The victims of political repression receive an allowance of 1,000 lei, an amount that is far too small compared to the terror they went through, the president of the Association of Former Deportees and Political Prisoners Alexandru Postica stated in a public debate hosted by IPN News Agency. According to him, for 30 years the political class and governments in Moldova have ignored this subject, leaving the victims of political repression with ridiculous financial recompence.
A new discipline dedicated to the study of the repression committed by the totalitarian communist occupation regime in the twentieth century has been introduced for ninth graders and tenth-twelfth graders. The president of the Association of Former Deportees and Political Prisoners said that the new discipline will provide students with comprehensive information about the political repression and will develop the civic spirit of the new generation.
“The curriculum contains the genesis of the creation of the Gulags. It all starts with 1917. It is described how this prison system was formed. The topic of the current situation is also included. We see what happens to our neighbors. There is a new spiral of history that repeats what happened in 1917,” said Alexandru Postica.
According to him, fewer victims of deportations and political repression remained alive and this human potential must be used to obtain precious testimonies from the first source.
“Starting from the biblical dictum “You will know the truth and the truth shall set you free”, I draw the conclusion that governments never wanted to be free because they didn’t want the truth to be known. In 2001, when the Association of Former Deportees and Political Prisoners was formed, there were over 7,000 members in Chisinau alone. In total, in 1999, officially there were almost 100,000 victims of political repression. Currently, 1,700 people remain in Chisinau. In total, about 7,000 people remained in the country. We had an enormous potential for memories and stories coming from victims of political repression, a potential that we did not realize. These testimonies, stories were to be transposed to a mandatory, not optional, curriculum,” said Alexandru Postica.
Currently, according to the law, spouses, parents or children of persons executed as a result of political repression or who died in places of special detention or on their way to them, who are citizens of the Republic of Moldova, receive, upon request, 540 lei in compensation for each executed or deceased person. Also, victims of political repression receive an allowance of 1,000 lei.
“The former deportees have pensions of 2,000-3,000 lei. We are talking about allowances of 1,000 lei. But we see that for other categories, which are from the same part of history, allowances are increased. For the deportees, the government is waiting to be asked. The most important is the moral aspect. To date, no compensation for moral suffering is provided. Currently, 540 lei is paid for a man’s life. If any relatives, grandparents, parents were killed by the regime, according to the 1992 law, which has not been amended, an amount of 540 lei can be paid. Put yourself in the place of victims of political repression who had everything taken away from them and their relatives killed. They didn’t have access to higher education. They worked all their lives in kolkhozes and now they have a pension of 2,000 lei and an allowance of 1,000 lei. On the other hand, the executioners who were employees of security services have pensions of over 20,000 lei and even higher allowances,” said the president of the Association of Former Deportees and Political Prisoners.
The public debate entitled “The role of history in forming the person and modernizing society” was the 29th installment of IPN’s project “Impact of the Past on Confidence and Peace Building Processes”, which is supported by the Hanns Seidel Foundation of Germany.
