The anti-communist resistance movements after the dismemberment of the USSR became platforms that brought about the change and continued the tendency towards national renaissance. It happened so in Lithuania, for instance, not yet in the Republic of Moldova, university lecturer Virgiliu Bîrlădeanu, doctor of history, head of the Contemporary History Department of the Institute of History, stated in an interview titled “Reasons, forms and effects of anti-Soviet resistance” that was conducted by IPN.
Virgiliu Bîrlădeanu said that not many anticipated the collapse of the colossal Soviet Union, but this didn’t stop those who consciously became involved in resistance movements to continue fighting and not losing hope. “Many of the rebellions were occasional, depending on the arising provocations or the created situation. A series of revolts were staged in 1953 -1954. Tyrant Stalin died and the people in a number of concentration camps rose to obtain freedom. Movements were created among workers due to the difficult economic situation, as it happened in Brasov, where the people took to the streets to ask for better conditions. The spontaneous revolts showed that the claimed Soviet wellbeing didn’t exist in the Soviet Union,” noted the historian.
Virgiliu Bîrlădeanu said that when the USSR fell, the states and societies that were in the vanguard of the anti-communist resistance movement created platforms that ensured the change.
“In Lithuania, where this collective memory existed, where there was continuous cultural resistance, the people were ready for the dismemberment of the Soviet Union when this occurred. Their attitude was already formed and the people who became involved did it consciously, being from among intellectuals, not from among nomenclaturists. Regrettably, we were unable to keep this national renaissance and society democratization tendency and the national nomenclature in 1994 returned to power. Evidently, this marked us and we didn’t pass the exam of democratization and transformation of the economic and social society and we lost three decades. I say this with absolute certitude,” stated Virgiliu Bîrlădeanu.
He explained why some people are yet nostalgic for the so-called wellbeing in the Soviet Union, saying that this wellbeing was enjoyed by the nomenclaturists, not yet by the largest part of the population. “Namely for this reason, in the 1990s the people staged a revolt against the injustice of the state that created a special situation for nomenklaturists and this became suffocating for society, which no longer accepted the social injustice.”
The interview is part of the series “100 years of USSR and 31 years without USSR: Nostalgia for Chimeras”. IPN News Agency holds this series with support from the Hanns Seidel Foundation.
