President Maia Sandu commemorates the victims of the famine caused by the Soviet regime in 1946-1947, describing the tragedy as a barbaric method of subjugating the population. The head of state said that the truth cannot be hidden and that society’s duty is to defend the memory of those killed by this crime, IPN reports.

“Our parents, grandparents and great-grandparents had even the last grain of wheat taken from cellars, leaving them to die of hunger. It was an intentional gesture, a barbaric method of subjugating the population,” Maia Sandu wrote on social media.

According to the official, for decades this tragedy has been passed over in silence, but the collective memory cannot be erased, and the truth must be told.

“We cannot build a just future without acknowledging the injustices of the past and keeping alive the memory of the hundreds of thousands of people killed by this crime. Hunger did not ask what language its victims speak or what blood they carry,” wrote Maia Sandu.

As part of the campaign “History-making events”, IPN wrote that almost 200 thousand people died during the famine organized by the Soviet regime in 1946-1947 in the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic. Archival documents and survivors’ testimonies, however, suggest that this figure does not fully reflect the harsh reality and the number of victims is much higher than the official statistics.

The day of remembrance of the victims of the famine of 1946-1947 is marked in the Republic of Moldova on the third Saturday in April.