#Exhibit of the Month

The music is recorded on a cylinder with pins. The interior is divided into three compartments: the first contains the crank and the mechanism that operates the cylinder with pins, the second - the cylinder with pins and vibrating lamellae, and the third - two levers for starting and stopping the melody. The cylinder holds seven melodies by W.A. Mozart, which are played through the vibration of steel teeth arranged in a comb, whose tips are adjacent to the cylinder. The lid of the box features floral marquetry on its outer surface. This cultural asset is classified under the "Tezaur" category.

The Story of Musical Boxes

Musical boxes originated in Switzerland at the end of the 18th century. In 1796, watchmaker Antoine Favre-Salomon invented a pocket watch with an incorporated musical mechanism, using the principle of tuned metal lamellae. The invention quickly spread, soon leading to the creation of musical boxes independent of watches.

Initially invented and built for the salon entertainment of the aristocracy, musical boxes quickly evolved, capturing the market and public interest with these entertainment machines. The musical box industry was predominantly centered in Switzerland. Geneva remains the cradle of the musical box, even though the art of crafting these musical wonders spread to other regions of Switzerland - such as Jura, Auberson, and Sainte Croix - and later to other countries, including France, Germany, and Czechoslovakia. Some of the most notable manufacturers of musical boxes include: Mermod Frères, Paillard, Reuge, Thorens, Cuendet, Junod, Nicole Frères, Ducommun-Girod, Brémond, and L'Epee.

The musical box operated on a relatively simple principle: a cylinder with pins (cylindrical pins) would, through rotation, actuate a metal "comb" tuned to specific musical notes, both being concealed from view in one of the box's compartments. By turning the cylinder - with the help of a spring mechanism (similar to that of watches) - the pins would strike the steel "teeth" of the comb, causing them to vibrate and produce different musical notes. A musical box could have a limited number of melodies "programmed" onto the cylinder - from 4 to 12.

Over time, the cylinders were replaced with interchangeable metal discs. Based on this operating principle, large musical boxes emerged in cafés and taverns, which could be activated by inserting a coin, allowing users to select their preferred disc.

Besides the ingenious mechanism, musical boxes also stood out for the artistry of their exterior decorations, featuring materials such as precious woods, mother-of-pearl, ivory, and metal.

The decline of musical boxes began with the invention of the phonograph (1877) and the gramophone (1887). Production continued for a while, but by the early 20th century, most renowned companies had abandoned the business and started manufacturing other mechanical musical instruments.

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Exhibitions

“Testimonies from the Gulag: the memory of the victims of the totalitarian-communist regime”

Memorial to the Victims of Communism and Resistance in Sighet, Romania

August 16 – September 10, 2024

The National Museum of History of Moldova, in partnership with the Civic Academy Foundation - Memorial to the Victims of Communism and Resistance in Romania and with the financial support of the EU4Culture Program, organizes on August 16, 2024, at 4:00 p.m., a new opening of the traveling exhibition "Testimonies from the Gulag: the memory of the victims of the totalitarian-communist regime".

The establishment of the Soviet occupation regime in the territories to the left of the Prut River had dramatic consequences, felt by the society of the Republic of Moldova until today. Forced Sovietization and Stalinist repressions began with the adoption, between August 26 and November 4, 1940, of three decisions regarding the recruitment of 59,500 people, mostly from rural areas, as labour force for the coal and steel industry in the USSR. Then, in the six Bessarabian counties incorporated into the USSR, on June 12-13, 1941, 4,507 people were arrested and 13,885 people were deported. The second wave of deportations from July 5-6, 1949 from the Moldavian SSR, took place on the base of a strictly secret decision of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party, by which 35,796 people were deported to Siberia and Kazakhstan. On the night of March 31 to April 1, 1951, the third wave of Stalinist deportations followed in the Moldavian SSR, this time on confessional grounds, subjecting to repression 2,617 people, including 842 children, members of religious organizations considered illegal and anti-Soviet. Likewise, with the establishment of the Soviet occupation, the grain requisition policy was implemented in Bessarabia, based on the decisions of the Council of People's Commissars of the Moldavian SSR and the CC of the CP(b) of the Moldavian SSR of April 9, 1945, by which the peasants were obliged to deliver grain quotas, and non-compliance with these decisions was punished according to art. 58 and art. 58-1 of the Criminal Code of the Ukrainian SSR. As a result of the criminal actions of the Soviet state on requisition the grain from peasants in the Moldavian SSR, between December 1946 and August 1947, about 200,000 people died of starvation; adding to these another 350,000 victims affected by malnutrition and dozens of recorded cases of cannibalism.

The photo-documentary exhibition "Testimonies from the Gulag: the memory of the victims of the totalitarian-communist regime" presents the narratives of victims and survivors of political repressions and mass deportations during the Soviet era. The images and documents exhibited from the funds of the National Museum of History of Moldova and those capitalized within the State Program "Recovery and historical capitalization of the memory of the victims of the totalitarian-communist regime in the Moldavian SSR during the years 1940-1941, 1944-1953" expose to the general public the horrors of the Soviet totalitarian regime and the memory of this tragic period in today's society.

The photo-documentary exhibition "Testimonies from the Gulag: the memory of the victims of the totalitarian-communist regime" will be open to the public from August 16 to September 10, 2024, in the premises of the Memorial to the Victims of Communism and Resistance in Sighetu Marmației, Romania (str. Corneliu Coposu, no. 4) .

Institutional partners:
"Alecu Russo" State University of Balti
Institute of History, MSU
Public Association Institute Pro Memoria
State University "B.P. Hasdeu"

The exhibition was elaborated within the project "Culture of memory for societies in the process of democratic transformation: promotion of best practices between Lithuania and the Republic of Moldova", supported by the Program for the Promotion of Cooperation and Democracy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Lithuania.