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.
Memoirs - important resource of reconstructing the ordeal of deportations
Tyragetia, serie nouă, vol. VIII [XXIII], nr. 2, Istorie. Muzeologie
The special literature from Republic of Moldova has approached constantly in the last two decades the thematic of political repressions from the period of the totalitarian communist regime by valorizing numerous documentary evidences discovered in secret collections of the former regime and in personal archives of survivors of the Soviet Gulag.
An important resource in reconstructing the totalitarian past are memoirs of former deported persons and political prisoners.
Unfortunately, the biggest part of memorial materials signed by survivors of concentrated camps and direct witnessers of events are dispersed through news-papers and journals. Very few of them have been gathered in volumes and collections of memories. Few are also those who did not try to forget the ordeal they went through and had the courage to relive it one more time when putting it on paper. These facts leads to the need of encouraging witnessers to write their memories for researcher to collect them into a unique database, to valorize and offer the society a specialized analysis of these valuable historic evidences.
The author is proposing a series of memorial materials for analysis from the collections of the National Museum of History of Moldova. Here are names of several authors of terrible pages about the ordeal of Stalinist deportations from Bessarabia: Alexandru Pripa, native of v. Pelenia, jud. Bălți, Dumitru Berezovski, native from Drochia, Vladimir Bușilo from Comrat, Apolinarie Vataman from v. Ghica Vodă, Drochia and Emilia Vataman-Racoveț from v. Cuconești, Brătușeni, deported in 1941; Nadejda Pascal from Durlești, Fiodor Cociu, native from Hâncești and Simion Buiuc from Chiperceni, Orhei, deported in 1949.
The memoirs offer important information about the way in which the deportation operations were conducted, amazing details about the working and living conditions in Siberian colonies, the regime and daily life in Gulag, the behavior of humans in extreme conditions, inter-human relations, the spirit and attitude of former deported towards the soviet regime etc.
On base of these valuable details can be reconstructed the gloomy picture of the Bessarabian who new the deportations drama, the picture of an entire generation who had to confront face to face the soviet machine of repressions.
An epoch can be rediscovered from these details.
Elena Postică
Anniversary exhibition “Centenary of Great Romania”
Tyragetia, serie nouă, vol. XII [XXVII], nr. 2, Istorie. Muzeologie
Elena Postică
Considerations regarding the opportunity of Căpriana Monastery’s historic heritage museum valorization
Tyragetia, serie nouă, vol. III [XVIII], nr. 2, Istorie. Muzeologie
Elena Postică
Lawsuits initiated against participants of resistance movement from postwar Moldova
Tyragetia, serie nouă, vol. IV [XIX], nr. 2, Istorie. Muzeologie
Elena Postică
Independent Moldova seen through a museum exhibition
Tyragetia, serie nouă, vol. I [XVI], nr. 2, Istorie. Muzeologie Chișinău, 2007
Elena Postică
The exhibition „Soviet Moldova: Between Myths and the Gulag"
Tyragetia, serie nouă, vol. VII [XXII], nr. 2, Istorie. Muzeologie
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...
The National Museum of History of Moldova takes place among the most significant museum institutions of the Republic of Moldova, in terms of both its collection and scientific reputation.
The National Museum of History of Moldova takes place among the most significant museum institutions of the Republic of Moldova, in terms of both its collection and scientific reputation.
The National Museum of History of Moldova takes place among the most significant museum institutions of the Republic of Moldova, in terms of both its collection and scientific reputation.
31 August 1989 St., 121 A, MD 2012, Chisinau, Republic of Moldova
