They remembered in Pridnestrovie today those who suffered from the policy of decossackization. The commemorative event was officially held in the republic for the first time. This is the President's initiative. The day before, the President signed a decree on including the Day of Remembrance for the Victims of Political Repression of the Cossacks (January 24) in the list of professional holidays and memorable dates. On January 24, 1919, a document was dated that went down in history as the “Directive on Decossackization” and unleashed terror against representatives of the Cossacks.
The memory of the innocently killed Cossacks was honored on the territory of the Memorial to the Victims of Political Repression in Tiraspol. The President, heads public and administrative authorities, representatives of the Black Sea Cossack army, and clergy laid flowers at the memorial sign at the mass grave in which the victims of the Great Terror, among whom Cossacks were reburied after exhumation from the execution pits.
Addressing the event participants, Vadim Krasnoselsky noted:
“All the dates that we honor are divided into victorious and tragic. It is common for many states to remember only victorious dates, but this is wrong in my opinion. The tragedy leaves a bright imprint on the life of the state. You need to know your history and honor those who became victims of certain repressions, famines, wars, and so on in order not to repeat it.
The directive was signed on January 24, 1919 and sent to places where Cossacks lived compactly. The directive prescribed the destruction of the Cossacks, and not just as a class, it was about the actual destruction of people. According to various sources from one to two million Cossacks died during the period of the so-called decossackization and repressions. These are not just male people, Cossacks. These were their mothers, old Cossacks, children, teenagers, girls Cossack. Why did the Bolsheviks do this to the Cossacks? There were reasons. They were afraid of the Cossacks, they were afraid of their self-organization, they were afraid that the Cossacks were real defenders of their Motherland with a clear understanding of this word, they were afraid that the Cossacks were defenders of the Orthodox faith, with which the Bolsheviks also fought.
This is our history. Where we will lay flowers, people of different classes, different nationalities, including Cossacks, Old Believers, and clergy, are lying in execution pits. This is the Pridnestrovian Golgotha. Not to remember, not to honor these dates is insulting to the memory of the fallen and to today’s day, to today’s history”.
Litany was served for those dead at the end of the meeting and the flower-laying ceremony in the Church of the New Martyrs and Confessors of the Russian Church.
