“The PSRM’s initiative confirms once again that Chinese philosopher Confucius was right when he asserted that Ignorance is the night of mind, but a night without moon and star. For the PSRM’s ignorance to eclipse the moon and the star, it is absolutely necessary to hold the hearings announced by the party. The three questions addressed by the PSRM in this text should contribute to transforming the hearings into a memorable political show. In these hard times, shows are really necessary...”
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Socialists’ combative zeal

The Party of Socialists of the Republic of Moldova (PSRM) brazenly rushes into a new phase of the political confrontation. A very rare manifestation on our piece of land, which the PSRM perceived as a launch pad for entering the new electoral cycle, served as a pretext for exhibiting the combative zeal. On this occasion, the PSRM issued a press release with an extravagant content: “The Party of Socialists of the Republic of Moldova firmly condemns the organization of torchlight processions on the National Army Day of the Republic of Moldova. In the modern world, torchlight processions are associated with Nazi Germany, with the ”Ku Klux Klan” movement and other racist and chauvinist forces. Those who decided to organize such processions on the National Army Day insulted all the Moldovan militaries and the memory of those who died for the liberation of our land from the fascist occupation...”

To demonstrate to the whole society how well-informed the PSRM is about the processes in the modern world, the party decided to launch “the initiative to organize parliamentary hearings on this blasphemous action on the National Army Day of Moldova by questioning the Supreme Commander and the minister of Defense of the Republic of Moldova”. To highlight the gravity of the moment, the PSRM’s press release ends with the slogan Fascism will not pass! The given slogan is extremely dangerous as it evokes the processes in the Russian Federation where, for example, justice decided that the exhibition of this discredits the Russian army. The point is the unprovoked aggression against neighboring states is the main element typical of fascism and this thing has been witnessed since the launch of the aggression against Ukraine.

Torchlight processions – a millennium-old tradition

So, not the torchlight processions that form part of a millennium-old tradition, but the unprovoked aggressions are the litmus test for identifying fascism. In this regard, the ignorance of Moldovan Socialists is scaring, especially because these, even in their political program, say that: “Our major goal is to build a social state by maintaining the traditional roots of society”. For the PSRM, tradition can be only of Soviet origin. The problem is the Socialists’ ignorance becomes conspicuous because these don’t know that the torchlight processions were very popular in the USSR. Such a tradition was established immediately after the Bolshevik putsch of November 1917. The theme of Soviet traditions, including of torchlight processions, is very well developed in scientific works of Russian historians whose works can be found in the Presidential Library of Russia. This is what we can find in one of these works (see page 107): “In the 1930s, the theme of industrialization came to the forefront, as did the civil war heroism. The explicative conversations are designed to define the values horizons – “Being a fighter for the cause of Lenin!”, etc. Besides conversations and debates, there were also staged Komsomolist events, often in the form of torchlight processions, where the torch served as a symbol of “living energy” of the revolution and labor”. Another example refers to the fact that torchlight processions were periodically staged on December 5, on the occasion of the anniversary of the day of the Stalinist onstitution. It should be noted that the Stalinist constitution was adopted in 1936, in three years of the torchlight procession held in Germany, immediately after the Nazis took over. So, we can conclude that torchlight processions in the 1930s took place both in the Stalinist USSR and in Hitler’s Germany. The difference is that in the USSR, these were held much more frequently and on different occasions.

Unlike the Moldovan Socialists, their Communist mates from whom they detached themselves know very well the tradition of torchlight processions, especially because the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPFR) continues practicing them. A proof is a report by the CPRF on the activities carried out in 2005, on the occasion of the 88th anniversary of the Bolshevik putsch of 1917: “There were staged demonstrators and protests in the towns and regional centers of Taganrog, Novocherkassk, Kamensk, Shakhty, Millerovo, Novoshakhtinsk, Azov, Bataysk; Zernograd, Ust-Donetsk, Verkhnedonsk, Tatsinsk, Semikarakorsk. In all the towns and regions, flowers were laid to monuments to V.I. Lenin. All over the places, columns of demonstrators… protested against “reforms”, the rise in prices, the annulment of the November 7 holiday... On November 7, in the central square of Rostov, a mass torchlight processions was staged on the central streets up to the monument to V.I. Lenin”.

