Igor Casu

Succession procedures in Soviet Moldavia were cumbersome. When a departing leader had the right credentials and his activity had been praised, he could have a say on who should succeed him (Brezhnev, Bodiul, Lucin- schi). When the successor was named from the local nomenklatura, it was more likely that the leaving boss sent a good word about him to Moscow or even insisted that he was the best choice for continuing the policies and projects underway. Conversely, if the dismissed Party boss’s legacy did not look very impressive, he was not in a position to participate in the selection of his heir (Salogor, Coval, Gladchi, Grossu).

The hungry steppe: famine, mass violence and the making of soviet Kazakhstan, by Sarah Cameron, Ithaca, Cornell University Press, 2018, 294 pp., US$49.95 (hardcover), ISBN: 9781501730450 Copyright Line: © 2020 Igor Cașu Famines have multiple causes, among them being environment disasters. In the twentieth century, more than previously, the famines were rather man-made, i.e. connected to politics. Sometimes, the governments were not directly responsible for the food crises, but they tried to use them in order to promote their interests, which was reflected in the way the relief was distributed, when and to whom. In other instances, famines were due to ambitious modernization projects that did not pay too much attention to the life of large swaths of rural, but also urban population. These issues are valid for a wide range of regimes, including the Soviet one. As a matter of fact, the food crises in particular and the famines as a whole in the Soviet Union are one of the most controversial topics in the post-Soviet historiography. Out of the three famines during peacetime, the one of the early 1930s is the most researched, while the postwar famine of 1946-1947 received less attention. Among the books dealing with the early 1930s famine in the Soviet Union, the work written by Robert W. Davies and Stephen Wheatcroft stands out as the most important study on the subject, which is cited both by those who support the genocide approach and by those who reject it. Hungry Years mapped the main issues relating to the Soviet famines as a whole. The debates that followed Davies and Wheatcroft' s book raised, in my view, two main questions that historians should be focused on. First, assuming that Stalin did not intend to starve to death millions of peasants, the key issue is what he did when he acknowledged the human catastrophe he allegedly did not anticipate. Second, did Stalin view saving human life as a high priority or did he think there were higher priorities than that. Among the works dedicated to the Ukrainian Holodomor however there is no book yet to match the Years of Hunger. The recent book by Anne Applebaum is an important contribution to the Holodomor studies, but it failed to address specifically the above-mentioned issues. In addition, it neglected the fact the Ukrainian Holodomor was a part of a broader Soviet famine.

Pentru a cita acest articol: Cașu, I., 2019-2020, "Discurs și putere în timpul foametei în masă din Moldova sovietică, 1946-47". Romanian Studies Today. III-IV, p. 15-22. Discurs și putere în timpul foametei în masă din Moldova sovietică, 1946-47 (Abstract) The article analyses the Communist discourse strategies in Soviet Moldavia during the mass famine in the immediate postwar years. Based on recent archival findings from several post-Soviet archives as well as Western historiography, the article focuses on why it was so important for the Soviet regime to control language during mass famines. Controlling language was an intrisic part of controlling reality, designing scapegoats , and protecting the power from popular blame and wrath.

The Archive of the Social-Political Organizations of the Republic of Moldova (AOSPRM) is based on the fonds of the former Archive of the History of (Communist) Party within the Central Committee of Communist Party of Moldavia. After 1991, it was supposed that all political parties would send their archive to be preserved in AOSPRM. However, only a few political parties in post-Soviet Moldova did so, especially in the 1990s. So even nowadays after about three decades after the fall of the USSR, AOSPRM contains basically documents related to the Soviet period. The largest fonds are 49 and 51. The former (Fond 49) contains documents related to the activity of Moldavian Regional Committee of the Communist (Bolshevik) party of Ukraine representing the
highest local party authority in the former Moldavian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (MASSR) created in 1924 on the left bank of Dniester River, a part of Ukraine till 1940 when Romanian Bessarabia was occupied by the Red Army and a Union/federal republic of Moldavia was formed (MSSR). It documents the Sovietization of the Left bank since 1917, the creation of MASSR, NEP, collectivization, Great Terror, Cultural Revolution of the 1930s, resistance to Stalin’s Great Turn (including so called “bab’y bunty” (women’s rebellions)), Latinization and
Romanianization policy in 1932-1938 etc. The second important fond is 51 and it represents the documents issued by the Central Committee of Communist Party of Moldavia since 1940 to 1991. Among the topics covered by this fond are the repressive policy in the first year of Soviet occupation of Bessarabia (1940-41) and late Stalinism (1944-1953), collectivization of the late 1940s, mass deportations of 1941, 1949 and 1951, mass famine of 1946-47, destalinization of mid 1950s and its limits, campaigns against nationalism in late 1960s-early 1970s and Moldavian/Romanian national revival of late 1980s. As the Central Committee was conceived to
guide, supervise and control the government, it issued numerous documents pertaining to education, agriculture, industry, transport system, leisure, culture. The main activity of CC of CPM was in turn guided, supervised and controlled by CC of CPSU in Moscow, so this is why AOSPRM includes correspondence between the prime secretary of CC of CPM or other responsible cadres with General Secretary of CC of CPSU or other responsible cadres in the central apparatus of the party. AOSPRM contains as well numerous correspondence with its district party organizations
that were responsible with implementation of republican and federal decisions at the local level. A valuable source of documents on the way the local cadres at the village level and enterprise level tried to implement the decisions of the higher party authorities is contained in the fond dealing with primary party organizations. Even though the destruction of documents is prohibited by the Law of 1992 On the Rehabilitation of the victims of the political repressions, sometimes political
interference allows the destruction of very valuable files, as happened in 1994 (a minute of CC from 1989 involving M. Snegur, the first President of Moldova, 1990-1994). In the recent years, AOSPRM is the among the most opened archives in the former Soviet Union as it gives unrestricted access the personal files of the nomenklatura including of the top dignitaries of Central committee of the Communist Party of Moldavia and to the top secret documents contained in the Osobaia Papka focusing on the most sensible political issues. The later contains also documents related to the Cold War issues, the measures to be taken in case of the
breaking up of a nuclear war between United States and Soviet Union (including the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962). The archive also gives unrestricted access to two important fonds, the one on the revolutionary movement in Moldavia staring 1898 to 1940; and the fond on partisan movement in the Second World War, or the Great Patriotic War (1941-1944) in Bessarabia and Transnistria (more than 1000 files/delo) which in reality deals mainly with the activity of Soviet secret services
in 1941-44 in the Romanian controlled Bessarabia and Transnistria, subversive activities against the Romanian and German Armies etc. The relatively low score of openness (56.61 %) is mainly due to the fact the archive do not have web versions of inventories and do not offer services modern archive should do.
AOSPRM is a place to be visited by every researcher interested in the history of Soviet
Moldavia in particular and Soviet Union in general. The archive works only 3 days a week, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, from 8.30 to 16.30, but one can order 15 files/delo per day, so in one week one can consult and photocopy if need be 45 files no matter how many pages one file/delo contains. The personnel of the archive is very keen to help find needed information and the foreign scholars are served the same day on arrival according the Rules of the Reading Room as well as in practice. The fee for photocopying with ones own camera is 10 MDL, i.e. 50 euro cents per file/delo. Last but not least, another reasons to visit AOSPRM is that from 2013 this archive
opened the access to all personal data related to nomenklatura of all levels for research purposes.
This was the result of my letter (I.C.) to the government in which I explained the need to give access to personal files of nomenklatura and Osobaia Papka.

