#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

The compartment of Ancient and Early Medieval History

(Permanent Exhibition “History and Civilization”)

Roman period is represented by various items, including a series of Roman bronze and clay vessels found in a Sarmatian tomb near the village of Olanesti, among which there is a rarity - a clay pot in the shape of a ram.

The compartment of Ancient and Early Medieval History

Multiple gray wares, adornments made of semiprecious stones, bone, and shells, clasps of precious metals belong to the 1st - 3rd centuries AD.

As a result of invasions occurred during the Migration Period and disappearance of the Santana de Mures - Chernyakhov culture (the 3rd - 4th centuries AD) the present-day territory of the Republic of Moldova was terribly devastated. This led to degradation of all spheres of economic and social life of the natives. In the 6th century Slavic tribes moving to the Balkans penetrated the territories inhabited by tenuous Romanic population. Under their influence there occurred changes in the material culture of the Romance.

The settlements are small. Population dwelled in huts which were half-depth in the ground and heated by stone ovens. The main concerns were agriculture and animal husbandry. A certain place in everyday life there had crafts. In contrast to the previous period, potteries were made by hand without using a potter's wheel. Most of the tools are made of bone, horn, and stone. Metal objects are very rare, but not missing.

Archaeological materials from the 6th - 7th centuries AD discovered during investigations of many settlements and necropolises in the Prut-Dniester area reflect the life and activities of the Eastern Romance and aliens in a period marked by major social, economic, and cultural transformations.

Early medieval era is represented by material culture of the first pre-state formations (the 9th - 12th centuries) and early states (the 13th - 14th centuries): vessels, tools, adornments and clothing items, pectoral crosses.

These findings testify to the existence of certain exchange relationships of the Eastern Romance with the neighboring communities, especially the Byzantine Empire. Among these items there are amphorae and vessels made on the potter's wheel, bronze adornments, coins, etc.