The first commemorative plaques of the project “Last address” were unveiled in Chisinau on August 2, on the homes of two former deportees, Maria Serbov-Sirb and Pantelimon Sinadino. According to the organizers, the project is aimed at rendering homage to persons who suffered under the Communist and Stalinist regimes, IPN reports.
Maria Serbov-Sirb (Bondi) was born in 1873 and died in 1951 in Kazakhstan, where she was buried. In Chisinau, the last address of her family was 80 A. Shchusev St, formerly Leovskaia St. Even if she wasn’t involved in politics and was a simple housewife, the woman wasn’t avoided by the Stalinist deportations.
The second commemorative plaques “Last address” was placed on Veronica Micle St, where politician Pantelimon Sinadino, who was born in 1875, lived. His grandfather Pantelimon Sinadino was mayor of Chisinau, while his father Victor Sinadino was a citizen of honor. In 1924-1940, Pantelimon Sinadino held important posts in the Popular Bank of Bessarabia. In 1933, he became a member of the National Liberal Party and was elected into Romania’s Parliament. He was arrested in July 1940 by the NKVD and his fate since then is unknown.
The project “Last address” is implemented by the Center “Memoria” and the National Agency for Monument Inspection and Restoration with the support of the U.S. Embassy. “Memoria” Center director Ludmila Popovici said the organization promoted a number of initiatives to perpetuate collective memory. “Today we took one more very important step to which a lot of people contributed. We ultimately managed to take it. It wasn’t easy given the formalities and bureaucratic hindrances,” stated Ludmila Popovici.
The initiators of the project were inspired by a similar European initiative called “Stolpersteine” whose goal is to commemorate the victims of Nazi crimes. The project is implemented in Russia, Ukraine, the Czech Republic, Moldova and is to be launched in Belarus, Georgia, Germania, Latvia, Poland, and Romania.
In Moldova, the project “Last address” was launched on July 6, when the victims of Stalinist deportations are commemorated.
