#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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Events Archive

Book Presentation "Press and Censorship in Bessarabia. DOCUMENTS (19th - early 20th centuries)"

December 11, 2012

On Tuesday, December 11, at the National Museum of Archaeology and History of Moldova it was held the presentation of the book "Press and Censorship in Bessarabia. DOCUMENTS (19^th - early 20^th centuries)", Pontos Publishing House, Chișnău, 2012, 212 p. (author: Maria Danilov). The book appeared in the series "Unpublished Histories and Documents, Monographs 5".

At the event, as the special guests, along with the coordinator of the series Dr. Sergiu Musteață from the "Ion Creanga" State Pedagogical University, there have participated Academician Andrei Eșanu, historians Gheorghe Negru, Ion Negrei, Silvia Grossu, Ion Ţurcanu, Ion Buga, Elena Postică, Vlad Mischevca, Alina Felea, Vasile Malanețchi, Igor Cereteu, writer Vladimir Beșleaga, etc.

The event was also attended by a large audience, composed of curators, teachers, students of the State University of Moldova and the "Ion Creanga" State Pedagogical University (Chișinău).

Academician Andrei Eșanu in his speech stressed the need for further studies on issues related to the investigation of the "dark" century, that is the Tsarist period in the history of Bessarabia (1812-1918). Then there presented their views historians Ion Ţurcanu și Gheorghe Negru. The last insisted that the museum institution in recent years has achieved considerable results in developing a range of works useful for historical research - collection catalogs, and Dr. Maria Danilov's work also fits perfectly in the area of investigation of the historical and cultural heritage. Dr. Silvia Grossu highlighted that the book „Press and Censorship" will be useful for the students of the subject "History of Bessarabian Press during the Tsarist period".

The publication includes an analysis of important sources from the National Archives of the Republic of Moldova, which directly reflects the activity of censorship institutions concentrated in the funds of the Civil Governor of Bessarabia and the Chief of Gendarmes of Chișinău: correspondence "top secret" between local government officials of different levels: Civil Governor of Bessarabia, Head of the Provincial Gendarmerie, City Attorney of Chisinau, and district police chiefs. And at the final stage - the correspondence with central structures in St. Petersburg (Main Department for Media and Censorship Issues). The research results are important not only to highlight some significant steps in the emergence and consolidation of Bessarabian press and the system of censorship in the Russian Empire, which provided strict control in border areas, as was Bessarabia, but to elucidate the phenomenon of imperial censorship and its impact on Romanian language press in particular. The study is accompanied by annexes / documentary reproductions, bibliography, indexes of titles and names, summaries in Russian and English.

Author of the volume Maria Danilov publicly thanked Mr. Sergiu Musteață, the coordinator of the series "Unpublished Histories and Documents", who helped the publication to see the light.