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Igor Boțan: Those who don’t want to understand benefits of Union of 1918 make a dangerous mistake


https://www.ipn.md/en/igor-botan-those-who-dont-want-to-understand-benefits-8004_1103860.html

Moldovan society is unfortunately very divided, the cleavages are very deep and, against the background of the Russian aggression in Ukraine, we can see how much this cleavage deepens, the permanent expert of IPN’s project Igor Boțan stated in the public debate “Consequences of the Union and of the “Reunion-Vossoedinenie”. Comparative analysis. Part I”. He gave as an example the division between the pro-European majority and the category of pro-Russia citizens.

According to the expert, the two segments of society share different concepts. On the one hand, the pro-European majority assimilates the studies of historians, the messages of political forces that try to discern very clearly the events that took place and were altered by Soviet propaganda in time. On the other hand, there is a category of people who believe that Russia has done only good to the inhabitants of this land.

Unfortunately, pro-Russian propaganda is much stronger than the efforts to explain the historical events. Igor Botan noted that among the benefits of the union with Romania in 1918 was the fact that the population preserved its ethnic and religious identity, which was not possible in the Russian Empire. Through the Union, the people of this area were protected from the civil war that took place in Russia, from organized famine, from Stalinist repression. Those who don’t want to understand this make a dangerous mistake because the Bolshevik leaders were real bandits.

According to the expert, following analyses, it turned out that Lenin, after being isolated from 1921 until his death in 1924, was systematically poisoned. The head of the soviets curiously died in March 1921, and in 1922 Stalin became General Secretary. Later, Trotsky was removed and replaced by our compatriot Frunze, who in half a year was killed during surgery with the help of anesthesiologists. Thus, all the members of the First Sovnarkom, except for the two-three who died natural deaths, were killed, as were the first seven Komsomol leaders.

Speaking about Vossoedinenie (1940, then 1944 – e.n.), Igor Boțan noted that in less than a year after this event, hardworking people, priests, people who ran enterprises were deported to Kazakhstan, Siberia. The largest part of the native population was issued with passports only in the 1970s. They were slaves, in fact, tied to a certain locality because, without documents, they didn’t have the right to free movement.

After the abdication of the Tsar, meetings of various social segments took place in Bessarabia, which culminated in the establishment of the People’s Council, according to the same rules used to constitute the soviets in the Soviet Union. Therefore, the legitimacy of the People’s Council wasn’t lower than that of the Petrograd soviet that struck a blow and seized power on November 7, 1917.

The public debate entitled “Consequences of the Union and of the “Reunion-Vossoedinenie”. Comparative analysis. Part I” was the 33rd installment of IPN’s project “Impact of the past on confidence and peace building processes”, which is carried out with the support of the German Hanns Seidel Foundation.