Initiative group requests authorities to forbid Communist monuments

An initiative group is requesting the Moldovan authorities to forbid museums, monuments and other objects representing the Bolshevik ideology and are “a disgrace to the Bessarabian values and traditions”, Info-Prim Neo reports. “We have monuments bearing the name of USSR heroes that neither lived, nor died here. They only came and took our people to Siberia. Let their own country honor them”, journalist and researcher Gheorghe Marzenco declared at a press conference. Dr. Gheorghe Negru, chairman of the Association of Historians, stated that even two decades after Moldova proclaimed its independence, many Moldovans failed to understand the crimes committed in the past. “Everyone condemns the Nazis’ crimes, but there are always some crooked explanations for the Communists’ crimes. There are scientists and researchers who, in one way or another, justify the Communists’ murders. We are an independent state and must rely on our own values, but unfortunately we still live with old imperial myths”, the historian said. Valentina Sturza, head of the Association of Political Prisoners and Deportees, named two Bolshevik monuments in Chisinau: the monument of Communist Youth on Grigore Vieru Avenue and the Fighters’ Monument near Gaudeamus Cinema. “These are two monuments erected to honor those who brought us humiliation and famine. These are monuments that have nothing to do with our people. We want them to be replaced with monuments of our heroes, who died for our people”, said Valentina Sturza. Anatol Caraman, the head of the Association of War Veterans 1992 Tiras-Tighina, is unhappy with politicians who “brainwash the people” by promoting “foreign values”. “The Communists’ Party is only causing dissensions among the people and fools them”, he said. Stela Popa, vice president of the National Christian Movement “New Right”, spoke about the desecration of the Commemorative Stone in the Great National Assembly Square. She thinks that those who did it must be punished and banished from “the land of Stephen the Great”. “We won’t allow you to destroy our values. This is a sign of cowardice, lack of culture and education. You don’t deserve to live on this holy land”, Stela Popa lambasted the hooligans. The statement is supported by 33 civil society organizations, academicians and doctors of history, who signed a Memorandum on National Values.