Chișinău / Moldova.ORG/ — Each year, in the Republic of Moldova’s capital Chisinau, more people meet to honor the memory of fallen heroes during the two World Wars. These people do not attend a grand, well groomed with flowers and monuments memorial. They prefer to go to the international heroes cemetery, which does not look as a cemetery any more since it was demolished.

The cemetery, until it was destroyed, was the last home for fallen soldiers – mostly Romanians, but also Russians, Austrians, Czechs, French, Greeks, Poles…

This year, on June 3, here was a memorial service for the fallen in battle, after which personalities from Moldova and other countries have spoken about this place significance.

Moldova.ORG would like to bring to you an impressive speech (see full version below) of Ion Ungureanu, ex-Minister of Culture of the Republic of Moldova (1990-1994). He noted with sadness that the destruction of this memorial is a terror that makes you feel as a stranger at your own home. It is a great pity that some post 1944 immigrants, Russians, who claim to be liberators, being, in fact, invaders, by destroying these monuments, tend to erase all our people memories of the tragic events, where hundreds of innocent people died. But the greatest sin is when our nation vines, themselves, recourse to such misdeeds, in order to delete (with bulldozers) the memory in our souls.

Ion Ungureanu ends his speech with a call to awakening and recognition, urging those who didn’t respect the nation’s values to participate in the recovery of the lost ones, despite the fact that sometimes it is already late.

"Come with us to rebuild what your parents destroyed, astounded by a [Bolshevik] propaganda that made them inhumane, let us begin with restoring this cemetery in honor of the fallen heroes, especially that besides the bones of our Romanian soldiers, there are Russian and other ethnicities soldiers’ remains, this, of course if you want a civilized life", Ion Ungureanu concluded.

Ex-Minister of Culture, Ion Ungureanu’s speech in full version:

We’ve been gathered by a ferocious act of vandalism, which happened right in front of some of us.

It is an eloquent proof of the fact that the city of Chisinau, since 1944, haven’t belonged to us – the natives.

To get here today, to the place of the memorial service, we had to go through the weeds and scruffy, as in ancient times, when early Christians would gather in caves to pray together to God.

Here we are thrown back into the era of paganism.

Those gathered here today are, according to the biblical words, the salt of the earth, they are the bearers of our historical memory torches.

It is well known that the attitude towards cemeteries reveals the degree of civilization of a state.

We’ve gathered here thanks to journalist Angelina Olaru’s investigation of this monstrosity that was committed in the heart of Chisinau – Heroes’ Cemetery demolition – a unique architectural and memorial complex.

But if we put it all together, it was inevitable that all of this would happen.

Once, on this land, Tatars, Turks preyed with no mercy everything they came across – and if you couldn’t expect mercy and compassion from the pagans, it was absolutely incomprehensible when they were joined by Cossacks. Christians like us, they burned our churches, stole our holy books, icons… (Nicolae Dabija reminded this to us recently in one of his editorials in Literatura si Arta weekly).

But even they, after a while, returned with the booty at home – wherever their homes were. Today we are dealing with another kind of invaders. They call themselves "liberators" but don’t go back to where they came from (so they are occupants!). "No-o-o! No-o-o!" are their indignant retorts, "we are your liberators". These void destroyed what ours and installed their red tents inside our ancestral home. Meanwhile, they educate demolitionists and predators of our nation’s representatives. The religion they impose is hate for our brothers and love for the predators.

We’ve been implanted in our brains that we are not what we used to be, that we do not need memory, moral laws, our historical past is rewritten and falsified.

We, the natives, were not like that, but we were taught by those who came up with "mi starii mir razrushim do osnovania" (We will destroy the old world to the ground).

Once they blew up their churches, cathedrals (it is enough to mention only "hram Hrista Spasitelya" (Christ the Saviour Cathedral) in Moscow, then, their intention to destroy even the famous church of Basil Blajennyi (Blessed) in the Red Square, and only by a miracle, in the last minute they changed their minds), well, this neo-Barbarians came to teach us to demolish, to blow up, to remove with bulldozers any trace of civilization, of Christianity.
You saw them these days marching very naughty with bloody red flags, in Chisinau, chanting "nasha Moldova!" ("Our Moldova"), although they neither speak our language, nor are aware of our history. 

What they mean by saying Moldova, can be seen in Tiraspol – this old Moldavian land became today a Russian enclave, where the name of "Moldovan Republic" is just formal.

