Moldovan society has the moral duty to keep alive the memory of the tragic events of the past, generated by the Soviet regime in Bessarabia, expert Igor Boțan stated in a  public debate hosted by IPN News Agency. He stressed the importance of officially commemorating these dramatic episodes, such as the organized famine of 1946-1947, deportations and forced collectivization.

In the Republic of Moldova, the Day of Remembrance of the Victims of the Famine of 1946-1947 is marked officially on the third Saturday in April.

"A special day was designated for the people to remember the events that our parents, our grandparents went through. The people need to understand that these regimes that wanted to make the whole humanity happy actually caused sufferings. These sufferings were caused on the basis of class," said the permanent expert of IPN’s project.

The expert also gave an eloquent example of how the population of Bessarabia was marginalized by the Soviet regime. According to him, the Bessarabian peasants received passports only in 1974, which severely limited their freedom of movement and made it impossible for them to leave their native localities.

"The people should know that in Bessarabian society, peasants received passports only in 1974, although in the USSR the law on passports was adopted in 1934. But it was only functional for residents of cities because industrialization required mobility, while the peasants were serfs until 1974. They could not leave the locality without permission from the president of the kolkhoz and the village soviet," pointed out Boțan.

Referring to the testimonies of survivors of the 1946-1947 famine, the expert said that these accounts should become one more reason for today's society to value freedom and democratic values.

"The authorities must commemorate the days dedicated to the people who suffered. The Ministry of Education must take care that through the school curricula, the young generation finds out about the ordeal that the Bessarabians went through. All the testimonies about hunger must make us value freedom and direct our own fate," stated Igor Boțan said.

The public debate entitled "Aims, authors and evidence of the organized famine of 1946-1947" was the 47th installment of the project “Impact of the past on confidence-building and peace-building processes". IPN Agency implements the project with support from the German Hanns Seidel Foundation.