The tradition of torchlight processions was respected also during the time of Brezhnev’s developed socialism and also in the current Putinist Russia. For example, in the Soviet town of Kerch, torchlight processions had been held on the occasion of victory over Nazism since 1973. After the annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation, the practice of organizing torchlight processions was restored, this time not only in Kerch, but all over the peninsula. The Gauleiter of Crimea Sergey Aksyonov in 2022 signed an order to this effect. There are tens and hundreds of such examples. Here are only some of them:

• Omutninsk (Veatka) 2010 – A nice ten-year-old tradition exists in Omutninsk. On the Victory Day, the inhabitants of the town, with torches in their hands, walk through the town and come together in the center, close to the monument to Soviet soldiers who died in World War II. The whole town waits impatiently for the start of the torchlight procession. Each year on the Victory Day, an amazingly beautiful event is held in Omutninsk;
• Moscow 2012 – approximately 1,000 students and employees of the Moscow State University of Medicine, dressed in white medical gowns, with ribbons of St. George at chest, marched through the town. The rector of the Moscow State University of Medicine and Dentistry personally lit 65 torches, which symbolize the university’s students and personnel who died during the Great Patriotic War; 
• Bryansk 2018 – Students from Bryansk mounted a torchlight procession and a protest on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the freeing of the region from Nazi invaders. Besides students, the procession involved their parents and teachers. The people laid flowers to the monument to victims of the Great Patriotic War;
• Pyatigorsk 2020 – the celebration of the 75th anniversary of the Great Victory. A memory demonstration was staged on June 22 and a torchlight procession was held in the evening of June 23” (owing to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Victory was celebrated on June 22 – the day of Hitler’s invasion of Stalinist USSR) etc.

So, in the USSR and Putinist Russia, the torchlight processions are demonstrations to commemorate soldiers who died in the Patriotic War, while in the Republic of Moldova, according to the PSRM, torchlight processions on the contrary are an insult to all the Moldovan militaries and to the memory of those who died for the liberation of our land from the fascist occupation. For them, as for the Russian imperialists whose branch they represent in the Republic of Moldova, a torchlight procession, for example in North Korea or Cuba, is a manifestation in support of the victories of the Communist regime, while in the Republic of Moldova it is an evocation of the manifestations of the ”Ku Klux Klan” movement. The conclusion is that the Moldovan Socialists either apply double standards or do not have discernment, or simply are confirmed ignorant persons.

Beams in the eyes of Moldovan Socialists...  

The PSRM’s initiative to organize parliamentary hearings on this blasphemous action on the National Army Day of Moldova by questioning the Supreme Commander and the minister of Defense of the Republic of Moldova is welcome and extremely useful. The point is the PSRM already had the wonderful occasion of inviting the Supreme Commander to parliamentary hearings on the staging of a torchlight procession. In May 2018, when the current and former leader of the PSRM in 2011 Igor Dodon was the Supreme Commander, while the PSRM’s parliamentary group held a relative majority in Parliament, “one late evening, a long torchlight procession walked on the streets of Chisinau. This was flanked by several tens of carabineers. With lit torches in one hand and with shields in the other hand, they walked in silence along the streets. The procession was accompanied by a police car with intermittent lights”. That’s why there is no doubt that we will all witness a great show, when in hearings their initiators will have to first answer the question – why didn’t they stage these hearings when Igor Dodon was the Supreme Commander?

The second question the Socialists will have to answer in the hearings will definitely refer to the financing of the PSRM by the Government of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK). More exactly, what that financing served them for and if they reported it to the Central Election Commission (CEC)? The point is North Korea is the country of torchlight processions, and a group of high-ranking Socialist officials led by Grigore Novac in 2017 took part in a demonstration held to celebrate the 105th birth anniversary of the founder of North Korea Kim Il Sung. Asked who paid for the visit to the DPRK, MP Grigore Novac said: the host country paid for everything. Evidently, the Korean friends should be somehow rewarded for their present. The expression of gratitude for the exotic trip could have been made by the PSRM’s association with the group of friends of North Korea from the “V Kontacte” network. This group of friends, which we hope the heavyweights of the PSRM also joined, published an article that explains why the torchlight processions are not fascist manifestations: “The group has to publish this article owing to the fact that some people don’t know the history of torchlight processions, especially North-Korean processions, and regard them as reference to the Third Reich”. The given article indeed presents in short the millennium-old history of torchlight processions, starting with the rich traditions of Ancient Greece. Regrettably, the regime of Hitler besmirched the tradition of torchlight processions with everything it touched, but this is only a regrettable episode and nothing more.

