Half of Moldova's population regrets the disappearance of the Soviet Union. Moreover, 40% of the Moldovans would like the Communist totalitarian regime to be restored and this is regretful, the director of the Public Policy Institute Arcadie Barbarosie, who heads the Senate of Soros Foundation Moldova, said during the international conference “Democracy after Totalitarianism: Lessons Learned during 20 Years” on May 24. “We must realize the consequences of those years of totalitarianism. The conclusions must go out of the research laboratories because many of the over 50% of the persons who regret the disappearance of the USSR are young people,” Arcadie Barbarosie said, quoted by Info-Prim Neo. He also said that the recent desecretization of the documents adopted by the previous Government showed that a totalitarian regime still exists in Moldova. “The Government continued to be nontransparent and to promote group interests,” Arcadie Barbarosie said. The head of the Senate of Soros Foundation Romania Ilona Mihaies said the textbooks for students should contain as many pictures of the former dictators as possible so that the next generations know them. In Romania, these photos are very expensive. In Moldova, anybody can take pictures of the monument to Lenin. Gheorghe Cojocaru, the chairman of the commission for studying the consequences of the totalitarian communist regime in Moldova, said the society that neglects its historical past has a frail present and has an uncertain future or no future at all. The commission was created to irreversibly and unequivocally condemn the crimes and horrors of the Communist regime, which have not been yet assessed. Gheorghe Cojocaru said attempts were made during the last few years to hush up or even justify these crimes. The conference will last for two days. The discourses will be later included in a volume.