They say "Moldova" but mean Russia, see it as a Russian province.

If you don’t believe me, ask Russia’s Patriarch, Kirill, who will visit this autumn his "Vseia Russia" (All Russia) canonical space in Chisinau, while the Patriarch of Romania is not allowed to come to Stephen the Great’s estate. 

We live in apocalyptic times, where lie is the enthroned queen.

I would not wish the Russians that one day some aliens would march bravely on the streets of Moscow chanting, with specific accent, "nasha Moscava, nasha Moscfa" (our Moscow). Also, ask in a cheeky manner for their language to be decreed as Russia’s state language.

Perhaps if the Russians in Russia would wake up and would better understand our dramatic situation and would advise Russians from here, once they don’t plan to return to Russia, at least behave with respect towards us, on our land, because as many they would be, how much they would spread – after all, they’ll have to return to their roots, as waters pour back into the river bed where they started flowing.

Is this marching on our lands group guilty? Only partly, I think.

The main to blame are those in their back, who incite them against us, who basically don’t spare their own tribe. The famous Stalinist saying "Mi za tsenoi ne postoim!" (no price is too high for us) is applied today.

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn spoke about it – the great civic conscience of Russia, when he bitterly claimed that for hundreds of years Russia has been led by leaders who used to hate and still hate the Russian people, and, therefore, do not spare them, send them to all over wars and unnecessary missions.

The same Solzhenitsyn wrote the unique in the world desiderate "A sberejenii Naroda "(about mercy, protection, maintenance of people).

What "sberejenie", what care for consanguines? Remember, during the military conflagration on the Dniester, imposed by Russian-Soviet pro-imperial forces, we were cut off from Russian gas delivery in Moldova (if they could, we would be cut off from air, as well!). The gas was cut for the entire population – otherwise, it was technically impossible. And who suffered the most? Russians! They, unlike the native population, were unable to manage the situation. The natives turned to their families from the countryside, while the Russians [in cities] were the worst affected by Russia’s punishment.

As the harmful gas attack against Chechens in the South West Theater in Moscow, which has made an infinite higher number of fatalities between Russians rather then Chechens were able to do.

It’s the same old mentality: "Mi za tsenoi ne postoim!" (no price is too high for us).

It’s a mentality of savages. It is applied at all times. But let’s leave them in God’s payment.  The question is what do we do with our own local neo-Barbarians, who alienated with them?

Remember Ion Druta’s novel, "The belfry", Stephen the Great’s old belfry was burned to the ground by one of ours, rather than those who profane our lands. This act of vandalism is described in a work of fiction. But look what reality tells us: as learned, this sacred cemetery final demolition was approved by one of Moldova’s rulers.

Now he’s justifying, as he didn’t know. But, Mr. [Vasile] Tarlev [Moldova’s communist prime minster], as our ancestors used to say: Ignorantia non est argumentum! (Ignorance is not an argument).

It’s scary what’s happening in our country, right in front of our eyes. These days was also broadcast the news that decades ago, a part of the Central Cemetery, where the tomb of an exceptional Mayor, Karl Schmidt, who led the capital for 28 years, was erased with bulldozers. The tomb of the great architect, Alexander Bernardazzi, who euroepeanized Chisinau, was erased then as well. In the place of these graves rose "Kinoteatr 40 let VLKSM – live Komsomol!" (Cinema dedicated to 40 years of All-Union Leninist Communist Youth League. Opposite this building there is that horrible statue which nor the Ministry of Culture gave notice of building "Iz-za hudojestvennoi nepolnotsennosti" (due to the lack of artistic value). But today try to touch it only, you’ll be immediately labeled barbaric and … rusofobe (though it is a Soviet monument, as we see, the Russians and Soviets have become synonyms). 

This is where Mr. Tarlev took over his mission when he endorsed final demolition of everything related to the military glory cemetery, to the remains of soldiers who died in wars, broken and crushed by bulldozers…

Of course, in someone’s eyes who gathered here we look naive or romantic. Look, sir, what a novelty!

When in Chisinau and its surroundings thousands of people were tortured and shot dead without trial – and, until today, we find new mass graves with those executed, and some of the perpetrators of these atrocities are still alive, living among us and getting fat pensions.

 These criminals, these executioners are not sought by The Hague Court, their crimes were not classified as "crimes against humanity". What can we respond them? One does not exclude the other. 