The third question that the leaders of the PSRM will have to answer in the parliamentary hearings should refer to their status of experts and members of the branch of the Izborsky Club that was founded by the ideologist of the Russian fascism Alexandr Dugin, the author of the famous work Fascism – Borderless and Red. More precisely, the question should be formulated as follows: why does the PSRM promote the slogan Fascism will not pass!, whereas the party’s leader forms part of an organization that promotes borderless and red fascism? Is this due to cognitive dissonance or to some other, more serious things?

From the aforementioned, we can presume that the conclusion that will be reached in the hearings will amount to the finding that the Moldovan Socialist leaders are in fact at least ignorant and ingrate. They betrayed the Party of Communists of the Republic of Moldova (PCRM), which brought them to the political arena, committing a perjury. Evidently, it was expected that the new North-Korean friends, who paid for their trip and stay in their exotic country, will also be betrayed. However, instead of becoming defenders of the Korean traditions, including of the torchlight processions, the Moldovan Socialists speak ill of them in public. It’s true that they do this implicitly, as in the case of the statement: “The PAS followed the example of North Korea. What the ruling regime does is called centralization of public services and destruction of local autonomy. They beat Plahotniuc in terms of use of dirty methods”. This way, the North-Korean friends and benefactors are compared with absolute evil – the PAS and Plahotniuc from whom he asked money and received it in kulyoks. It is hard to imagine a higher level of ingratitude than that of the Moldovan Socialists.

Fascism will definitely not pass, but what about Russicism?

As it was anticipated, the PSRM’s philippic was immediately taken by the Russian and local pro-Russian press for propaganda purposes. For example, the state agency TASS reproduced the PSRM’s press release, commenting on it for propaganda purposes. In this connection, it is curious that TASS didn’t notice and didn’t comment on the annual torchlight processions of the members of the ruling party of Russia – United Russia, which is led by Vladimir Putin: “Each year, ahead of Victory Day, thousands of citizens..., carrying lit torches and candles in their hands, march in a festive column on the central streets of the city. This is not only a nice and majestic tradition. It is a kind of thanks from the new generation for the big sacrifice made for our country to survive in the flame of war”.

In the aforementioned circumstances, it would be welcome for the Russian press to be preoccupied with the torchlight processions in the own country or with the impact of the Russian marches on the phenomenon called Russicism, which fully manifests itself in the Russian aggression against Ukraine, which resulted already in hundreds of thousands of human casualties. Respectively, there are reasons to think that the Russicism is a more recent mutant of the Borderless and Red Fascism. If the Russian official press is yet preoccupied with the torchlight processions from outside their country, it is curious to notice that it pretends not to see and not to oppose, for example, when Armenia, which is an ally of Russia, annually holds torchlight processions in memory of the genocide of Armenians. The Russian official press also didn’t oppose when a torchlight procession was staged in Armenia in 2022, right ahead of the visit paid by President Putin, with the posting of the slogan “Farewell, Unwashed Russia!”

It should be noted that the Transnistrian press also could not ignore the PSRM’s press release. The Transnistrian separatists get excited in vain. The point is the problem of torchlight processions in Transnistria was elaborated and covered in an appropriate way, without this tradition generating dissatisfaction and fear. On the contrary, the Transnistrian scientists reached the conclusion that the torchlight processions are an absolutely normal thing. In the work Old autumn customs – festival of grapes gathering and viticulture, they noted that the torchlight procession is one of these customs and is staged in France, for example, ahead of the tasting of thick new wine - Beaujolais nouveau (see page 24).

Conclusions

The PSRM’s initiative confirms once again that Chinese philosopher Confucius was right when he asserted that Ignorance is the night of mind, but a night without moon and star. For the PSRM’s ignorance to eclipse the moon and the star, it is absolutely necessary to hold the hearings announced by the party. The three questions addressed by the PSRM in this text should contribute to transforming the hearings into a memorable political show. In these hard times, shows are really necessary.

We laughed heartily when the leader of the PSRM, Igor Dodon, compared himself with Mahatma Gandhi. These persons cannot be compared. One of them fought for the decolonization of his country, while the other one forms part of the Russian imperial movement. One of them was a vegetarian, while the other one is a carnivore who eats tushonka. One of them was honest and decent, while the other one practices corruption, including of journalists with tushonka. Evidently, the Socialists’ slogan Fascism will not pass!, when everyone knows that their leaders form part of an organization that promotes Borderless and Red Fascism, also causes laughter.