ЭХО БОЛЬШОГО ТЕРРОРА Сборник документов в трех томах. Том 3: Том 3: Чекисты Сталина в тисках «социалистической законности». Эго-документы 1938–1941 гг. Третий том сборника документов «Эхо Большого террора» включает в себя «письма во власть» сотрудников государственной безопасности НКВД СССР – организаторов и исполнителей массовых карательных операций 1937–1938 гг., оказавшихся в 1939–1941 гг. под следствием, арестом и судом в ходе широкомасштабной кампании по восстановлению социалистической законности, организатором и дирижером которой выступал союзный центр. Кроме того, в сборник вошли различные комплексы документов, которые задают контекст кампании по дисциплинированию НКВД, раскрывают ее цели и обозначают границы. Речь идет о «письмах во власть» жертв Большого террора и их родственников, чекистских рапортах, приказах НКВД СССР за 1938–1939 гг., материалах проверки сотрудников госбезопасности, осуществлявшейся организациями ВКП(б), газетных репортажах об открытых судебных процессах над чекистами и т. п. Ряд документов, таких как разнообразные материалы личных дел сотрудников госбезопасности, дает возможность проследить жизненные траектории чекистов и охарактеризовать генезис формирования этой специфической группы советского общества.

Исследуется специфика «чистки» сотрудников НКВД МАССР на завершающем 
этапе «Большого террора» и после официального прекращения массовых 
репрессий (сентябрь–декабрь 1938 г.) на примере деятельности И. Т. Широкого-Майского и его коллег. Ключевые слова: политические репрессии, МАССР, НКВД, 
«Большой террор».

Опубликовано в Чекисты на скамье подсудимых. Сборник статей. Составители Сборник статьей. Составители Марк Юнге, Линн Виола, Джеффри Россман, Москва: Пробел-2000, 2017, 680 с. (595-630).

The books contains 11 case-studies by Western and post-Soviet historians and an introduction by Lynne Viola. It is focused on the purge of the purgers in Soviet Union following the Great Terror of 1937-38.

Sample chapter: Игорь Кашу. «Чистка» сотрудников НКВД
Молдавской АССР после Большого террора.
Дело Ивана Тарасовича Широкого-Майского, 595-630.

This is the first article dealing specifically with Brezhnev in Soviet Moldavia. The article draws mainly on recently disclosed files from the Archive of the Social-Political Organizations of the Republic of Moldova, the former archive of the Central Committee of Communist Party of Moldavia. The authors are trying to understand the importance of the period when Brezhnev served as First Secretary of Central Committee of Moldavia from 1950 to 1952 for his subsequent career. In order to understand better the results of Brezhnev’s rule in Moldavian SSR and the impact on his leadership style, the authors discuss the previous career of Brezhnev as well as the activity of the previous First
Secretaries in Soviet Moldavia. One of the main results of Brezhnev period in Moldavia was the consolidation of kolkhozes. In a broader sense, since this period at least, Brezhnev favoured quantity over quality.

The Soviet Union as Empire: Theoretical considerations; Moldova under the Soviet Regime: What was Specific? The Rehabilitation of the Victoms of Communist Terror; Politics of Memory and the Victims after 1989; The Creation of the Commission for the Study and Evaluation of Totalitarian Regime in the Republic of Moldova; Conclusions.

Summary

The book deals with Soviet mass terror campaigns in the territories of the present day Republic of Moldova. As the breakaway separatist region of Transnistria of today was a part of Ukraine and Soviet Russia-Soviet Union since 1917, the story begins right after the October Revolution. Among the topics included are: Red Terror in Transnistria, latter on territories in which in 1924 was created the Moldavian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic; the famine of 1921-1922; 1924-1926 (local one) and 1932-33, various aspects, including details about the privileges of nomenklatura; collectivization campaign on 1929-1933 and mass deportations as well other political repressions; resistance of the local populations, scale and forms of manifestations, including the bab'i bunty; Great terror in Moldavian ASSR, 1937-1938; extension of Communist Terror in Bessarabia, 1940-1941, following the application of secret protocol of Soviet Nazi Pact of August 23 1939, including a paragraph on the execution of 136 persons in the first year of Soviet occupation of Bessarabia, their ethnic and social background; postwar famine of 1946-1947, raising questions like: was it organized or determined by natural conditions as the Soviet historiography pretended, how various agenda of different Soviet institutions worsened the situation of the local population and made the death toll (4,5 % out of the total population) the highest in comparison with Ukraine (0,6 %) and Russia (1%) according to Michael Ellman (Cambridge Journal of Economics, September 2000, vol. 24, p. 613); other topics include mass deportations from the late Stalinism, 1949 and 1951, conflicts between MGB and MVD during the mass operations, the reaction of the population, the conditions of life in Siberia etc; and the impact of 20th Congress of CPSU and Hungarian Revolution on public opinion in the Moldavian SSR during February-December 1956 and the contestations of the monopoly of Communist Party in society and the resurgence of apocalyptic rumors and expectations, as well as the end of the myth ‘Americans are coming to liberate us’. The book alternates the general analysis of the phenomena of repressions, violence and resistance with personal stories based on KGB files and testimonies of the victims or their relatives when available. Among the general questions posed in the book is the one related to the nature of repressions and violence in the Soviet Union in its formative years (Lenin and Stalin): were the repressions and mass violence a direct consequence of the application of ideology or a result of certain context?
The book used largely Russian and Ukrainian collections of documents and literature published in the last 20 years as well as reference authors from the West (among others Lynne Viola, David Shearer, Peter Solomon, Nicolas Werth etc). About half of the information is from the archival sources previously inaccessible from the former KGB in Chisinau, MVD of Moldavian SSR and Sovmin of MSSR. 
The book has been published in Romanian and has 396 pages, including conclusions, selective bibliography, Index and 7 pages of pictures with victims and perpetrators. The Russian version is in work now and will be published most probably already in the fall 2014.


