#Exhibit of the Month

The work In Memoriam. In Memory of the Heroes Who Fell at the Nistru (1992) was developed within the Center for Culture and Military History and published under the auspices of the Government of the Republic of Moldova, the Bureau for Reintegration, and the Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Moldova. Authors: Gheorghe Bălan, Vitalie Ciobanu, Gheorghe Cojocaru.

This work provides a retrospective of the events that led to the outbreak of the war on the Nistru, accompanied by photographs of the heroes who lost their lives in the battles to defend the independence and territorial integrity of the Republic of Moldova.

On March 2, 1992, the political conflict in the Nistru region escalated into a true fratricidal war. Under the fabricated pretext of "defending Russia's southern borders," political adventurers from the former Soviet metropolis encouraged Transnistrian separatism by arming secessionist paramilitary groups. At the same time, thousands of mercenary Cossacks and prisoners released early from jails, along with tanks and missiles, were sent against Independent Moldova, in a desperate attempt to revive the fallen empire.

Russia's undeclared war against the Republic of Moldova left behind hundreds of dead and wounded, shattered families, and villages in ruins. More than 50,000 peaceful residents from the conflict zone were forced to flee their homes, seeking refuge from the horrors of war.

For the sake of freedom and the future, Moldova's defenders faced death, enduring the hardships and humiliations of war.

During the Nistru war, 198 soldiers of the National Army and 89 personnel from the Ministry of Internal Affairs lost their lives, while 40 combatants went missing without a trace, and nearly 300 were left disabled.

Virtual Tour

Exhibitions

“Echoes of War”

4-31 October, 2023

"Echoes of War", witness silent symphony of tales etched in forsaken homes and faded toys - remnants of laughter and life once vibrant. Amidst the rubble, silent voices hum and whisper. From this void, new stories arise, life persists.

In this deeply poignant exhibition, the Syrian photographer Omar Sanadiki provides a reflective visual journey contrasting the silent echoes and turbulent atmospheres from the war that broke out in 2011 in Syria with those captured in 2023 in Ukraine.

In his body of work, Sanadiki captivates the essence of shared human resilience and struggle evident in the faces, landscapes, and stories immortalized in each photograph. This exhibition is not a mere depiction of wars; it unearths the universal human spirit encased in time and space, a whispering echo between two disparate nations intertwined in a common saga of conflict and hope.

The photographs reveal the stories of those who have been forced to endure the irreversible consequences of political folly, the echoes of their silent voices resonating through the powerful imagery of destroyed homelands and shattered lives. It is a contemplative exploration of war, weaving together a mosaic of suffering, strength, loss, and survival, transcending geographical and cultural or linguistic boundaries.

The exhibition has been created as a result of the study visit organized by the European External Action Service to Ukraine in June 2023.

The War as I Saw it:

It is not my habit to talk about anything until I see it with my own eyes.
When I got the chance to visit Ukraine and see the war first-hand, I had an instant flashback to the war in Syria and I started remembering...
...remembering hundreds of images that I had seen in Syria, stories I have heard before, the suffering inflicted by the war and the photographs I had taken there. I began to compare the realities of the two wars: their commonalities and their contrasts.
War is war, wherever it happens, with its repercussions of homelessness, death and widespread destruction. Regardless where and when it happens, civilians are the first ones to suffer the consequences of a manmade tragedy.

The exhibition can be seen from October 4 to 31, 2023 on the fence of the National Museum of History of Moldova.