The restoration, in Chisinau, of a monument dedicated to the Romanian forces that fought in the First World War led to the resumption, by Russia and the pro-Russian press, of the narratives about the Romanian army in WWII, including those regarding the occupation of Bessarabia – a territory which was in fact liberated after its annexation by the USSR under the Ribbentrop-Molotov pact.
NEWS: ”A monument to the Romanian invaders-occupiers was inaugurated in Chisinau”
Today, in Chisinau, with military honors and a military band, the restored spring fountain of General P. Ion - one of the attractions of the capital, lost before the war, located on the grounds of the modern Valea Morilor Park - has been inaugurated. But, at the same time, there is an inscription on the commemorative plaque that reads: “80 years since the liberation of Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina by the Romanian troops”. It turns out that this is a monument to the Romanian army soldiers who fought on the side of Nazi Germany, and was erected in honor of the invasion by the Romanian-German fascist occupiers on the territory of the USSR in 1941”.
”Russia condemns the inauguration in Chisinau of the monument to the Nazi criminals of Antonescu’s regime”. The Embassy of the Russian Federation in the Republic of Moldova has issued a statement condemning the flagrant case of glorifying Hitlerite executioners in our country and the inauguration in Chisinau of the “monument” to the Nazi criminals of the Antonescu regime, Noi.md reports. According to the Russian diplomatic mission, the cynicism of the promoters of historical pay-back has no boundaries, and the symbol of Russian-Romanian friendship during the First World War in Chisinau was transformed into a “monument” to the Nazi criminals of the I. Antonescu regime. The Russian Embassy condemns Bucharest's attempts to find justification for fascist criminals. “We share the reaction of the Moldovan society’s healthy forces, which have condemned this flagrant act of glorifying Hitlerite executioners in the country that lost some 200 thousand people in the war against fascism, including women, elderly and children.
People who commemorate those responsible for killing and torturing the peaceful population and prisoners of war, pathetically hiding behind the “noble mission to liberate Bessarabia from Bolshevism”, should be punished in the context of the global assessment of the outcomes of World War II, resulting in harsh punishments established by the Nuremberg Tribunal”, the statement issued by the Russian Embassy in Moldova reads.
The Voivode Movement about the monument inaugurated in Valea Morilor. “It is an attempt to falsify history and to portray as heroes the German-fascist forces that crossed the border in 41 and were stopped under Stalingrad. We call on the City Hall officials to correct the mistake and punish the guilty. At a time when the Republic of Moldova is faced with much bigger issues, such as the gas crisis, this topic appears as a kind of diversion to further strain the relations with the Russian Federation. It looks like someone is doing it on purpose, to make Russia angry, right now when there are some very serious negotiations underway on the issue of gas supply. It is in fact a plan, a scenario that has been very well implemented in Ukraine in recent years and which will certainly bring no harmony into our society, but will cause new tensions and will divide society. Citizens must understand that the inauguration of this monument is a fake”, the statement by the Voivod Movement also reads.
NARRATIVES: 1. Romanians are fascists, and the Romanian army was an invading one, an occupation force; 2. Those who commemorate Romanian soldiers deserve to be punished by the Nuremberg Tribunal; 3. Raising the monument is an attempt to antagonize Russia while negotiations over gas supply are underway.
CONTEXT: The monument known as “General Georgescu P. Ion’s Fountain” was unveiled in Chisinau on October 25, 2021, when the Romanian Army Day is marked. The work is a reconstruction of an interwar monument, raised in 1937, when Bessarabia was part of Romania, in honor of the victories scored by the Romanian Army in the battles of Marasti and Marasesti, in 1917, in the First World War. The fountain was known as “General P. Ion’s Spring”, because General Pavel Ion Georgescu had the idea of the lay-out in that place. Most of the monuments erected after the Union of Bessarabia with Romania (1918) were destroyed by the Soviet power, after the USSR occupied the region in 1940, following the secret agreement between Hitler and Stalin in 1939, known as the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact.
The “General Georgescu P. Ion Fountain” was rebuilt based on archive photographs taken in 1942. On the current monument, however, there are also several inscriptions commemorating the victims of the tragic events that took place on the territory of the current Republic of Moldova, including near the place where the monument was erected. Between June 1940 and July 1941, after Bessarabia, northern Bukovina and Herta were occupied by the USSR, many people were executed by the Bolshevik regime. Near this monument, in the basement of the NKVD building, which used to host the former Italian Consulate, soldiers, police staff, Romanian officials, Whites, refugees from the USSR were killed and tortured, and their bodies were later found in mass graves, at the exit from Valea Morilor Park, Historian Anatol Petrencu explained.
The monument unveiled on October 25, 2021 has a plaque on which the year when the monument was restored and the names of the individuals and organizations that contributed to its construction are inscribed. The plaque also reads that the monument was erected 80 years after the liberation of Bessarabia and northern Bukovina by the Romanian army.
The rebuilding of the monument was initiated by the lawyer Iulian Rusanovschi, author of the volume “War of Monuments”, a work about interwar monuments, forgotten, destroyed or hidden in cemeteries. Iulian Rusanovschi rebuilt several monuments from the period of Greater Romania, erected in memory of King Ferdinand and the Romanian heroes. Several cemeteries and monuments dedicated to Romanian soldiers who fought in both world wars, on the territory of the Republic of Moldova, and destroyed during the Soviet period, were restored with the support of the Romanian Government.
It should be noted, on the other hand, that although 30 years have passed since the collapse of the USSR, many monuments erected during the Soviet period have remained untouched in the Republic of Moldova, keeping the population anchored in the nostalgic past of the Soviet and Russian world.
PURPOSE: The narratives aim to show in a bad light Romania and the Romanian Army in the Republic of Moldova, but also to mobilize pro-Russian, nostalgic, Moldovan, anti-Romanian forces.
WHY THE NARRATIVES ARE FALSE: The narratives and the reaction of the Russian Embassy are about the plaque where the year when the monument was restored, 2021, and the text “80 years since the liberation of Bessarabia and northern Bukovina by the Romanian Army” are inscribed, and the conclusion is that the monument was raised to honor the “invasion by the Romanian-German fascist occupiers on the territory of the USSR in 1941”. The narrative that Romania occupied Bessarabia in 1941 was initially launched by the Soviet propaganda. The Romanian soldiers who fought in the Second World War were presented as fascists who exterminated the peaceful population, a myth that succeeded the one known as the “Romanian gendarme”. The negative image of Romania and the myths of the “Romanian occupier” and the “Romanian fascist” were contrasted with that of the Red Army “liberator”.
In reality, the USSR was an aggressor, which invaded the Baltic states, attacked Poland, annexed Romanian territories, including the current territory of the Republic of Moldova, on June 28, 1940, following an agreement with Nazi Germany, the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact signed in 1939. Although the Red Army fought German Nazi troops in World War II, it did not do so to restore the freedom of Eastern European states, but to incorporate them into the Soviet Union or to maintain its political and military control in the socialist camp. In the first years after the Soviets took over power in Bessarabia, numerous arrests, convictions and expedited executions took place, as well as several waves of deportations and planned famine because of which hundreds of thousands of people died. On the other hand, the USSR's successor, the Russian Federation, is trying to revive a series of Soviet propaganda narratives that glorify the role of the USSR and of the Soviet Army in World War II. The Kremlin is trying to rewrite history, ignoring and denying the crimes committed by the Soviets until, during and after the war.
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