Transnistria celebrates Victory Day
Victory Day was celebrated in Transnistria - a universal and unconditional holiday for local residents, the importance of which has never been questioned here. People consider it a day of glory and pride for their people, who have shown incredible courage. Most Pridnestrovians are confident that even 74 years after the end of the Great Patriotic War, its importance does not become less.
On May 9, here, as in Soviet times, marches and songs of the war years are heard, everyone, young and old, leaves the house and brings flowers to the monuments to the soldiers of the Great Patriotic War.
There are many monuments and memorials in Transnistria - they are found in almost every locality, even in the tiniest villages. Monuments and memorial signs are dedicated to the soldiers who left here for the war (12 natives of Transnistrian cities and villages became Heroes of the Soviet Union, 17,5 thousand died or went missing, tens of thousands fought as part of the 2nd and 3rd Ukrainian fronts), and , of course, to the liberating soldiers. People take care of monuments, repairing and painting them whenever possible. And they open new ones.
Here are just a few examples from recent years. Near the city of Bendery, on Suvorovskaya Mountain, the monument “Height 150.0” was erected in honor of the soldiers who fought for the city in August 1944. In the city of Slobodzeya, a memorial plaque was unveiled to the Hero of the Soviet Union Fyodor Ugnachev who lived here, who distinguished himself in the battles for the Kyustrin bridgehead. A memorial plaque to Hero of the Soviet Union Sergei Bolgarin, who showed heroism during the liberation of Belarus, was installed in his native village of Korotnoye. Most recently, in the village of Podoyma, Kamensky district, an artillery pillbox of the Rybnitsa fortified area was restored - the object will become part of the Stalin Line memorial complex. At another pillbox, in the village of Krasnogorka, Grigoriopol district, civil activists are going to build a memorial to military glory.
The region suffered during the war. The German-Romanian occupation lasted from August 1941 until the spring of 1944. And the right-bank settlements, including the city of Bendery, were liberated even later - at the end of the summer of 1944.
Under the Romanians, in the territory between the Dniester and the Southern Bug, the “Governor General of Transnistria” was created, which included parts of the occupied Odessa, Vinnitsa and Nikolaev regions, as well as the left bank part of the Moldavian SSR. The occupation authorities established a brutal regime against the local population, creating prisons and death camps. Mass extermination of Jews was carried out. One of the most terrible episodes was “Black September” in Dubossary. A special detachment of SS men was engaged in clearing Bessarabia, Transnistria and southern Ukraine of Jews, driving them to this city for reprisals. From September 12 to September 28, 1941, about 18 thousand people were shot here. The executions were carried out by the German Sonderkommando, the Romanian military, the occupation administration, and the gendarmerie. This tragedy is also called Dubossary Babi Yar.
The history of the Great Patriotic War in Pridnestrovian schools is no longer taught in as much detail as under the USSR, but young people have basic information about the war. Most schoolchildren will probably answer questions about the key events of the war, talk about the struggle of the region’s underground fighters, and name the main strategic offensive operations - the Uman-Botoshan, Odessa, Iasi-Kishinev military campaigns, which led to liberation from the Nazis.
In general, Pridnestrovie has something to celebrate on May 9. And this date is celebrated really widely. Recently, military personnel of the Operational Group of Russian Forces stationed in Transnistria have taken part in festive parades in Tiraspol, and are usually greeted by spectators standing.
About five years ago, Pridnestrovie enthusiastically joined the international campaign “Immortal Regiment”. Every year more and more new members join the Regiment’s banner. In Tiraspol, the capital of the republic, this year thousands of people marched with portraits of front-line soldiers, home front workers, and concentration camp prisoners. Activists from several local youth organizations, acting as volunteers, helped people restore and prepare portraits of front-line soldiers and home front workers for the procession.
Special mention must be made about the Immortal Regiment. There is certainly something great in this phenomenon, but there is also something bitter. The great is a new wave of memory, which before our eyes has swept through all families, all generations. People don't just take to the streets with portraits of war participants. Many of those who previously did not attach much importance to the military past of their relatives climbed into attics and mezzanines to get dusty albums with photographs of their grandfathers, grandmothers, fathers, uncles, find medals and certificates, and show all this to their children and grandchildren.
The Immortal Regiment inspired many to search for information about relatives who fought, about whose fate nothing was known since the war. People are storming sites with databases of the exploits and awards of soldiers of the Great Patriotic War. Before the Victory Day, the flow of requests to Podolsk, to the Central Archive of the Russian Ministry of Defense, which carefully responds to all letters, traditionally increases.
And the bitter thing is the excesses on the ground associated with the excessive activity of officials. Any noble undertaking touched upon by an overly zealous official can turn into stupidity, and even harmful. The very essence of the “Immortal Regiment” action is distorted when military personnel training for extras are brought out according to the order. For example, what educational moment does this patriotic action bring for a schoolchild or cadet who was forced to stand in the Regiment with a portrait of a stranger found on the Internet?
Be that as it may, the Immortal Regiment as a whole remains an action to preserve the personal, family memory of the generation of winners - the way it was once intended. I would like to hope that this will continue to be the case in the future.
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