The monument to victims of Stalinist deportations, set up in the square of the Railway Terminal in Chisinau, was unveiled on August 23. Hundreds of people brought candles and flowers to the monument, while a group of priests of “Teodora de la Sihla” Church blessed it. Relatives of deportees said they ultimately have a place where to remember and mourn for the grandparents, fathers, mothers and siblings who died in the Stalinist gulags, IPN reports.
Mayor of Chisinau municipality Dorin Chirtoaca said that this monument is among the most important projects in his work. “It cost about 25 million lei. They say that this is a considerable sum, but it is in fact the suffering of the people that has been considerable during the last 70 years. There was much blood and many tears left in cells,” he stated.
Author of the sculpture Iurie Platon said that work on the monument lasted for four years, but the result is worth the effort. “It was team work,” he stated. Attending the event, composer Eugen Doga said that he was a witness to the deportations and still feels that sadness. “I pray to God to spare us of such scourges so that we can love and be happy again,” he stated.
The monument to victims of the Stalinist repression, cast in bronze, is three meters in height, 12 meters in length and weighs about 15 tonnes. It has been awaited for many years as a symbol of the suffering of thousands of Moldovans who were deported in the 1940 – 1950 by the Stalinist-Communist regime. The deportees were taken by force to Siberia and Kazakhstan by trains from the Chisinau Railway Terminal.
