerian, and priests F. Ghiliarov and P. Jurikas. A notable figure is Praskovia Vasilievna Cuciurenko, a calligraphy teacher for 37 years, who in 1911 became senior educator and assistant headmistress. For her dedication, she was awarded the gold medal "For Long Service."
By 1911, the school had 648 students across 17 classes. Its library contained 7,414 volumes, including 3,955 for students and 3,459 for teachers. Graduates, often becoming priests' wives or teachers in rural and urban schools, contributed to spreading faith and moral education, strengthening the cultural and spiritual role of the institution.
On the reverse of the vignette is a label reading: "Store and workshop for frames, paintings, mirrors, and window glass, A. D. Kon'gova, Chișinău, Gogol Street no. 37, next to the State Bank."
This unique vignette was donated at the end of 2025 to the National Museum of History of Moldova by the Dadiștian family from Drochia.

Virtual Tour

Exhibitions

“CHILDHOOD IN THE GULAG”

Drochia Museum of History, Ethnography and Art

April 1 – 27, 2022

The Museum of Victims of Deportations and Political Repressions (a branch of the National Museum of History of Moldova) in cooperation with the Embassy of the Republic of Lithuania organized on April 1, 2022, at 14:00, the opening of the photo-documentary exhibition "Childhood in the Gulag" at the Museum of History, Ethnography and Art in Drochia (16 Strugurilor Street), with on-site and online presence.

The exhibition brings together about 180 photo-documentary images, accompanied by memoirs and archival documents from the collections of the National Museum of History of Moldova, the Edineț Regional Museum, the Soroca Museum of History and Ethnography, the Archive of the ProMemoria Institute, archives of memory societies from the villages of the Republic of Moldova and especially from the family archives of the victims of the totalitarian-communist regime in the Moldavian SSR.

H.E. Kęstutis Kudzmanas, the Ambassador of the Republic of Lithuania to Chișinău made a welcoming speech at the opening of the exhibition. Ms. Rodica Lozovan, the representative of the Culture, Tourism, Youth and Sports Directorate spoke on behalf of the local authorities. Mr. Dumitru Postovan on behalf of the Drochia Museum of History, Ethnography and Art addressed all participants with the invitation to visit the exhibition from April 1 to 27. Dr. Ludmila Cojocaru, Head of the Museum of Victims of Deportations and Political Repressions, presented to the audience the concept and the main compartments of the photo-documentary exhibition.

The exhibition was accompanied by a round table moderated by Dr. Virgiliu Bîrlădeanu, Head of the Modern History Department at the Institute of History. The round table was attended by representatives of regional museums, students of the Alecu Russo State University Bălți and the State University of Moldova, as well as victims of deportations and political repressions in the Moldavian SSR.

The event ended with a classical music concert in memory of the victims of Stalinist deportations and repressions, as well as the recent child victims of the war in Ukraine.

The photo-documentary exhibition "Childhood in the Gulag" is realized within the Project "Strengthening the European culture of memory by disseminating historical knowledge and promoting democratic values: exchange and implementation of the best practices between Lithuania and the Republic of Moldova" (VB52-1), with the support of The Development Cooperation and Democracy Promotion Program of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Lithuania.