Memorial stone installed in Chisinau in remembrance of victims of communism

The memorial stone installed in the Great National Assembly Square in Chisinau, where a monument in remembrance of victims of communism will be erected, was unveiled today, June 28, with a religious ceremony officiated a group of priests from the Metropolitan Churches of Bessarabia and Moldova, Info-Prim Neo reports. The event took place 70 years following Basarabia’s occupation by the Soviet Union, as a result of Ribbentrop-Molotov pact. The manifestation initiated the commemorative actions dedicated to victims of the Soviet occupation. The host of the event, Mayor Dorin Chirtoaca, said the communist totalitarian regime murdered hundreds of thousands of people, not only Romanians, but Ukrainians, Russians, Jews and Gagauz as well. He read some decisions signed by the NKVD troika (a commission of 3 members, created for the fast-track trial of “enemies of the Soviet people”), through which people were sentenced to death for opposing collectivization or having personal opinions. “June 28, 1940, June 13, 1941, April 7, 2009 – those were dark days of our history, when we suffered because of the communist regime. The young generation must know this truth. All these misfortunes were a result of the agreement between communists and fascists, who signed a pact in august 1939, sharing peoples and countries, drawing new borders to their liking. Then followed deportations, organized famine, massive exterminations, genocide, crimes against humanity. We cannot allow such horrors today and we must stick to the historical truth”, Chirtoaca said. “June 28, 1940, is the day when our land was stricken by dictatorship and death, our people was separated through bloodshed, the border cut houses and families. As soon as they crossed the Nistru River, the Soviets killed all the thinkers, the well-off people”, stated Speaker and acting President of Moldova Mihai Ghimpu. According to Ghimpu, the communists came back to power in 2001 because during independence years the truth about communist regime’s crimes wasn’t brought into the open. “To condemn communism’s crimes doesn’t mean to be against Russia”, he added. The President said he didn’t want to outlaw the Communists Party, but their symbols. “You can’t wear a cross and hide the devil in your pocket. People were killed and deported to Siberia for these symbols”, he stated. The memorial stone in remembrance of victims of communism, installed in front of the Government, was unveiled by Academician Mihai Cimpoi and Mayor Dorin Chirtoaca.