#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 Anastasia Rizo, of noble origin, 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 exercises in 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 composite, taken in 1911 at the 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. Among the teaching staff was Paraskovia 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."

On the reverse of the vignette is a label from the store and workshop of frames, paintings, mirrors, and window glass owned by A. D. Kon'gova, Chișinău, Gogol Street no. 37, near the State Bank.

This graduation composite was donated at the end of 2025 to the National Museum of History of Moldova by the Dadiștian family from Drochia.

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Exhibitions

“Enigma. Victory of decrypting”

June 14 - 30, 2021

Thanks to the efforts of brilliant Polish mathematicians, the complex cipher of the Enigma, the German cipher machine, was broken. This influenced the course of World War II. More than seventy years after its completion, the Polish Institute and the Wielkopolska Voivodeship Council invite you from 14 to 30 June 2021 to the National Museum of History of Moldova to visit the exhibition entitled "Enigma. The victory of decrypting".

The German Enigma cipher machine was made by Arthur Scherbius. He achieved commercial success in the civilian market, as well as in state and administrative institutions long before the outbreak of World War II (1939-1945). As early as 1932, Polish cryptologists managed to decipher the extremely complex Enigma codes for the first time. This took place at the Saxon Palace in Warsaw, which housed the headquarters of the Cipher Bureau of the 2nd Division of the Polish Army General Staff.

The parents of the success were the Polish mathematicians-cryptologists: Marian Rejewski, Jerzy Różycki and Henryk Zygalski. Their achievements have allowed the decoding of the Enigma ciphers, which were constantly being improved.

Five weeks before the outbreak of World War II, on July 25, 1939, the heads of the Polish Cipher Bureau and the mathematicians-cryptologists revealed the Polish achievements to the French and British secret services. After the outbreak of the war, decryption continued in Great Britain and France, with the participation of Polish scientists. This part of the story is known, however, from movies and books.

The exhibition, prepared by the Wielkopolska Voivodeship Council and, in the Romanian version, by the Polish Institute in Bucharest, acquaints us with the history of lesser-known Polish heroes-cryptologists, their teachers and collaborators, whose knowledge and mathematical genius allowed them to reveal one of the best kept secrets of the Third Reich.

Observing the development of the contemporary knowledge-based economy, we often forget that, in many areas, its roots spring from the trenches of the great wars of the 20th century.

The exhibition can be seen on the fence of the National Museum of History of Moldova (31 August 1989 Street, no. 121A) from 14 to 30 June 2021.

The fascinating history of this achievement can be read in the article about the Enigma in the monthly magazine "Historia" (text in Romanian).