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The theme of the Dormition is reflected in the five icons from the collection of the National Museum of History of Moldova. Feast of the Dormition of the Mother of God, falling on August 15, is celebrated for a long time; according to some sources, it was officially established in 582. The canonical composition of the icons of the Theotokos was formed after the restoration of the veneration of icons, when the Church overcome heresy and consolidated the basic theological provisions. Initially the scenes were laconic, with a small number of characters; thereafter these iconographic compositions develop into complex patterns with a variety of characters and attributes. Icons of the Dormition from the museum's collection belong to the 18th early 20th centuries, and most of them represent the traditional iconographic patterns arranged both horizontally and vertically.

This article is the result of research of the museum's collection of postcards on the theme of the First World War, which was carried out in connection with the centenary since the war began. At the present stage of the evolution of historical science a special role belongs to the documentary sources that had previously been "less required", including illustrated postcards. At the beginning of the 20th century postcards know peak of their evolution. Being very popular, mobile and accessible, during the war they fulfilled several functions. In addition to performing the functions of postal items, they become an accessible form of propaganda and a source of supplementing military budget.

In the collections of NMHM there are a military award, which has a particular symbolic value in view of the centenary of the First World War, which was celebrated in 2014 the medal "For Works on Excellent Performance of General Mobilization in 1914". The medal was established by the decree of 12 February 1915 and was awarded to persons who had participated actively in the work associated with drawing up plans for mobilization, recruitment in military service, the supply of troops in dressings, providing military vehicles, as well as the transport of troops and military cargo. In addition, it was awarded to persons directly involved in the execution of works during the mobilization of 1914. Later the provisions were completed, so that the medal could be awarded to persons responsible for pre-military training of young people. The main issue (50000 copies) was made at the Petrograd Mint, and 800 medals were sent to Bessarabia, according to the request of its governor M.E. Gilhen.

Newspapers began to be used as a means of advertising since the end of the 19th century and remained the primary means of advertising until the advent of television. Due to short period of time between the submitting advertising material for publication and its appearance in the newspaper, advertising in daily newspapers was very effective for transmitting the latest information to the consumer. Daily newspapers usually came out in large cities and capitals. The first daily newspaper in Bessarabia was Bessarabsky Vestnik ("Bessarabian Messenger") published in 1889 in ChiТinău by E. Sokolova. Other major daily newspapers published for a long time in ChiТinău were Bessarabets ("Bessarabian"), Bessarabskaya zhizn ("Bessarabian Life"), Drug ("Friend"), Golos Kishinyova ("Voice of Chişinău"), and some others. During 1912-1914, the daily newspapers appear in Bălţi, Bender, Soroca, Tiraspol, and Akkerman.

In 2011, a monograph long anticipated by art historians with an expertise in Old Russian and Byzantine art was published by Ljudmila Pekarska. The main subject of the monograph - the history of a hoard of jewellery found in Kiev in 1906, and as luck would have it is today divided between the British Museum and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The author, however, did not limit her study to the analysis of objects from this hoard. She used an extensive amount of comparative materials from collections in many Western, Ukrainian, and Russian museums. L. Pekarska focuses mainly on the cloisonné enamels, an impressive example of exquisite medieval luxury. Welcoming the publication of this book, and being interested in the research, as well as its author, I do not envy the hard work that it would take for a person to write a scholarly review on this publication.

National Museum of History of Moldova possesses a collection of anti-religious drawings and lithographs in an amount of 52 units. Of these, 24 lithographs relate to the series "Commandments and Symbols" (by B. Shirokorad), 11 drawings to the series "God on Earth", another 15 drawings touch different anti-religious topics (author A. Grabco). Graphic works of this collection, which is part of the anti-religious campaign, are characterized by mordant sense, bright colors, simple and catchy slogans denigrating and deriding everything that expressed religious beliefs. Using expressive art images along with the severity of the laws, the Communists hoped to convince the masses that religion is nothing more than "a manifestation of the decadence of capitalism", a consequence of the retrograde, the counter-revolutionary thinking an unforgivable crime in the Soviet Union. These works reflect only some of the methods from the rich arsenal used by the Soviet authorities in the fight against the Moldavian Orthodox Church.

