Stalinist deportations victims commemorated in Chisinau municipality

Chisinau, 06 July /MOLDPRES/ – The victims of Stalinist deportations were commemorated today in Chisinau. In all localities in the country, the state flags were left in the middle.

At commemoration event, PM Pavel Filip said that the day of today is a real tragedy of our nation, which struck on the Romanian foundation.

"We are here to remember those which had suffered from Stalinist deportations. Today we are silent. During the second wave of deportations, there were taken about 40,000 persons, for one night, beside their families, threatened and terrorised. It was a journey to hell, and our fellow countrymen passed through terrible anguish. Though so many years passed, the word Siberia is now causing fear and terrible memories. Unfortunate persons, educated ones, were deported and it has had dramatic consequences. The country remained debuslated and without leaders. It is important to remember those ones and their place in history of our country. These are the lessons of history to be taught and cherished. The government has undertaken and will continue to take action to support the victims of the Stalinist deportations," said Filip.

At the event, the victims of deportations told about the experienced horror moments during repressions. "We were taken from prison to prison. The life started again, we searched for places to build a home and where to learn to live away from our dear ones. Today we have a soul gathering. We are a big family with a difficult destiny, passed through treason and weights. We were driven out of our native country and removed from relatives. We thank the Government for getting us out of anonymity and making us not ashamed as fugitive robbers," said a victim of Stalinist deportations.

As a solidarity sign, there were included sirens throughout Moldova, today. On 06 July, it was held a minute of silence and there were read names of persons which had suffered from political repression.

Also, in all churchess there were pulled bells and it was performed memorial service for the ones which died after the Stalinist deportations, but also for those ones which died in communist prisons.

Currently, there are almost 8,000 deportees in Moldova.

The second wave of mass deportations in Bessarabia took place on 06 – 07 July 1949. The persons were loaded into trains and taken to Siberia and Kazakhstan.

Totally, there were three waves of mass deportations: in June 1941, July 1949 and April 1951.

(Reporter A. Ciobanu, editor L. Alcaza)