Pictures of Bessarabian children taken at the place of deportation in 1941, 1949 and 1951 and documents dating form that period were collected from different communities of Moldova and posted at the National Museum of History within an exhibition entitled “In cuffs of Siberia”. The photos show memories, impressions and sufferings of persons who survived, who, alongside their parents and grandparents, knew the ordeal of deportations after they were taken to Siberia together with their families, IPN reports.

The collected phots and documents illustrate the living, learning and working conditions in the Siberian colonies. Elena Postica and Ludmila Cojocaru organized the exhibition, while Victor Toi designed this.

In the opening event, Ludmila Cojocaru said about 12,000 children were deported during the second deportation wave. This is about 1/3 of the persons deported in June 1949. Approximately 20,000 children were deported during the three deportation waves. Not many of them resisted. “There are yet many things to be discovered in the archive. The Republic of Moldova hasn’t yet removed the shortcoming in the chapter “Historical period of the occupation of the totalitarian communist regime”,” she stated.

Scientific secretary of the state program of research and remembrance of the victims of the totalitarian communist regime Virgiliu Birladeanu said it is everyone’s duty to mark the sad moments of that ordeal that started with the Soviet occupation. “It is important not to forget and to do our best for that nightmare to never repeat. This is the tragedy of our society. The young generation should know that we have the duty of transmitting this memories to the future generations,” he stated.

According to the head of the Arts and Creative Industry Division of the Ministry of Education, Science and Research Orest Dabija, the exhibition’s title “In cuffs of Siberia” captures the quintessence of the Gulag and its impact on Bessarabia as there were deported a lot of children. “Those from whom interviews, pictures and documents were taken for this exhibition were children then and spent their childhood in Siberia, in Kazakhstan. Indeed, Stalin stole the childhood of many persons,” he noted.

The exhibition will continue until September 30.