The subject of this article is the restoration of objects from the Clothing and Accessories Collection of the National Museum of History of Moldova. The collection, which began to form from the first years of the museum’s existence, is diverse in terms of typology and chronology. Among its components the sub-collection of military uniform and accessories, containing 300 headwear items, occupies a special place. By country of origin these military headwear items originate from Russia, Prussia, France, Italy, Romania, Poland, Hungary, etc. In 2010, there were restored 30 headwear items, including: grenadier cap, Prussia, 1740-1785; Cavalry Guards officer’s helmet, Russia, 1811- 1817; Uhlan officer’s cap, Russia, 1837; infantry officer’s helmet, Prussia, 1914-1918; artillery officer’s cap, France, 1914-1918; sub-lieutenant’s cap, model 1934, Romania. The author analyzes the restoration techniques used in the process of working on some items from the collections of the National Museum of History of Moldova.

This paper is the result of research of the collection of concert posters from the NMHM collections. It was found that the posters refer to the period of time from 1900 to 2010 and represent a brief chronicle of the musical life of Moldova east of the Prut River. Chronologically and by the method of production, form and content they can be classified into four categories: 1) concert posters of the times of Imperial Russia, 2) concert posters of the times of Romanian government, 3) concert posters of the Soviet period, and 4) concert posters of the Republic Moldova. The posters of the first two categories contain much text, partly black and white images, are of small size (A4 sheet), printed on paper of poor quality, mainly newsprint. Posters of the Soviet period are of two types: posters with lots of text without images and color posters, of various sizes. Concert posters of the Republic of Moldova have diverse formats and images, but provide little information. It was also found that the concert posters of the times of Tsarist Russia and the Romanian government are very few, and posters of singers and musical groups, as well as folk singers and orchestras of 1960s are completely missing.

The National Museum of History of Moldova came into possession of a mini-collection of illustrated postcards devoted to the visit of King Ferdinand I and Queen Marie of Romania to Bessarabia in May 1920. On the pictures made in the Chişinău photo shop of I. Zemşman there are images of the representatives of royal house and events during the visit that was also reflected in the press of the time, memoirs and historical literature. The postcards depict the following scenes: the royal retinue attending a worship service at the Nativity Cathedral, the royal family during the ceremony in front of the Diocesan House, Queen Marie visiting the People’s Canteen in Chişinău, and two images of the royal retinue on the streets of Chişinău. These images encouraged us to make an overview and summary of the visit, which was a special event not only for the reason that it was made by the rulers of the Kingdom of Romania, but also because it was organized prior to the recognition of the union of Bessarabia with Romania by the major allied powers and immediately after negotiations with the Supreme Committee of the Paris Peace Conference. The royal visit to Bessarabia took place before the signing of the Treaty of October 20, 1920 where the main allied powers recognized its unification with Romania. The need for this visit to Bessarabia was undeniable, as the physical presence of the king is „an act of asserting of legitimacy and suzerainty”.

In the collection of the National Museum of History of Moldova there are six icons related to the famous iconographic type "Protection of the Holy Virgin". This type, that was designed to reflect the images of the feast of the Holy Virgin, has a complex composition, which harmoniously combines events, phenomena and characters belonging to different time periods. At the heart of it lies the vision of Andrew the Fool-for-Christ in the Blachernae church of Constantinople. The plot of the icons also recalls the miraculous phenomenon that became known as the Miracle of Blachernae. At the same time, this iconographic composition may be an illustration of the cycle of hymns, which conceptually transmits the idea of the intercession of the Blessed Virgin. The composition of icons of the Protection consists of the upper and lower parts. The upper part shows the Virgin standing on clouds with the veil symbolizing the protection in her hands, surrounded by saints, the holy prophets and the Myrrh-bearers. In the center of the lower part there is depicted Romanos the Melodist, on the right of him there are the emperors and men of Church; on the left St. Andrew the Fool-for-Christ is depicted, turning to his disciple Epiphanius and pointing up at the miracle that takes place in the temple. On some icons in the lower part there is depicted the dream of Romanos the Melodist, in which Our Lady gives him a scroll, blessing him to sing and write hymns. There are icons depicting only the Virgin. Five of the six icons from the collection of NMHM are of average size, and one is larger, probably derived from a church dedicated to the feast. These icons are painted in oil and tempera on wood, composition of most of them corresponds exactly to this iconographic type.

The book collection of the National Museum of History of Moldova includes a number of dictionaries and encyclopedias of a certain historical and cultural value, which were published in reputable printing houses of Western Europe. They have become a social phenomenon in the 18th and 19th centuries, appearing in dozens of editions and contributing significantly to the popularization of science and knowledge of languages among the population. These books are valuable also in terms of their design: leather bindings decorated with relief ornaments and inscriptions, gold stamping on the spines and gilded page edges, color lithographs and engravings, and other classic decorative elements. The article attempts to review the museum collection of such encyclopedias and dictionaries from the perspective of the history of book publishing in Western Europe in the 18th and 19th century.

