#Exhibit of the Month

This year we commemorate 350 years since the birth and 300 years since the death of Dimitrie Cantemir (October 26, 1673 - August 21, 1723), the most famous Romanian humanist thinker and also the author of the first original Romanian philosophical works.

Dimitrie Cantemir represents one of the highest peaks of thought of his time, in all areas that his genius touched - in historiography, geography, philosophy, he opened up new perspectives for development. The great scholar was well acquainted with the Muslim environment, speaking, in addition to Western, also Eastern languages (Turkish, Persian and Arabic), and also had extensive knowledge in the fields of logic, medicine, natural sciences, astronomy and music. This well-educated Christian beyzade, being a born diplomat, won the trust of Sultan Ahmed III, who favorably allowed him to familiarize himself with the documents of imperial history that Cantemir used in working on his famous work "The Growth and Decay of the Ottoman Empire", which still remains a reference publication in a specialized bibliography.

The National Museum of History of Moldova possesses a German edition of this work, published in Hamburg in 1745. This edition is an impressive volume of 863 pages, accompanied by a preface in German by the editor, containing words of praise and appreciation: "... we consider that such a work of great significance must be known to the Germans in their mother tongue..."

Dimitrie Cantemir was the first scholar to show that the history of the Ottoman Empire divides into two parts. The first part that of growth, includes biographies of 19 sultans and ends around 1672, when the empire entered a new phase, that of political and military decline. Through this work, Cantemir tried to draw attention to the need for an alliance of European countries against Turkish expansion. At the same time, he praised certain aspects of the culture of the Turkish people.

Like "Description of Moldavia", "The Growth and Decay of the Ottoman Empire" enjoyed wide popularity in European countries. The work was first translated into Russian by Dmitry Grozin, but was not printed. After the death of Dimitrie Cantemir, thanks to his son Antiochus, who became the Russian ambassador in London and then in Paris, this fundamental writing of our scholar was translated and published in English (two volumes, 1734-1735, followed by a new edition in 1756) and in French (1743, in four small volumes). In 1745, the work was also published in German. It was read, highly valued and used in their writings by Voltaire, Byron, Victor Hugo and others. This is the first treatise that addresses the issue of Ottoman power and the multicultural nature of the empire. Work on it began during the author's stay in the Ottoman Empire, resumed after 1711, and finished in 1717. This writing brought him European fame and placed him among the great scholars of the time.

Virtual Tour

Exhibitions

“In the shackles of Siberia. Bessarabian children deported by the totalitarian-communist regime during the years 1940-1941, 1944-1953”

Association of Former Deportees and Political Prisoners from the Republic of Moldova

18 August – 28 September 2023

This year marks 84 years since the signing, on 23 August 1939, of the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact and the secret additional protocol on the division of Europe into spheres of influence between Soviet Russia and Nazi Germany, which led to the outbreak of World War II, the destruction of sovereign states and the death of millions of victims in extermination camps, Gulags, deportations and illegal arrests.

In the context of commemorative actions dedicated to August 23 - the European Day of Remembrance for Victims of Stalinism and Nazism, the photo-documentary exhibition "In the shackles of Siberia. Bessarabian children deported by the totalitarian-communist regime during the years 1940-1941, 1944-1953" is presented at the headquarters of the Association of Former Deportees and Political Prisoners from the Republic of Moldova.

The exhibition states aspects of the lives of the most innocent victims of the Soviet Gulag - children and adolescents, descendants of the families of the "enemies of the Soviet people". The photo-documentary testimonies and documents brought to the attention of the visitors reproduce the emotional sensitivity, experiences and traumatic memories of a generation in relation to their own past from the Stalinist period. Despite Stalin's 1935 assertion that "the son is not responsible for the deeds of the father", the Soviet authorities resorted to convicting all family members and inoculating collective guilt. In June 1941, 3,470 families (22,648 people), including children from these families, were deported from the Moldavian SSR. In July 1949, as part of the Operation "South", 11,293 families (35,796 people) were deported, including 11,899 children. In 1951, for religious reasons, as part of the Operation "North", 723 families (2,724 people), including 799 children, were forced to leave the Moldavian SSR.

The exhibition brings together about 100 photographic images, accompanied by memoirs and archival documents that reflect the period in the Gulag of children exiled from the Moldavian SSR, during the three waves of mass deportations carried out by the Soviet authorities in 1941, 1949 and 1951. The photo-documentary images were selected from the NMHM patrimony and from the collections recently recovered in various localities of the Republic of Moldova, accompanied by maps of the Soviet Gulag, and documents of the Stalinist repression structures that reveal the way the deportation operations were carried out, the living conditions, schooling and work in special settlements in Siberia and Kazakhstan.

The event is organized by the Museum of Victims of Deportations and Political Repressions, NMHM and the Institute of History, MSU in partnership with the Association of Former Deportees and Political Prisoners from Moldova and the Public Association Center of Excellence "Pro Memoria" Institute.

The exhibition can be visited at the headquarters of the Association of Former Deportees and Political Prisoners from the Republic of Moldova (str. Mihail Kogălniceanu 52/A), during the period 18 August - 28 September 2023.