The book could be ordered online at: www.bestseller.md, www.elefant.ro, www.kubon-sagner.de or www.amazon.com

"This volume of documents focuses on three central topics. The first concerns the identification of the “class enemy” by the Soviet authorities in the first year of Soviet occupation of Bessarabia, 1940-1941; the second – on the confiscation of property; and the third – on labor mobilization. In other words, it is about the three subjects that preceded the actual political repression (identifying the so-called class enemy), represented one of the forms of repression or foreshadowed the punishment against the “class-alien elements” (confiscation of property); and also acted as a
kind of mass deportations, although it doesn’t look like at the first glance (labor mobilization). As a whole thus, the three main thematic domains sheds new light on what is already known about the political repression, and at the same time make it possible to extend the concept of “political repression” under Communism, in this case under the regime that existed in Bessarabia in the first year of Soviet occupation. All the documents, except one, are published for the first time and were selected from four former Soviet archival depositories located in Chișinău: former Central Committee of Communist Party of Moldavia’s archive; former State Archive of the Moldavian SSR (local government’s files); former KGB of Moldavian SSR’s depository; and former Ministry of Interior of Moldavian SSR’s depository."

The year of publication is 2014. In this pre-print version, it is indicated wrongly that it is 2013.

Could be ordered in paperback online at: www.bestseller.md or www.cartier.md

The book focuses on the main instruments used by the Soviet regime in order inculcating a new ethnic identity in the former Romanian territory of Bessarabia. It is based on the  main contributions on the topic published till late 1990s, Western authors included, as well as new archival data.

This paper addresses an under-researched topic in Soviet post-war history. It is about institutional hierarchies in a newly annexed Western borderland based on recently disclosed archival materials from Chișinău (including ex-KGB and MVD) and Moscow depositories. In contrast to all-Union institutional practices, the Moldavian SSR's case study shows that the party was hardly a hegemonic institution in late Stalinism. Using kompromat and inside information, the political police (NKGB-MGB) controlled the party institution. In contrast to the Baltic republics, Soviet Moldavia was headed by weak first secretaries appointed with the connivance of local police. Agency is an essential variable in explaining the dynamics of institutional design and hierarchies in Soviet peripheries in late Stalinism. Political police's predominance in this period is explainable as Bessarabia – mostly part of Soviet Moldavia – was a contested territory between Romania and the Soviet Union and hence th...

The article highlights the impact of Khrushchev's Thaw on the question of national identity in Soviet Moldavia in the framework of the internal Soviet debates unleashed by the 'Secret Speech' and the subsequent Hungarian Revolution. The question of national identity was expressed by two groups, one representing the former GULAG returnees and the other the intellectuals or students socialized in the Soviet milieu. The position of the former was more radical and anti-Soviet, while the latter was milder and respected the status-quo, i.e. the Soviet regime, and only questioned some previously established traditions on what it meant to be Moldavian. Incidentally or not, the former position proved to be more long-lasting and in some way prepared and anticipated the national agenda during Perestroika, in the late 1980s. The question of national identity emerged once again with a comparable fervour in 1968 subsequent to the Prague Spring and Ceaușescu's refusal to support th...

The chapter covers the main state terror campaigns initiated by the Soviet regime in the Moldavian SSR starting from the fist year of Soviet occupation of Bessarabia (1940-41) up to 1989. The author uses a wide range of archival unpublished sources as well as published ones both in East and West and tries to put the Moldavian case in a wider Soviet context.

The chapter covers the main state terror campaigns initiated by the Soviet regime in the Moldavian SSR starting from the fist year of Soviet occupation of Bessarabia (1940-41) up to 1989. The author uses a wide range of archival unpublished sources as well as published ones both in East and West and tries to put the Moldavian case in a wider Soviet context.

The postwar famine in the USSR has received scarce attention in both post‑Soviet and Western historiography. Based on newly disclosed archival materials from the former civil police and party in Chişinău and Moscow, this article focuses on the food riots from Soviet Moldavia on the eve of the 1946‑1947 famine. Out  of 30 food riots in the Spring 1946 registered in the Moldavian SSR, 18 were dominated by women (called bab’y bunty by Lynne Viola, 1996). The author tries to understand the agency and contingency in the outbreak of the food riots as well as the public and hidden transcript related to the way the Soviet regime tried to deal with earlier signals of the famine. The larger question to be raised is why people resist to food policies at certain moments of food crises and not at  all in some others. P.S: This is the pre-print version.

Summary The book deals with Soviet mass terror campaigns in the territories of the present day Republic of Moldova. As the breakaway separatist region of Transnistria of today was a part of Ukraine and Soviet Russia-Soviet Union since 1917, the story begins right after the October Revolution. Among the topics included are: Red Terror in Transnistria, latter on territories in which in 1924 was created the Moldavian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic; the famine of 1921-1922; 1924-1926 (local one) and 1932-33, various aspects, including details about the privileges of nomenklatura; collectivization campaign on 1929-1933 and mass deportations as well other political repressions; resistance of the local populations, scale and forms of manifestations, including the bab'i bunty; Great terror in Moldavian ASSR, 1937-1938; extension of Communist Terror in Bessarabia, 1940-1941, following the application of secret protocol of Soviet Nazi Pact of August 23 1939, including a paragraph on...

Is Moldova a post-Soviet or rather a South East European/Balkan state? This article will deal mainly with this issue. The term Southeastern Europe refers to the former Yugoslav republics (except Slovenia), Albania, Bulgaria, and Romania—territories that were under the Ottoman Empire for centuries, along with Greece. Most of the inhabitants of these territories, with the exception of Croatia, are Ortho-dox Christian. I include Croatia and leave out Slovenia because of the way in which Croatian nationalism evolved over the last century and a half. I also leave out Hungary, even though most of this country was a part of the Ottoman Empire for about two centuries. Hungary could be considered as a country peripheral to the Balkans , 1 since it has more in common with Polish, Czech, and Slovak patterns of development and political stability, at least in the post-Cold War era. Southeastern Europe hence coincides roughly with what, over the last two centuries, has been called the Bal-kans. ...

Political repressions in Moldavian SSR ater 1956: towards a typology based on KGB files Abstract he study is based on first hand accounts from the archive of the former KGB of the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic. his data has been disclosed recently in the framework of the Presidential Commission for the Study of Totalitarian Communist Regimes in the Republic of Moldova, created in mid January 2010 (the author was the vice-chairman). According to the new disclosed data, one can see that political repres-sions did not stop in 1953 when Stalin died, but continued until the mid 1980s during Gorbachev's Perestroika. he aim of the article is to present separate cases from each post Stalinist decade and try to sketch a typology based on various motivations for re-pression on the part of the regime, and resistance from the unconscious and conscious critics of the Soviet Communist regime. he basic typology the author formulates im-plied the existence of two distinct groups of 'e...

