The victims of the famine organized by the Soviet regime during 1946-1947 is commemorated on the third Saturday of April. Doctor of History Artur Leșcu, expert of WatchDog.MD Community, that that this is one of the darkest and most painful periods of the country’s history. During less than two years, over 200,000 people lost their lives, which is one of the biggest tragedies Moldova has gone through. It is assumed that the number of victims is much higher than it was announced as the data on the scale of this human tragedy were classified, IPN reports.

Artur Leșcu noted that at that time, the villages in Moldova lost on average 10% of their population. The south of the country was hit the worst. Some Gagauz localities lost about half of their inhabitants. Historians estimated that aproximately 5% of the population of the MSSR died from famine, ten times more than in Russia and five times more than in Ukraine.

“Although the blame for the atrocities that took place lies with the Soviet political leadership, the authorities of that time did everything possible for drought and the consequences of the war to be considered the main causes of the famine, for the tragedy not to be talked aboutl, and, as a result, for the people who remained alive to love their tyrant, becoming their sole source of existence. Could such a catastrophe have been avoided? Absolutely surely,” said the expert.

According to him, the whole Europe felt the effects of the drought, but nowhere was the population so brutified as to reach cannibalism, as it happened in the USSR. Moreover, wheat supplies were sufficient to help the people, but Stalin and the Soviets on the spot  intentionally didn’t reduce the collection plans, leaving the people effectively without any grain or livestock. The Soviet power not only didn’t intervene to help the population, but exported grain and made Stalin proud, turning the USSR into the largest supplier in the world.

The doctor of history stated that it all began in the spring of 1944, immediately after the occupation of Bessarabia. The new Soviet power imposed the compulsory yielding up of agricultural products for the benefit of the so-called liberators. Quotas were set, and peasant households were forced to hand over food. Whoever dodged was stripped of supplies and was obliged to pay a fine equivalent to the cost of undelivered products. The goal was to extract as many resources as possible from the Moldavian SSR.

In 1946, it was the period of full disaster. The drought affected especially the south of Moldova. The people were starving to death as they delivered to the Soviets the last products that could save them. “In a secret note, the situation in Congaz and Ceadâr-Lunga is presented. It is indicated that the population used dog meat, cat meat, animal carrion. Cannibalism was widespread. Cannibalism was actually a phenomenon present throughout the country. About 40 cases were officially documented, but the reality was much worse. The testimonies available today, the stories of parents sacrificing their own children to survive, are terrifying. Something like this is unthinkable in our times,” stated Artur Leșcu.

According to him, in the documents the cause of death from starvation was listed as dystrophy. In the spring of 1947, almost 240,000 people, adults and children were sick with dystrophy as a result of famine. In fact, the number of dead and sick from starvation could be much higher. Many people in villages didn’t have identity papers, which makes it difficult to establish an exact number. Archives show that many people left in search of food and never returned.

“The people who managed to survive were forced to forget the tragedy they went through. The authorities forbade the people to talk about starvation, about the dead, about cannibalism. And many of them, generations later, have forgotten. Then, hungry and totally dependent on their new master, they were content with everything that came to them from the Soviets and allowed them to survive. This is how the victims began to love their tyrant. The famine was caused by the Soviet regime by the very essence of its policies in relation to the people. It is one of the darkest and most painful periods. It is important to know this tragic page of our history, to learn from it,” said the historian.