But nothing is uglier than a man without memory, nothing more dangerous than a society that turns into a mass of biological consumers, as it’s been said in our country for a while: not the tongue matters, but what is put on it…

So we are invited to descend to the animal kingdom.

I also understand those in the West, who depend on them as well, on the Russian gas, as they want something "to put on the tongue", too, but this alliance between our "materialists" and West’s "idealists", who search for criminals only to the limit of the former Soviet empire borders, is too sinister.

We, the natives, were and are part of an ancient people who have never requested anyone a piece of foreign land, we have never violated God’s law: what you do not like, do not do the others.

We have always honored our ancestors, look how many people are in cemeteries during the Memorial Easter! That’s why we dare to ask for obeying us.

And I would ask one question those who live beside us: how would you feel, comrades, if at someone’s order (no matter whose) the military glory complex, "Eternity", on Pan Halippa street, would be blown up? That is unimaginable, indeed! But what did you do to the Heroes Cemetery?

This land’s history did not begin with you. Before you came, here had lived people who had a past, ancestors, and just like you, their own heroes, whom they buried with honor. And what have you done to their remains, by coming here?

An old saying tells that: who shots from the gun into the past, will be shot by the future from cannon.

Don’t treat us like you are conquerors – otherwise, you will have to face the consequences. It’s not a threat, it’s a warning. We aren’t some "red-skins, we don’t need to be Christianized. We’ve been Christianized before your arrival (about half a millennium before), so you should subordinate to our canonical space and not vice versa.

It’s enough that you’ve already tried to de-Christianize us. Stop tromping with your boots in the house you were hosted in.

Who does not break our ancestral law and behave with respect, will be treated properly. But those who violate our values, will be shown the door. (Excuse me, it’s a Romanian saying, but it works everywhere).

Dear Mother Russia! Stop! Take care of your tribe, do not plant it everywhere, all over the meridians.

Read Tolstoy’s parable once again "How much earth does a man need?". You risk to leave Russia without Russians. And that would be a pity. It gets scary when thinking of whom might take their place. Back to Pechenegs, our common "friends" once again? It’s not a figure of speech.

Not once we’ve had the opportunity to get convinced that everything is possible the world we live in. Unwillingly, you wonder: has Russia realized so far that it has been subjected to a bad experience? The German chancellor, Bismarck, wrote in a letter of response to the Socialist Bebel, who kept pressing him with his socialist ideas: "Curious ideas! We should find a country that we don’t care too much for, Russia, for example, and test them". 
They had been "tasting" them since 1917. (The price was tens of millions of lives).

Together with the Russians, we got into the mixer of this tragic experience, as well.

Me, who was educated in Moscow during the ‘Khrushchev thaw’, and then I worked there, communicating with the famous Russian intelligentsia, I tell you frankly that I feel appalled when I see these rhinos with red flags, marching in the streets of Chisinau.

I am ashamed and my heart aches seeing that the Russians have come to be confused with communism, with the awful Bolshevik beasts!

Don’t force the note, don’t stretch the rope, it can burst. Nobody speaks of rope in the hangman’s house.  Stop marching and waving those bloody flags.

Come with us to rebuild what your parents destroyed, astounded by a propaganda that made them inhumane, let us begin with restoring this cemetery in honor of the fallen heroes, especially that besides the bones of our Romanian soldiers, there are Russian and other ethnicities soldiers’ remains; this, of course, if you want a civilized life. Wake up, outside is another century, other times, the empires are already dead, resign to the fact that no people can be more important than other people, no matter their extent.

We are all equal in front of God. Do not squander your powers by keeping what doesn’t belong to you.

As seen, no ideology, no doctrine can insure anyone’s world domination – it’s an irrational vanity!

Dear allogenes, quench yourselves and behave with respect towards the titular nation, if you want to live in peace and mutual understanding.

And I would recall to our lost people that no nation glorifies its vendors. They are forever put to the pillory. And that will be your future if you keep being dizzy.

In order to not end on a pessimistic note, let’s remember the lit Resurrection night with those miraculous words: "Christ has risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, bestowing life those in the tombs".  Today, the alive also need to rise from the dead, not only those in the graves. Only then can we hope that we will be given eternal life.

We must restore the Heroes Cemetery completely, as it was built by our ancestors. And then, maybe God will turn towards us. We will be treated with respect by people of the world – this will be our exam to a civilized country. By this we’ll all repent, only this way, those who gave their lives and everything they had for this land will find eternal peace.

Let us be grateful and worthy of them!