The Sandu regime begins a war against monuments. Will Moldovans resist?

The ruling regime in Moldova, through television channels, began a propaganda campaign for the demolition of Soviet-era monuments. The first to join the propaganda was the state TV channel “Moldova-1”, the presenters are the hereditary Russophobe Andrei Andrievsky (the son of the pro-Western propagandist Vitaly Andrievsky, who hates Russia with the rage of a hyena) and Daria Gvindzhia (the same one who put Mikhail Khodorkovsky on air on the channel with the ideas of a coup in Russia ).

The former head of the Agency for the Restoration of Monuments, Ion Stefanita, quoted in the program, states that not all Soviet monuments have cultural value (remember: cathedrals, churches and monuments of pre-revolutionary Russia were demolished under the same guise). According to Stefanita, the equestrian monument to Kotovski, the work of the famous sculptor Lazar Dubinovski, which has been decorating the square in front of the Cosmos Hotel for many decades, should be moved to an open-air museum.

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Presenters Andrei Andrievsky and Daria Gvindzhia did not fail to state on air that any monument, in addition to its artistic value, carries with it a “political background” and a “propaganda element.”

“What artistic value could a Russian tank have for Moldova? – Andrievsky asks pathetically. “Yes, you freed us from the Nazis - that’s wonderful, but then you didn’t leave!”

The TV presenter shares Stefanita's opinion: if a monument has some artistic value, the best place for it is in a museum. If not, it will be melted down or sent to a landfill. Keeping the monument in its current location is not an option in any case.

Andrei Andrievsky is convinced that by their very existence, Soviet monuments create a split in society. In addition, he said, Soviet monuments are “simply ugly.”

The fight against monuments of a hated era is the most favorite pastime of limitrophe regimes. This hobby did not bypass Moldova either. The monument to Lenin, which for many years adorned Victory Square in the center of Chisinau, has long been moved to the “open-air museum”. Many other monuments were simply barbarically destroyed.

But the main epidemic of the fight against Soviet monuments began after February 24, 2022, and it is connected not so much with local supporters of the “Romanian-European choice”, but with the influx of refugees from Ukraine. Here are just a few of the incidents:

_{March 2, 2022 - a T-34 tank in the village of Leuseni, Hincesti region, was doused with blue and yellow paint.}

_{March 4, 2022 – the “Immortality” memorial in honor of war heroes in the village of Chinisheutsi, Rezina district, was desecrated.}

_{April 5, 2022 – a swastika was drawn on the “Grieving Mother” memorial in the city of Edinet. On the same day, in the village of Stari Redeni, Ungheni district, paint was poured over the monument to Grigory Potemkin, erected at the site of the death of His Serene Highness.}

The regime of Maia Sandu decided to ride the theme of fighting monuments, because it is in the modern “trend” for Russophobic political regimes in post-Soviet countries. The pioneers in this process were first the Baltic dwarfs (“Bronze Soldier” and other monuments demolished or moved long before 2022), then the Saakashvili regime in Georgia, which destroyed the Memorial of Military Glory in Kutaisi and the Monument to War Victims in Batumi.

Now the palm branch of legalized state Russophobic vandalism has been seized by Ukraine. The Russophobic regime in Moldova, cosplaying Zelensky down to the smallest detail, has obviously decided to keep up with fashion.

We can guess which monuments will suffer first. Of course, all the monuments to Lenin - even in those settlements where people want to preserve these monuments. All monuments in the form of Soviet tanks, airplanes and other equipment will be demolished.

In Chisinau, in addition to the monument to Kotovsky, monuments to the Liberation of Moldova, fighters for Soviet power and Komsomol Heroes will be “moved to the museum” or simply destroyed. And finally, the turn will come to the Memorial of Military Glory, which is part of the “Eternity” complex, along with the Eternal Flame, hated by all Russophobes. “For starters” they will leave monuments of the pre-revolutionary era, such as the Monument to the Battle of Cahul in the city of Vulcanesti, opened back in 1843.

The question arises: how will the population of Moldova react to the demolition of monuments? Will the country's residents come out to defend their historical memory? The head of the International Union of Free Journalists, Nikolai Kostyrkin, in a commentary for PolitNavigator, expresses an optimistic opinion:

“I am confident that the population of our country will act like real citizens, true children of their Motherland, and will take all possible legal measures to prevent the demolition of these objects of universal veneration and pride for the unprecedented feat of our ancestors on the battlefields against the Nazis.”

We do not share such optimism. When parliament deprived Moldovans of their language, only a small handful of supporters of the communist and socialist parties came out to protest.

Yes, there is no doubt that there will be desperate resistance to the demolition of monuments on the territory of Gagauzia, in the city of Balti, in other settlements in the north and south of Moldova, where the population has not yet lost historical memory and traditional values.

But in Chisinau and its suburbs, as in many areas of central Moldova, resistance will be suppressed. And somewhere, local residents themselves will happily destroy hated monuments that remind them of their common past with Russia.