"This volume of documents focuses on three central topics. The first concerns the identification of the “class enemy” by the Soviet authorities in the first year of Soviet occupation of Bessarabia, 1940-1941; the second – on the confiscation of property; and the third – on labor mobilization. In other words, it is about the three subjects that preceded the actual political repression (identifying the so-called class enemy), represented one of the forms of repression or foreshadowed the punishment against the “class-alien elements” (confiscation of property); and also acted as a

(Article and documents ) On the 29th of June 1946, Nichita Salogor, the ad interim prime secretary of the Central Committee of Communist (Bolshevik) Party of Moldavia sent a letter to Stalin asking for the ceding of the former South and Northern Bessarabian territories to the Moldavian SSR. After August 1940 in the aftermath of Soviet occupation of Romanian Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina, these territories were included in the Ukrainian SSR, contrary to the expectation of many, including the editors of “Pravda”. The letter has been accompanied by 5 annexes, only the last one being dated: December 9 1943 – an essay on the borders of historical Moldavia since mid 14th century to mid 19th century, elaborated by the Institute of Ethnography of USSR’s Academy of Sciences and quoting Russian, Soviet and Romanian authors. One of the other 4 annexes represented a letter signed by Fiodor Brovco, the President of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of Moldavian SSR sent to Bureau of CC of C...

In an article published in 2005 in a Harvard journal, the Russian -Canadian historian Alexander Statiev claimed that Soviet mass deportations from the new Soviet western borderlands on the eve of the German attack on the USSR in summer 1941 were determined mainly by security reasons. I challenge this approach in this study. I argue that, more like the mass deportations from the Baltic republics, weeks before 22 June 1941, the forced population resettlement from Bessarabia, and Northern Bukovina, seized by the Soviets from Romania a year prior, were conceived as purge campaigns as well, much in line with Soviet policing doctrine of the previous decade. An alternative theory related to the eve of the war deportations was put forward by two distinguished professors of Tartu University in Estonia, Olaf Mertelsmann and
Aigi Rahi -Tamm. According to them, these mass deportations from Estonia, and implicitly from the Soviet Western borderlands as a whole, should be understood not as motivated by state security reasons in the incidence of war, but as purge or social engineering operations. Drawing on David Shearer and Paul Hagenloh, I argue, however, that the enhancing security thesis and the social engineering one are not mutually exclusive but rather complement each other.

The article focuses on the activity of the Central Committee of
Communist (Bolshevik) Party of Moldavia in the aftermath of the German-Soviet War. The data have been selected from the party archives in Chisinau and represent unknown and unpublished information. Among the conclusions of the article are the following: the war revealed the intensification of the conflicts among the ruling elite, even though at some level the issue related to deserters among the leading communists reflected the idea of deep-rooted solidarity among the nomenklatura; the war also prompted changes in the ruling elite, but after the war, Moscow did not endorse them.

The chapter covers the main state terror campaigns initiated by the Soviet regime in the Moldavian SSR starting from the fist year of Soviet occupation of Bessarabia (1940-41) up to 1989. The author uses a wide range of archival unpublished sources as well as published ones both in East and West and tries to put the Moldavian case in a wider Soviet context.

Present-day Moldovan historiography asserts that the main impact of the Prague Spring on Soviet Moldavia was the rise of ethno-national tensions fuelled by Romanian leader Nicolae Ceaușescu’s hard-line stance against Moscow. In this chapter, Caşu refines the conventional view. Based on archival documents, he shows that rural ethnic Romanians overwhelmingly endorsed the reforms in Czechoslovakia and Romania’s anti-invasion position in August 1968. By contrast, Russian or heavily Russified urban inhabitants were more critical of the Czechoslovak reforms and of Romania’s more or less open claim on historical Bessarabia. After 1968 the authorities in Soviet Moldavia felt obliged to embark on a renewed struggle against perceived or real manifestations of Romanian local nationalism, a struggle disguised in the campaign to strengthen Soviet patriotism and ‘socialist internationalism’.

Abstract
The article highlights the impact of Khrushchev’s Thaw on the question of national identity in Soviet Moldavia in the framework of the internal Soviet debates unleashed by the ‘Secret Speech’ and the subsequent Hungarian
Revolution. The question of national identity was expressed by two groups, one representing the former GULAG returnees and the other the intellectuals or students socialized in the Soviet milieu. The position of the former was more radical and anti-Soviet, while the latter was milder and respected
the status-quo, i.e. the Soviet regime, and only questioned some previously established traditions on what it meant to be Moldavian. Incidentally or not, the former position proved to be more long lasting, in some way prepared and anticipated the national agenda during Perestroika, in the late 1980s. The
question of national identity emerged once again with a comparable fervour in 1968 subsequent to the Prague Spring and Ceaușescu’s refusal to support the Soviet invasion in Czechoslovakia. In 1956 and 1968, the former Western
borderlands – the, sters former Bessarabia, Western Ukraine and the Baltic States – witnessed what one could call a ‘revenge of history’. More exactly, in periods of crisis the links between these territories and the interwar political entities and their traditions were stronger than any time before or afterwards.
The specificity of the Moldavian case is that it succeeded in 1955-1957 to resume if only partially the Romanianization process witnessed by the interwar Bessarabia and partially by MASSR. This article is based mainly on archival documents disclosed in the recent years from Chișinău based depositories.
The first set of documents comprises reports from all districts of MSSR sent to Chișinău in the months following the ‘Secret Speech’ and Hungarian Revolution. They are located in the former Archive of the Institute of Party History within the Central Committee of Moldavia, reorganized in 1991 in
The Archive of the Social-Political Organizations of the Republic of Moldova. The other set of documents consists of reports of the KGB of MSSR from 1956 and 1957, especially those concerning the attitudes labelled as nationalistic, and are located in the Archive of the Service for Information and Security of the Republic of Moldova, the former KGB of MSSR.

Abstract
The article highlights the impact of Khrushchev’s Thaw on the question of national identity in Soviet Moldavia in the framework of the internal Soviet debates unleashed by the ‘Secret Speech’ and the
subsequent Hungarian Revolution. The question of national identity was expressed by two groups, one representing the former GULAG returnees and the other the intellectuals or students socialized
in the Soviet milieu. The position of the former was more radical and anti-Soviet, while the latter was milder and respected the status-quo, i.e. the Soviet regime, and only questioned some previously established traditions on what it meant to be Moldavian. Incidentally or not, the former position
proved to be more long-lasting and in some way prepared and anticipated the national agenda during Perestroika, in the late 1980s. The question of national identity emerged once again with a comparable fervour in 1968 subsequent to the Prague Spring and Ceaușescu’s refusal to support the
Soviet invasion in Czechoslovakia. In 1956 and 1968, the former Western borderlands – the former Bessarabia, Western Ukraine and the Baltic States – witnessed what one could call a ‘revenge of history’. More exactly, in periods of crisis the links between these territories and the interwar political
entities and their traditions were stronger than any time before or afterwards. The specificity of the Moldavian case is that it succeeded in 1955-1957 to resume if only partially the Romanianization process witnessed by the interwar Bessarabia and partially by MASSR.
This article is based mainly on archival documents disclosed in the recent years from Chișinău-based depositories. The first set of documents comprises reports from all districts of MSSR sent to Chișinău in the months following the ‘Secret Speech’ and Hungarian Revolution. They are located
in the former Archive of the Institute of Party History within the Central Committee of Moldavia, reorganized in 1991 in The Archive of the Social-Political Organizations of the Republic of Moldova. The other set of documents consists of reports of the KGB of MSSR from 1956 and 1957, especially
those concerning the attitudes labelled as nationalistic, and are located in the Archive of the Service for Information and Security of the Republic of Moldova, the former KGB of MSSR.

