Tiraspol, September 4. /Novosti Pridnestrovya/. Speech by the President of the PMR Vadim Krasnoselsky at the plenary session of the Supreme Council of the PMR - presentation of a package of bills on the illegality of replacing the name of the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic with the fascist term "Transnistria".
The press service of the President publishes the text of the speech of the head of state in full.
Vadim Krasnoselsky, President of the PMR:
"I want to justify this bill and explain why it is relevant. It is clear that life is not an easy thing. The life of a person. And the life of a state, naturally, is much more complicated. The development of states is always associated with victories, with defeats, somewhere with shame, with tragedies. We, the entire Pridnestrovian people, honor our history. We honor the memory of our ancestors. We do not forget our history and clearly set the accents, as they actually were in our historical development. I think this is right.
Behind any events are people's lives. One of the most tragic pages in the history of Pridnestrovie is, of course, the German-Romanian-fascist-Nazi occupation of our region. I would like to clarify some points. Any events are associated with certain people, with those who generate certain tragic or victorious events and, of course, the symbolism, the symbolism of these events. It is clear that the German-fascist occupation is associated with the swastika, with fascist banners, flags, chants, greetings, "sieg heil" and so on - everything that is prohibited by the Nuremberg Tribunal. This is a fact. Although, by and large, the swastika itself is a more ancient symbol, meaning virtue, greeting, and so on. But the Nazis discredited it, and the swastika was no longer a symbol of virtue, it became a symbol of fascism, Nazism, murder, the Holocaust, and everything else that is associated with the killing of people.
There is another term that offends my perception of the historical tragedy of the entire nation - the term "transnistria". This is a Romanian term. It appeared here at the time of the occupation of our region by German-Romanian troops from August 1941 to 1944. After the Jassy-Kishinev operation, the time of "transnistria" was over here. Even, let's say, after the Odessa offensive operation. The only territory of the Soviet Union that was given over to non-German occupation was the so-called "transnistria". But it was not Transnistria - even geographically. "Transnistria" was a territory that was bordered by the Dniester River, the Southern Bug and the Black Sea. The distance from Zhmerynka to Odessa was 350 kilometers. In total, the territory of the so-called "Transnistria" was more than 40,000 square kilometers. The capital was Odessa. Even territorially, geographically, whatever you like, calling Pridnestrovie "Transnistria" is wrong. At the very least, it is wrong. What was here during "Transnistria"? Modern historians (I do not want to call them pseudo-historians, because they will say that "everyone has their own history") call that period the Soviet occupation of Bessarabia and the liberation of Romania, the territory of Bessarabia from Soviet occupation.
I advise everyone who wants to understand the term "occupation" to look at Ozhegov's dictionary or other sources. Naturally, by occupation we mean certain actions of certain occupation forces. During the period from August 1941 to April 1944, on the territory of the so-called "Transnistria", which I have designated, the Romanian occupation forces created about 150-180 death camps and ghettos. "Other people" were driven there, as "Marshal Antonescu himself", the conductor of Romania, said. The following example: on October 22, 1941, by order of the Romanian occupation authorities, 25 thousand residents of Odessa were shot in just one day. This was an act of intimidation. In total, during the occupation regime on the territory of the so-called "Transnistria", 300-350 thousand people of Jewish and other nationalities were killed, burned, murdered, shot, and torn to pieces. You know very well about Dubossary, where 20 thousand Jews were shot in September 1941. When the German-Romanian troops of the Axis powers suffered a complete defeat at Stalingrad, literally a week later, on February 4, Antonescu issues an order, decree, instruction, it doesn't matter, called "1111" on the removal of all material assets from the territory of "transnistria", occupied Bukovina, respectively, Bessarabia. In a short period of time, everything was removed, even door handles, rails, equipment, all equipment were removed. The territory was simply plundered. All this was taken to neighboring Romania. The peasants were deprived of the means of cultivating the land so that there would be no sowing in the spring. They had no doubt that the Soviet troops would liberate this territory, as eventually happened, and did everything so that the harvest would not go to the Red Army. Of course, the people were put in conditions of terrible hunger and lack of basic means of subsistence. For me personally, the term "transnistria" has transformed from the concept of "territory beyond the Dniester" into a term that stands for hunger, devastation, murder, blood, killing of people, the Holocaust. If we look at how Israel specifically relates to this, where there is a Holocaust museum, then "transnistria" is equated with the Holocaust. By and large, they do not separate the concept of the Holocaust from "transnistria". When we are called "transnistria", for me personally as a citizen of Pridnestrovie, an internationalist, this is deeply offensive. Do you understand? Whether they call us specifically, intentionally, an occupation term or out of ignorance. I fully admit this too. Although, I repeat, geographically, we have an extremely distant relationship to "transnistria". The term "transnistria" has discredited itself with blood and murder, the bloody dictator Antonescu, who is up to his ears in the blood of innocent people, children, women, the elderly, this is a fact. It is time to put an end to this and equate the term “Transnistria” with the symbols of fascism and Nazism, with the legal consequences that follow from this.”
