Moldovan MPs stand silent for one minute in memory of deportations' victims

Chisinau, 13 June /MOLDPRES/ - The today’s parliament meeting started with one minute of standing silent in the memory of the victims of the first wave of the Stalinist deportations. Parliament Speaker Igor Grosu stressed that everybody’s duty was not to forget those tragic events and keep the memory of the victims.   

„On the night of 12 to 13 June 1941, the fist weave of the Stalinist deportations took place in Bessarabia and North Bucovina. More than 30,000 Bessarabians were awaken by the barking of dogs and the noise of soldiers and were forcibly driven away from their homes. The first victims of this terror were the national elites: mayors, teachers, judges, lawyers, civil servants, former members of the Country Council (parliament) accused of ‘’anti-Sovietism.’’ Everybody were repressed –  ethnic Russians, Jews, Gagauz and Bulgarians,’’ Igor Grosu said.     

„The Stalinist regime did not pardon anyone. Entire families were deported to the areas with the most difficult conditions – Siberia and steppes from North Kazakhstan. Many of them died on the way and even more – because of the inhuman conditions and the extenuating work. The memory of those times is crucial, especially as a war initiated by the Kremlin tries to change the borders. Our duty is not to forget, as the forgetting is betrayal. We must not forget and speak about those crimes, especially as the lessons of the history have actually not been learned and in Ukraine, entire families are divided and children – deported,’’ Igor Grosu noted.    

The official urged the citizens to visit an exhibition titled, Soviet Moldova: between myths and GULAG, staged at the National History Museum of Moldova, as well as an exhibition on the Soviet terror from the Chisinau-based Army’s Museum.  

The 83rd anniversary of the first wave of Soviet deportations from Bessarabia and North Bukovina, which took place on the night of 12 to 13 June 1941, is marked today.