Abstract
The study is based on first hand accounts from the archive of the former KGB of the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic. This data has been disclosed recently in the framework of the Presidential Commission for the Study of Totalitarian Communist Regimes in the Republic of Moldova, created in mid January 2010 (the author was the vice-chairman). According to the new disclosed data, one can see that political repressions did not stop in 1953 when Stalin died, but continued until the mid 1980s during Gorbachev’s Perestroika. The aim of the article is to present separate cases from each post Stalinist decade and try to sketch a typology based on various motivations for repression on the part of the regime, and resistance from the unconscious and conscious
critics of the Soviet Communist regime. The basic typology the author formulates implied the existence of two distinct groups of ‘enemies’ of the regime: the first one, called dissenters, being the persons that criticized the regime not straightforwardly as an
illegal or unjust political system, but rather protesting against certain elements of it, be they nationality policy, ethnic discrimination or living conditions; the second category
of critics of the regimes were called dissidents, defined as persons formulating a more or less coherent protest against the regime and implying a rather conscious stance, more than a spontaneous one compared to the first category.

Keywords: KGB, Communism, political repressions, one party rule, party-state,totalitarianism, Stalinism, post Stalinism, nationalism

Abstract
The article focuses on the concepts of empire, national identity and Soviet nationalities policy in the framework of center-periphery relations in the USSR. The author illustrates
through various examples why Soviet policy in general and in particular in the Moldavian SSR resembled the policies pursued by other classical empires in the national peripheries.
Special attention is paid to linguistic aspects, Russification, and the degree of national identity accepted by Moscow in the former Moldavian SSR especially in the context of the Soviet-Romanian dispute over the „Bessarabian question”. As one of the main criteria of measuring discrimination is the percentage of the local population – ethnic Romanians – represented in various domains, the author quotes archival data in this regard. Among
the conclusions is that on the economic level and more exactly representation of the ethnic Romanians as top mangers of industrial enterprises, one can conclude that discrimination
existed and it speaks of the imperial character of the Soviet Union.

Fragment din cartea DUȘMANUL DE CLASĂ. Represiuni politice, violență și represiune în R(A)SS Moldovenească, 1924-1956, Chișinău, Cartier, 2015, editia a II-a, p. 58-65.

Cartea este disponibila in librariile din Chisinau si Bucurersti, precum si in libraria online www.librarie.net

Отрывок из книги  Игор Кашу, КЛАССОВЫЙ ВРАГ. Политические репрессии, насилие и сопротивление в Молдавской (А) ССР, 1924-1956, c. 52-58. Опубликовано на румынском в Кишиневе издательством CARTIER в 2014 г. Русская версия книги выйдет в 2015 г.

Fragment din articolul Teroarea comunistă în Moldova sovietică și reabilitarea memoriei, publicat în Pontes. Review of South East European Studies, vol. 3-4, 2009, p. 7-9. Articolul integral reprezintă o versiune adusă la zi a contribuţiei mele la raportul Comisiei Tismăneanu, Bucureşti, Humanitas, 2007, capitolul 14.

Отрывок из книги  Игор Кашу, КЛАССОВЫЙ ВРАГ. Политические репрессии, насилие и сопротивление в Молдавской (А) ССР, 1924-1956, c. 140-144. Опубликовано на румынском в Кишиневе издательством CARTIER в 2014 г. Русская версия книги выйдет в 2015 г.

The article focuses on the Soviet ultimatum sent to Romania on the 26th of June 1940  just two days before the Red Army occupied Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina. The ultimatum contained several factual errors, among them the most significant being the idea that Bessarabia was populated by an Ukrianian majority. The authors contends that this was a premediated error that anticipated several developments in the area, including the way the borders of the newly established Moldavian SSR were drawn. Besides, the error about the Ukrainian majority populating Bessarabia was explanable from the Soviet point of view from another perspective, even though it gave a lot of 'headache' for the Soviet propagandists and historians then and latter.

Published in Revista de Istorie a Moldovei, no. 4, 2004, p. 97-102.

RO Sursa: Arhiva Serviciului de Informaţii şi Securitate al Republicii Moldova, fostul KGB (ASISRM-KGB), dosar despre operaţiunea JUG (SUD). Partea a VIII-a.

EN Source: The Archive of the Service of Information and Security of the Republic of Moldova, former archive of KGB of Moldavian SSR (ASISRM-KGB), separate file on the Operation IUG (South), part VIII.

RU Источник: Архив Службы Информации и Безопасности Республики Молдова, бывший КГБ Молдавской ССР (ASISRM-KGB), Дело по операции ЮГ, 1949 г. Часть VIII.

Pentru comentarii în limba română, a se vedea Igor Caşu, DUŞMANUL DE CLASĂ. Represiuni politice, violenţă şi rezistenţă în R(A) SS Moldovenească, Chişinău, CARTIER, 2015, ediţia a II-a, p. 234-296. Cartea poate fi găsită în librăriile bune din R. Moldova şi România, precum şi online la www.librariaeminescu.ro, www.librarie.net, www.elefant.ro, www.libhumanitas.ro, www.kubon-sagner.de, www.amazon.com şi altele.

These are documents from the former Archive of the Institute of [Communist] Party History of the Central Committee of Communist Party of Moldavia. They witness the early Soviet preparations to deal with a nuclear war with America in the Soviet-Romanian borderland in 1945-1946 which was Soviet Moldavia at that time, now Republic of Moldova.

These are excerpts from a KGB file on a Romanian Bessarabian priest condemned to death penalty by the Soviets in 1940 after Bessarabia has been occupied by the Red Army (June 28, 1940). Officially he was codemned on the charge of antisemitism: he was allegedly close to Pavel Krushevan, one of the leading antisemits in Tsarist Bessarabia, the one who published for the first time the The Protocols of the Elders of Zion in Sankt Petersburg based newspaper Znamya in 1903. The KGB file of Ciocanu contains also an article about cannibalism during the Soviet famine of 1932-33 that he wrote in May 1933.

KGB repoort by Iurii Andropov to CC of CPSU about Natalia E. Gorbanevskaya, one of leading protesters in Red Square against the Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia in August 20-21 1968. According to the report, she continued her anti-social activities and sending abroad anti-Soviet materials. Thus it was decided to sent her to a psychiatric hospital supposedly to be treated from schizophrenia.

This is the full archival file on the largest mass deportation from Moldavian SSR (early July 1949). Format: PDF searchable file.

