Сeremonial meeting on the eve of the Great Victory Day is an unchangeable tradition. Veterans, the republic leadership, military personnel, the public, and young people gather in the large hall of the Palace of the Republic to honor the memory of those who died on the fronts of the Great Patriotic War and the victims of Nazism and fascism, to thank the veterans, and to exchange congratulations on the common holiday for everyone. The ceremonial part opens with the PMR State Flag, the Standard of the President of the PMR, and the Victory Banner carrying in. The Pridnestrovian anthem is played. The President addresses those present and through them the entire people of the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic. A minute of silence is obligatory in memory of those who brought closer, but never met their Victorious Spring of 1945, as well as those who were lucky enough to celebrate more than a dozen May holidays, but did not live to see the 80th anniversary of the Victory of the Soviet people in the Great Patriotic War.
"80 years have passed since the Victorious Spring of 1945. It would seem that this is enough time to understand, comprehend, and draw conclusions: who provoked the Second World War and the Great Patriotic War, who allowed Germany to trample the Versailles Treaty and make it a superpower in military and economic terms, who allowed a simple corporal Adolf Hitler to become the Fuhrer, who allowed fascist Germany and the axis powers to prepare for an attack on the Soviet Union. It seemed clear who allowed the creation of the Nazi-fascist ideology, which became the cause of the Second World War, became the cause of the victims of tens and hundreds of millions of civilians, became the cause of the creation of concentration camps throughout Europe, where people were exterminated on an industrial scale based on engineering solutions, where experiments were conducted on people, where hundreds of thousands of children were killed. There was nothing like this in the world. There were various troubles, but nothing like this. Because there was no Nazi, fascist ideology. 80 years. It seemed that everything was clear: who won this terrible war, who made the main contribution to the defeat of the axis states and fascist Germany and defeated the Nazi-fascist ideology, of course. Everything is objective, everything is on the surface. Only thanks to the feat of the Soviet multinational people was it possible to liberate Europe from this terrible ideology. To liberate the axis states that fought against the Soviet people, the Soviet Union.
Unfortunately, there are no wars without victims. Millions of people remained on the battlefields. Millions. Unfortunately, the exact number still cannot be calculated. Historians argue about how many died. They argue about the numbers of people who went missing. But one thing is absolutely clear – it was a feat. I am deeply convinced: what you and I know about the feat of people, the Soviet people, is 10 percent, maybe 15 percent. People died at the front, in trenches, burned in tanks and planes, drowned in the sea – and no one knows about them. They are the heroes of the Great Patriotic War. They are the heroes of the glorious generation of Victors who brought Victory Day closer on May 9, 1945.
Our Pridnestrovian people, Pridnestrovie as a territory met the war on June 22, 1941, like the entire Soviet Union. Our fellow countrymen resisted. Fighter battalions were formed from the first days. The enemy was held back on the approaches to the Dniester. Of course, our fellow countrymen would have defended Pridnestrovie, but there are common reasons, common problems of that time 1941, of course. Nevertheless, even the resistance here in Pridnestrovie postponed the capture of Odessa, which became possible in preparation for defense, and then for the forced retreat. Then our Pridnestrovians fought on all fronts of the Great Patriotic War. Tens of thousands of people did not return home, here. They died, they went missing, they are buried throughout the territory of the Soviet Union and Europe. Many of our compatriots found their last hour, unfortunately, in the execution pits, where the German-Romanian occupiers shot people in the so-called "transnistria" on the basis of nationality. The numbers are different too. No one can say how many. Many of our compatriots perished in concentration camps on the territory of Europe. I am convinced that not one of them died for nothing. Each of them contributed to the victory of the Soviet Union over fascist Germany and the axis states.
Dear Pridnestrovians, eighty years have passed, and what do we see today? We see not only attempts – these are no longer attempts, this is already a practice of changing history, falsifying the results of the Great Patriotic War and the world war. We see how liberators are called occupiers, and this is written in the history textbooks of Moldova. The Nazi monsters are "liberators", such as Antonescu and his henchmen. What happened? I sometimes watch videos where fully grown people who were born under Soviet rule, who went to kindergarten, to school, were pioneers, Komsomol members, and probably party leaders, try to rip the St. George ribbon, orders and medals from front-line soldiers. I really want to ask them, when they became like that. Name the date – year, day. What happened? You went with your fathers and grandfathers to mass graves as children after all. You laid flowers at the graves of the fallen. What happened? At what point did they manage to stupefy you, to deceive you, excuse the slang, so that you believed that your grandfathers and fathers were occupiers. How is it even possible to understand this? As children and adults, you came to the graves, and now you think that they are occupiers? What is in people's minds? How is it possible to just go and deceive not one person – hundreds of thousands, millions of people. There is an answer to this question. This is a program that did not start yesterday, or the day before, or a year, or even ten years ago. It started with the collapse of the Soviet Union, when people were deprived of their language, history, and nationality. All this happened with the silent consent of the masses. There was no protest. They have taken away the Victory now, turning their parents into "aggressors" and "occupiers". Those who killed people here are "heroes." This is strange.
Pridnestrovie has special people, with a special attitude of mind. There are a lot of front-line soldiers here. Twelve Heroes of the Soviet Union, who were previously honored in the Moldavian SSR, are natives of Pridnestrovie, they are our fellow countrymen. There are five Heroes of the Soviet Union in the sixth school of Tiraspol. This is a fact. We are different. We are different because we have not changed our principles. We remember our history. We do not have a day when we began to hate front-line soldiers. Do you understand? There will not be such a day. I am convinced of this. Each of us, each one sitting in this hall, must fight this plague propaganda with his own strength – the propaganda of Nazism, fascism and revanchism today. There are no other options. Each one according to his own strength must come to the concert, must honor his heroes, must participate in the Immortal Regiment, must lay flowers, and most importantly, must pass on historical memory and truth to generations – the truth about that war.
I have always said, I am convinced of this, it is an axiom: those nations that have forgotten their past, spat on the memory of their ancestors, they are subject to oblivion and disintegration. This is an empty vessel – without the essence and understanding of the past, present and future.
Dear Pridnestrovians, I would like to focus on those people who won. I see Suvorov cadets, cadets, and students – young people and older in this hall. It seems to you that it was a long time ago. I admit, when I was 15, it also seemed to me that it was a long time ago. A very long time ago. But no, it was very recently. Then the generation of the Winners, the people who made it up, were like you, with the same emotions, with the same desires, with the same love for people, for their loved ones, for the Motherland. Today, only mobile phones have appeared, some kind of artificial intelligence. But all this is secondary. The main thing is not artificial intelligence, and the future does not belong to it. The future is in the spirit, and we are united: what is the generation of the Winners, the glorious generation of the Winners, what are the living Pridnestrovians. This must be clearly understood.
I have great respect for the veterans. With a bow. With great respect and a bow for the entire generation of the Winners, for all who fought on the battlefields, who forged the weapons of victory in the rear, who worked on collective and state farms, supplying the Red Army with what was needed. The entire generation of the Winners made their contribution – from the boy to the old man and to the old woman. This is a fact. Only the Soviet people were able to survive the hell of the Great Patriotic War, win.
Dear Pridnestrovians, dear friends! I want to wish health to the living veterans. May God grant you! May God grant you! There are few of you, but you are strong, right? Well, that's all.
“Bright memory to those who died, those who fell, those who died from wounds and diseases, and to us, those living today – peace, prosperity and independence of the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic,” said the PMR President Vadim Krasnoselsky during the ceremonial meeting on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the Great Victory.
