Requiem rally dedicated to day of remembrance for victims of communist deportations takes place in Moldovan capital

A requiem rally dedicated to the Day of Remembrance for the Victims of Communist Deportations has taken place in the Moldovan capital. The event was attended by President Maia Sandu, Parliament Speaker Igor Grosu and cabinet members.

The rally started with a religious service and several recitals with excerpts from  deportees' memoirs.

In her speech, the head of state spoke referred to the tragedy of the tens of thousands of people taken from their homes on the night of July 5 to 6, 1949, and deported to Siberia.

“We have gathered today to commemorate one of the most painful tragedies of our people. On the night of July 5 to 6, 1949, tens of thousands of people were removed from their homes and sent to Siberia. Dignified people who lived from honest work, spoke their language with pride and preserved their traditions. Their uprightness was considered a threat by the Soviet regime,” said Maia Sandu.

The president recalled the inhumane conditions under which Moldovans were sent into exile – hunger, cold, forced labor – and the extraordinary effort of those deported to maintain their identity, faith and language, even far from home.

“Even in exile, they kept their values, raised and educated their children in this spirit. Many of these children learned the Romanian language, learned what roots mean, what freedom means – precisely because they experienced its absence. They carried forward, with care and courage, what their parents and grandparents were not allowed to say out loud. The spirit of these people was never defeated,” Sandu opined.

The head of state emphasized that the victims of the deportations had never asked for revenge, only truth – a truth that must be spoken and passed on.

“It is our duty to offer them this truth – through recognition, through education, through keeping the memory alive. For decades, these sufferings have been silenced, ignored or treated with indifference. And, more than seven decades later, we still see attempts to falsify history, justify or minimize the crimes of the Soviet regime. Such attitudes not only offend the memory of those who suffered, but also foster a dangerous culture of denial – of the past and, more seriously, of the present.”

In this regard, the Moldovan president drew a parallel with the war in Ukraine, where innocent people continue to be victims of violence and deportations.

“Even today, we see in Ukraine other crimes, other shattered destinies, other children deported. History must not be repeated.”

She encouraged citizens, especially young people, to visit the exhibition, State Terror in Soviet Moldova, opened on the Great National Assembly Square, and to learn from the past experienced by our families.

“This exhibition is a space for reflection and learning. I urge you to visit, listen to the testimonies, see the exhibits, and understand – especially the young – the history beyond figures and statistics. Because people suffered in those railway carriages. So that the torments they endured were not in vain, we have a duty to ensure that such crimes will never again be possible,” Sandu added.

In conclusion, the president of Moldova reiterated the state's firm commitment to defending freedom, dignity and peace.

“We have an obligation to choose truth over lies, courage over fear, and memory over forgetting. Through these choices, we honor the victims of the deportations and defend the future of Moldova,” the president concluded.

Minister of Culture Sergiu Prodan said that “the national reconciliation is possible only by accepting the truth, and memory is what makes us human.”

“Without memory, the human being loses essence – identity, consciousness, and connection with the past. The memory of those tragic events our people went through was, at one point, a target. Someone tried to erase it, to wipe it away. But it didn’t happen. And this is thanks, first and foremost, to the people. I remember from my childhood how my grandmothers, when talking with neighbors from the village, always discussed about those who were deported, how it happened. They repeated the same stories, over and over again. At that age, I didn’t understand the meaning of this habit. But today, I understand: through that repetition, through those whispered testimonies, they passed on the memory. That was their way of ensuring we would not forget. As a people, we cannot but assume this pain. The scars left by that drama in our collective soul are real and significant. They are part of the foundation of our common memory and the pillars we rely on for our identity. The government of Moldova has recently approved an Action Plan for commemorating the deportations during 2025-2028. There are dozens of actions meant to preserve and strengthen this memory. We do not want revenge. We do not seek accusations. We simply want truth and respect for those who suffered. We want the strengthening of our people’s collective memory. And yet, what a wave of hatred was stirred even just by the simple approval of this plan! This fact clearly shows us that some have not given up the idea of repeating history. And precisely for this reason, our actions are so necessary – to prevent such atrocities from happening again. The government's actions are directed toward national reconciliation. Refusal to accept the truth, to sincerely state what happened, means only one thing: that someone, somewhere, wants history to be repeated. And we cannot allow this,” Prodan said.

The mass deportation between July 6-9 1949 was the largest on the current territory of Moldova. The operation involved 11,281 families, with the contingent of deportees – forcibly loaded into cattle railway carriages – made up of 35,796 people, including 11,889 children, 14,033 women and 9,864 men.