Source: Archive of the Service for Information and Security of the Republic of Moldova, former KGB archive of the Moldavian SSR (ASISRM-KGB), Delo po operatsii IUG.

RO Sursa: Arhiva Serviciului de Informaţii şi Securitate al Republicii Moldova, fostul KGB (ASISRM-KGB), dosar despre operaţiunea JUG (SUD). Partea VII.

EN Source: The Archive of the Service of Information and Security of the Republic of Moldova, former archive of KGB of Moldavian SSR (ASISRM-KGB), separate file on the Operation IUG (South), part VII.

RU Источник: Архив Службы Информации и Безопасности Республики Молдова, бывший КГБ Молдавской ССР (ASISRM-KGB), Дело по операции ЮГ, 1949 г. Часть VII.

Pentru comentarii în limba română, a se vedea Igor Caşu, DUŞMANUL DE CLASĂ. Represiuni politice, violenţă şi rezistenţă în R(A) SS Moldovenească, Chişinău, CARTIER, 2015, ediţia a II-a, p. 234-296. Cartea poate fi găsită în librăriile bune din R. Moldova şi România, precum şi online la www.librariaeminescu.ro, www.librarie.net, www.elefant.ro, www.libhumanitas.ro, www.kubon-sagner.de, www.amazon.com şi altele.

RO Sursa: Arhiva Serviciului de Informaţii şi Securitate al Republicii Moldova, fostul KGB (ASISRM-KGB), dosar despre operaţiunea JUG (SUD). Partea VI.

EN Source: The Archive of the Service of Information and Security of the Republic of Moldova, former archive of KGB of Moldavian SSR (ASISRM-KGB), separate file on the Operation IUG (South), part VI.

RU Источник: Архив Службы Информации и Безопасности Республики Молдова, бывший КГБ Молдавской ССР (ASISRM-KGB), Дело по операции ЮГ, 1949 г. Часть VI.

Pentru comentarii în limba română, a se vedea Igor Caşu, DUŞMANUL DE CLASĂ. Represiuni politice, violenţă şi rezistenţă în R(A) SS Moldovenească, Chişinău, CARTIER, 2015, ediţia a II-a, p. 234-296. Cartea poate fi găsită în librăriile bune din R. Moldova şi România, precum şi online la www.librariaeminescu.ro, www.librarie.net, www.elefant.ro, www.libhumanitas.ro, www.kubon-sagner.de, www.amazon.com şi altele.

RO Sursa: Arhiva Serviciului de Informaţii şi Securitate al Republicii Moldova, fostul KGB (ASISRM-KGB), dosar despre operaţiunea JUG (SUD). Partea V.

EN Source: The Archive of the Service of Information and Security of the Republic of Moldova, former archive of KGB of Moldavian SSR (ASISRM-KGB), separate file on the Operation IUG (South), part V.

RU Источник: Архив Службы Информации и Безопасности Республики Молдова, бывший КГБ Молдавской ССР (ASISRM-KGB), Дело по операции ЮГ, 1949 г. Часть V.


Pentru comentarii în limba română, a se vedea Igor Caşu, DUŞMANUL DE CLASĂ. Represiuni politice, violenţă şi rezistenţă în R(A) SS Moldovenească, Chişinău, CARTIER, 2015, ediţia a II-a, p. 234-296. Cartea poate fi găsită în librăriile bune din R. Moldova şi România, precum şi online la www.librariaeminescu.ro, www.librarie.net, www.elefant.ro, www.libhumanitas.ro, www.kubon-sagner.de, www.amazon.com şi altele.

RO Sursa: Arhiva Serviciului de Informaţii şi Securitate al Republicii Moldova, fostul KGB (ASISRM-KGB), dosar despre operaţiunea JUG (SUD). Partea IV.

EN Source: The Archive of the Service of Information and Security of the Republic of Moldova, former archive of KGB of Moldavian SSR (ASISRM-KGB), separate file on the Operation IUG (South), part IV.

RU Источник: Архив Службы Информации и Безопасности Республики Молдова, бывший КГБ Молдавской ССР (ASISRM-KGB), Дело по операции ЮГ, 1949 г. Часть IV.


Pentru comentarii în limba română, a se vedea Igor Caşu, DUŞMANUL DE CLASĂ. Represiuni politice, violenţă şi rezistenţă în R(A) SS Moldovenească, Chişinău, CARTIER, 2015, ediţia a II-a, p. 234-296. Cartea poate fi găsită în librăriile bune din R. Moldova şi România, precum şi online la www.librariaeminescu.ro, www.librarie.net, www.elefant.ro, www.libhumanitas.ro, www.kubon-sagner.de, www.amazon.com şi altele.

RO Sursa: Arhiva Serviciului de Informaţii şi Securitate al Republicii Moldova, fostul KGB (ASISRM-KGB), dosar despre operaţiunea JUG (SUD). Partea III.

EN Source: The Archive of the Service of Information and Security of the Republic of Moldova, former archive of KGB of Moldavian SSR (ASISRM-KGB), separate file on the Operation IUG (South), part III.

RU Источник: Архив Службы Информации и Безопасности Республики Молдова, бывший КГБ Молдавской ССР (ASISRM-KGB), Дело по операции ЮГ, 1949 г. Часть III.


Pentru comentarii în limba română, a se vedea Igor Caşu, DUŞMANUL DE CLASĂ. Represiuni politice, violenţă şi rezistenţă în R(A) SS Moldovenească, Chişinău, CARTIER, 2015, ediţia a II-a, p. 234-296. Cartea poate fi găsită în librăriile bune din R. Moldova şi România, precum şi online la www.librariaeminescu.ro, www.librarie.net, www.elefant.ro, www.libhumanitas.ro, www.kubon-sagner.de, www.amazon.com şi altele.

RO Sursa: Arhiva Serviciului de Informaţii şi Securitate al Republicii Moldova, fostul KGB (ASISRM-KGB), dosar despre operaţiunea JUG (SUD). Partea II.

EN Source: The Archive of the Service of Information and Security of the Republic of Moldova, former archive of KGB of Moldavian SSR (ASISRM-KGB), separate file on the Operation IUG (South), part II.

RU Источник: Архив Службы Информации и Безопасности Республики Молдова, бывший КГБ Молдавской ССР (ASISRM-KGB), Дело по операции ЮГ, 1949 г. Часть II.

Pentru comentarii în limba română, a se vedea Igor Caşu, DUŞMANUL DE CLASĂ. Represiuni politice, violenţă şi rezistenţă în R(A) SS Moldovenească, Chişinău, CARTIER, 2015, ediţia a II-a, p. 234-296. Cartea poate fi găsită în librăriile bune din R. Moldova şi România, precum şi online la www.librariaeminescu.ro, www.librarie.net, www.elefant.ro, www.libhumanitas.ro, www.kubon-sagner.de, www.amazon.com şi altele.

