The Siberia Files – memory tour of Chisinau-based Mihai Eminescu National Theatre to Romania

The documentary play, The Siberia Files, produced by the Mihai Eminescu National Theatre from Chisinau, starts a Memory Tour to Romania, with the aim of raising public awareness about the Stalinist deportations and Soviet repression against the population of Bessarabia, Bukovina, and the Hertza region.

The tour begins today, June 27, in Oradea, at the Regina Maria Theatre, and will continue with performances in Cluj-Napoca (June 29, Lucian Blaga National Theatre), Baia Mare (July 1, Municipal Theatre), and Satu Mare (July 3, North Theatre).

The Siberia Files is not a stage fiction, but a documentary play based on the harrowing testimonies of the Soviet regime's victims: Ecaterina Chele, Margareta Cemartan-Spanu, and Ion Moraru. The script authors are Petru Hadarca and Mariana Onceanu, with direction by Petru Hadarca. The performance lasts 2 hours and 15 minutes, without intermission.

The play evokes the dramatic events following the Soviet ultimatum of June 28, 1940, when USSR troops occupied the territories between the Prut and Dniester rivers. In the following years, tens of thousands of people were uprooted and deported to Siberia in three successive waves of Stalinist repression: the first wave, on June 13, 1941, involved the deportation of over 30,000 individuals; the second wave, on July 6, 1949, saw around 36,000 people being taken; and the third wave, on April 1, 1951, resulted in approximately 3,000 forced exiles.

The play, The Siberia Files, is about immense human suffering, as well as the power to resist evil. It is a powerful lesson of memory and conscience. The tour initiative is part of a cultural diplomacy project supported by the Culture Ministry of Moldova, in partnership with the Embassy of Moldova in Romania.