The article presents the results of research of the collection of movie posters from the collection of the National Museum of History of Moldova. It was found that the posters cover the period of 1960-80-ies and reflect the artistic work of the studio "Moldova-Film" and activity of filmmakers E. Loteanu, V. Jereghi, V. Ioviţă, V. Brescanu, V. Gagiu, etc. In addition, the posters illustrate the filmography of actors S. Toma, Gr. Grigoriu, V. Soţchi-Voinicescu, Maria Sagaidac, M. Bădicheanu, V. Cupcea, S. Finiti, I. Arachelu, C. Târţău, I. Cucuruzac, C. Constantinov, and others. Most posters in the collection were signed by painters from the USSR and were printed in the Moscow Publishing House „Reclamfilm", even movie posters on the studio "Moldova-Film" products. The largest circulation of movie posters was in the 1970s. The largest was the circulation of posters for feature films „Theft" (1970) and „Reserve Officer" (1971) - 170 000 copies, as well as for the film „The Gypsy Camp Vanishes into the Blue" (1976) - 147 000 copies.

Collections of postcards are a chronicle in images that captivate us with variety of topics, the study of which can extract from the darkness of oblivion different scenes of everyday life in certain historical periods. In this sense, interesting is a postcard from the museum collection, which depicts Cafe Man'kov - a place where more than a century ago the Chişinău cream of society loved spending time. The history of this coffee house is associated with the name of A.I. Man'kov, a prosperous businessman of the second half of 19th - early 20th centuries. Initially, in the 1880s, it was located in the building of the Diocesan House (the Alexandrovskaia Street), where A. Man'kov rented premises, and since 1901 it has moved into the Schwartzman's House (the Pushkinskaia Street), a rented space as well. In 1905, the cafe was opened in a specially built building in Fountain Lane (between the Sinadinovskaia and Pushkinskaia Streets) known as Cafe Man'kov, with an interesting architecture, "European" interior, and tastefully furnished terraces. Cafe Man'kov was one of the first buildings in Chişinău which was electrified (1907). It soon became a favorite place of leisure for Chişinău dwellers, where one could drink tea or coffee with Swiss chocolate, enjoy a delicious cake, as well as have lunch or dinner. The cafe existed until 1934, when A. Man'kov died at the age of 92 years. In Soviet times, the building was demolished, and now in its place there is the Press House (the area between the streets of Pushkin and Vlaicu Pârcălab).

Depending on the stage of development, advertising as a historical phenomenon was expanding its sphere of influence penetrating more and more in various spheres of human activity. Agriculture, which is an important branch of the national economy closely related to the trade, always needs advertising. The absence of serfdom and the agrarian reforms have contributed to the integration of Bessarabian agriculture into the system of market relations. Local farmers needed promotion and marketing of agricultural products. For this they applied to various means of advertising. Agricultural advertisings can be found in the pages of the Bessarabian press from the late 19th - early 20th centuries. Most often, they were printed in publications of agricultural profile. An example is the magazine "Bessarabskoe sel'skoe khozyaistvo" ("Bessarabian Agriculture"), the publication of Agronomic Section of the Bessarabian Naturalists' Society and the Chişinău Department of the Imperial Russian Society for Horticulture. The magazine was published from 1908 to 1917. In the collection of MNHM there are 28 issues of this magazine (in all there were 240 issues). The years of publication: 1909, 1910, 1912 and 1916. They are the main source of research on the topic. The aim of this work is to determine the themes of agricultural advertisements and their contribution to the im- provement of agricultural management in Tsarist Bessarabia. All issues of the journal had the ads section. Regular customers of the journal were both local and foreign manufac- turers. Among the local: Fruit an Grape Nurseries "EKO" (Soroca); Bucovăţ Fruit and Grape Nurseries; Baron A. Stuart's Fruit Nursery (Chişinău); Cocorozeni Agricultural School; E.P. Melega-Kuzminskaia's estate of Temeleuţi and F.F. Köppen's estate of Voinovo-Ikel; Horticulture, Viticulture and Winemaking Bureau and Storage of Agricultural Machinery of N.G. Kavsan (Chişinău), etc. The ads offered planting material tested in local climate: fruit trees, local and foreign varieties of grape vine grafted onto American rootstocks, seed crops, as well as purebred cattle. Among the proposals there were met agricultural tools and machines made by known foreign firms.