RO Sursa: Arhiva Serviciului de Informaţii şi Securitate al Republicii Moldova, fostul KGB (ASISRM-KGB), dosar despre operaţiunea JUG (SUD). Partea I.

EN Source: The Archive of the Service of Information and Security of the Republic of Moldova, former archive of KGB of Moldavian SSR (ASISRM-KGB), separate file on the Operation IUG (South), part I.

RU Источник: Архив Службы Информации и Безопасности Республики Молдова, бывший КГБ Молдавской ССР (ASISRM-KGB), Дело по операции ЮГ, 1949 г. Часть I.


Pentru comentarii în limba română, a se vedea Igor Caşu, DUŞMANUL DE CLASĂ. Represiuni politice, violenţă şi rezistenţă în R(A) SS Moldovenească, Chişinău, CARTIER, 2015, ediţia a II-a, p. 234-296. Cartea poate fi găsită în librăriile bune din R. Moldova şi România, precum şi online la www.librariaeminescu.ro, www.librarie.net, www.elefant.ro, www.libhumanitas.ro, www.kubon-sagner.de, www.amazon.com şi altele.

These documents have been recently disclosed in Chisinau. They bring new details about the postwar famine in the MSSR. The editors of the best volume of documents on the famine - Голод в Молдове (1946-1947). Сборник документов, Chişinău, Ştiinţa 1993, 752 p. - did not have access to Ocoбая папка.

Source: Archive of the Socio-Political Organizations of the Republic of Moldova (AOPSRM), Fond 51, inventar 68, dosar 11.

EN several cases of abuses of power in Soviet Moldavia, as reflected in letters sent to Pravda, the maine newspaper of Communist Party of the Soviet Union. The CC of Communist Party of Moldova verified these complains and as a result some of them have been confirmed, others - not...

Source: AOSPRM, former archive of the CC of CPM

RO Câteva jalbe despre abuzurile unor demnitari din RSS Moldovenească care au parvenit ziarului Pravda de la Moscova.

CC al PCM a făcut o anchetă pe marginea acestor jalbe, unele confirmându-se, altele – nu.

Sursa: AOSPRM.

Source: Archives of the Social-Political Organizations of the Republic of Moldova, former archive of the Institute of Party History of the Central Committee of Communist Party of Moldavia

One of these movies - Последний месяц осени (1965) - is accessible on youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VwUzgQRQtrI

RO Stenograma ședinței Biroului Comitetului Central al Partidului Comunist al Moldovei, 3 iunie 1968 și decizia conexă despre nevoia întețirii propagandei ateiste

EN About the limits of the anti-religious propaganda under Communism. Minute of the meeting of the Bureau of CC of Communist Party of Moldavia, June 3, 1968

RU Стенограмма заседания Бюро ЦК КПМ от 3 июня 1968 г. и решение по вопросу об атеистическом воспитании трудящихся

The Archive of the Social - Political Organizations of the Republic of Moldova, former archive of the Central Committee of Communist Party of Moldavia, Fond 51, inventar 29, dosar 40.

Source: AOSPRM, Fond 51, inventar 29, dosar 56.

Mihai Eminescu is the greatest Romanian poet, accepted by the Soviets as the greatest poet of the Soviet 'Moldavian (would-be) ethnonation'. Among his poems are some with anti-Russian thrust, so the regime was very careful in trying not to allow during manifestations dedicated to his birth (January 15 1850) and death (June 15 1889) that these poems to be recited publicly. This would provoke 'Moldo-Romanian nationalism' and thus put in danger the 'friendship between the Great Russian people' and non-Russians... This was the case in 1968, for instance, as witnesse by the document attached here.

FFor more on the the subject, see Michael Bruchis (1982, 1984); Mihai Cimpoi (1993; 1996); Wim van Meurs (1994); Gh. Negru (2000); Charles King (2000); Igor Casu (2000; 2011; 2014).

RO Mihai Eminescu, cel mai mare poet al românilor, a fost acceptat și de sovietici drept cel mai mare poet al ‘poporului moldovenesc’. A fost republicat la Chișinău în anii 1950 în litere chirilice, selectiv, evident, eliminându-se cu grijă creațiile sale cu un puternic accent național românesc sau anti-rusesc. Una din acestea era Doina lui Eminescu (‘de la Nistru pân la Tisa, tot românul plânsu-mi-s-a’ …). Cei care o recitau, riscau pedepse aspre pentru că astfel basarabenilor / moldovenilor din stânga Prutului li se amintea despre faptul că fac partea din națiunea română și că în 1940 și 1944 fuseseră ocupați de sovietici/ruși.

Documentul atașat arată atmosfera din ianuarie 1968 în care aniversarea zilei de naștere a poetului de către cenaclul care îi purta numele, din cadrul Universității de Stat din Chișinău, măsurile de precauție luate de regim pentru a nu admite manfestarea unor opinii nesănătoase și periculoase… Și toată această precauție era învăluită în grja pentru ca studenții să nu consume alcool în cadrul ședinței, că astfel situația putea să iasă de sub control…

În general, autoritățile sovietice măsurau amploarea si intensitatea sentimentelor naționale românești din RSS Moldovenească după numărul de flori depuse la statuile lui Eminescu și Ștefan cel Mare din parcul central din Chișinău… De aceea, florile se depuneau cu precădere noaptea, de frică de a nu prinși, iar miliția le evacua dimineața devreme, înainte ca lumea să iasă din case…

Sursa: Arhiva Organizațiilor Social-Politice din Republica Moldova, F. 51, inv. 23, d. 36.

RO Recitată la deschiderea Congresului al XI-lea al Partidului Comunist al Moldovei, 25-26 decembrie 11963.

RU К открытию 11-го съезда Компартии Молдавии, 25-25 декабря 1963 г.

EN

In 1972 Bodiul, the 1st secretary of CC of PCM requested from CC of CPSU supplementing the local KGB with 38 officers for fighting against Romanian nationalism in Soviet Moldavia and Jewish nationalism (sionism).

Source: The Archive of the Social-Political Organizations of the Republic of Moldova, Fond 51, inventar 33, dosar 82, filele 1-4 (former Arhive of the Institute of Party History of the CC of CP of Moldavia).

Lista trenului nr. 215 plecat din Bălți în data de 14 iunie 1941 și ajuns la destinație la 28 iunie în regiunea Tomsk, Federația Rusă. Lista conține 690 persoane. Arhiva Națională a Republicii Moldova,  Fond R-3397, inventar 1, dosar 1, f. 1-10.

Document from the archives about the crimes against humanity in Soviet Moldavia 1947

Source: Archive of Social-Political Organizations of the Republic of Moldova (AOSPRM), former archive of CC of PCM of Moldavia, F. 51, inventar 5, dosar 84, ff. 85-91.

RO Raport trimis pe adresa CC al PCM în 1962 cu privire la lupta împotriva luării de mită și a furturilor din avutul de stat și obștesc în raionul Lazovsc, azi Sângerei. Cu date concrete privind persoane, ce au făcut, cum mulți nu au fost condamnați, ci doar retrogradați din funcție ... Alții erau doar eliminați din partid, dar continuau mersi să-și facă mendrele ca mai inainte...

RU Обсуждение в первичных партийных организациях Молдавской ССР закрытого письма ЦК КПСС "Об усилении борьбы со взяточничеством и разворовыванием народного добра" (1962 год)

ENG On the discussion in the Moldavian SSR on the closed letter of CC of CPSU about the intensification of the struggle against bribery and looting from state property (1962)

Sursa: AOSPRM, Fond 51, inventar 22, dosar 154, f. 1-24.

Tema legată de comportamentul soldaților sovietici în Basarabia în anii 1944-1945 nu a constituit încă obiectul unei cercetări aprofundate. În acest articol, încercăm să schițăm câteva repere tematice privitoare la acest subiect. Sursele care au stat la baza articolului provin două arhive din Chișinău, anume Arhiva Organizațiilor Social-Politice din Republica Moldova (AOSPRM) și Arhiva Ministerului de Interne a Republicii Moldova, fostul MVD al RSSM (AMAIRM-MVD).

The topic related to the behavior of Soviet soldiers in Bessarabia in 1944-1945 has not been yet an object of extensive research. In this article, I try to sketch several thematic lines regarding this subject. The article is based on documents from two former Soviet archives located in Chișinău: The Archive of the Social-Political Organizations of the Republic of Moldova (AOSPRM) and the Archive of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Moldova, former MVD of MSSR (AMAIRM-MVD).

The essay is one of the first comprehensive analysis about the impact of the Soviet nationalities policies in Soviet Moldavia/Bessarabia in the wider context of creating a new Soviet Man, Homo Sovieticus. The authors draw some comparisons with the impact of Communism in Romania as a result of a decades-long phenomenon called National-Communism and how it widened the difference between the way Bessarabians/Eastern Moldavians understand national identity at the one hand, and the Romanians in Romania, at the other hand.

Marea Foamete din Basarabia, 1946-47. Ideologie, context și economie morală

Foametea, ca și epidemiile aferente, reprezintă un fenomen ubicuu și aproape omniprezent în istoria premodernă și modernă a Europei, dar și  lumii întregi. De regulă, în antichitate și Evul Mediu, foametea își găsește originea în factori obiectivi, precum seceta sau alte intemperii naturale, atunci când nu sunt urmări firești ale războaielor. Cauzele foametei în modernitate sunt oarecum diferite, factorul climateric continuînd a fi unul important, dar nu determinant, în apariția ei și a consecințelor letale la nivel de masă. După 1800, odată cu înbunătățirea sitemului de transport și a altor binefaceri ale progresului tehnologic, factorul politic și ideologic este în linii mari responsabil de perpetuarea mortalității excesive cauzate de lipsa hranei. Acest lucru este valabil și pentru apariția fenomenului foametei în regimurile comuniste. În cazul sovietic, legătura dintre ideologie și foamete este foarte strânsă, mai ales în cea de la începutul anilor 1930, dar și a celei postbelice. Cu alte cuvinte, așa cum apreciază nuanțat specialiști renumiți, precum Michael Ellman, pe urmele lui Robert Conquest, mortalitatea excesivă putea fi evitată cel puțin parțial atât în anii 1932-33 cât și 1946-47 în condițiile în care statul sovietic ar fi stabilit ca prioritate salvarea vieților omenești. Ceea ce nu a fost cazul, dat fiind că regimul urmărea obiective de ordin ideologic și geopolitic, consimțind sacrificarea țăranilor mai ales, pe altarul unor interese considerate net superioare salvgardării vieții unor categorii sociale.
Epicentrul foametei postbelice sovietice sunt teritorii care au cunocut fenomenul în anii 1932-33, plus Basarabia și regiuni din Siberia apuseană. Cele mai cumplite consecințe la scara URSS – după indicatori precum mortalitatea excesivă și cazurile de antropofagie – este Basarabia, toată provincia, nu numai părțile incluse în RSS Moldovenească. Ce factori explică această realitate, dincolo de cel climateric și urmările războiului? Poate fi vorba de o răzbunare față de populația unei provincii parte a României, stat satelit al Axei în Al Doilea Război Mondial? De ce atunci județe cu o populație preponderent românească, Orhei, Soroca și Bălți, sunt mai puțin afectate de foamete? De ce Bucovina de Nord, un alt teritoriu pierdut de România după 1944, nu cunoaște o mortalitate excesivă comparabilă cu cea a Basarabiei? De ce în noi teritorii recent reocupate de Armata Roșie, precum Ucraina de Vest și Țările Baltice, nu cunosc fenomenul foametei decât într-o mică măsură? Ce rol are în această ecuație nivelul de rezistență armată a populației, dar și structura economiei locale? O altă întrebare este de ce în raioanele din stânga Nistrului, colectivizate în interbelic, canibalismul și alți indicatori ai foametei sunt incomparabil mai mici decât în partea basarabeană a RSSM? Ideologia și contextul postbelic sovietic, european și mondial sunt factori îndeobște considerați determinanți care explică catastrofa umanitară sovietică, mai ales cea în teritoriul dintre Prut și Nistru. Dar cum explicăm diferențele regionale, între sud, centru și nord, și, mai ales, cele din cadrul unuia și aceluiaș raion? Ce rol are economia morală și cultura politică în perspectivă longue durée în profilarea acestor diferențe? Acestea și alte interogații conexe vor constitui registrul acestei prezentări.

An interview I gave recently to the newsletter of the Society for Romanian Studies on my current research at the New Europe College on food riots and bab'y bunty in Soviet Moldavia in the wake of the famine of 1946-7, access to the archives, relations between Western historians and post-Soviet ones, doing historical research in Moldova and what are the challenges related to that, and many more.

The paper outlines one of the most important contributions to the study of various aspects of Soviet Communism after the opening of the archives in the early 1990s up to 2017, from state terror to everyday life. This is a paper presented at the conference “100 Years of Communism. History and Memory” held in Paris at the Collège des Bernardins and the Fondation Napoléon on Nov. 8-9 2017. The conference was organized by the European Platform of Memory and Conscience and Stéphane Courtois, author and editor of the “Black Book of Communism”.

Albania was the last country in Europe to witness the fall of Communism, which happened in early 1990s. Since 1944, it was known as the most isolated state in Eastern Europe. But this is true only for the last twelve years of Communism. During the initial three postwar decades, being small and poor, it was determined to overcome backwardness by insistently asking its fellow Communist states for more technologies, grants, and specialists. Elidor Mëhilli has dedicated his first book, From Stalin to Mao: Albania and the Socialist World, to these issues, focusing on the dynamics of the Cold War and on exchanges and confrontations within the Eastern bloc.