The PMR President Vadim Krasnoselsky:
In addition to health, well-being, and peace on the Pridnestrovian land, of course, I want to wish the Pridnestrovians the most important thing – memory. Memory is truly decisive. If someone thinks that they can forget something and remember something, and nothing will happen – this is a mistake, this is a delusion. I am deeply convinced of this. Everything depends on memory. I have already said that a person, a state – is a vessel. It is filled with meaning, filled with spirit. If it is empty, if you yourself do not put knowledge into it, if you do not put historical memory into it. It will not be empty, it will be filled, but not by you, but by those who find it convenient. They will make you think differently. It is amazing to me how former party leaders knocked down the plaques on the Victory Arch in Kishinev in 1991. A small example, but very illustrative. At first, they took away the language in Moldova and changed it to the Latin alphabet in 1989. There were marble slabs on the Victory Arch in the center of Kishinev in 1991, when there was very little time left before the collapse of the Soviet Union. There was an order from the Supreme Commander-in-Chief on the liberation of the Moldavian SSR and the city of Kishinev on these marble slabs installed in 1945. In addition, the names of the heroes of the Soviet Union were carved on these slabs, who liberated the Moldavian SSR and received the corresponding title – Hero of the Soviet Union. The names of natives of the Moldavian SSR, mainly Pridnestrovie, were also carved on these slabs. The first thing the new Moldovan leadership did? They simply destroyed these slabs. They dismantled them, took them down. This is 1991. This did not happen yesterday, or the day before yesterday, or 10 years ago. It is surprising, they all laid flowers together literally a year ago, they definitely have defenders of the Fatherland among their ancestors. What happened to the people? How does all this happen? Another thing is surprising. A lot of time has passed, almost 35 years, since the moment when they took and “changed” history. Those who did it knew what to aim at, what to strike. It would seem like a small thing: they removed the plaques – they removed the memory. After that – 1992. After that – the war in Pridnestrovie. Do you understand? Both the current leaders and the past leaders, who are now grieving about the lost time, about the fact that now their children and grandchildren are taught, so to speak, a completely different history in textbooks. What were you doing when you were in the leadership of this state? Why weren't the plaques with the names of the Heroes of the Soviet Union put back in place? Did you think this would pass without a trace?
Here is May 9. Here is the "Immortal Regiment". Please, pay attention, the further Victory is from us, the more years pass, the more the people unite. There are more people. It is raining today, bad weather, cool, windy. Everyone is sopped in the rain, but thousands of people came. The people came. Not because it is a tradition. It is not a ritual and not just a tradition. This is a continuation of the people's feat, continuation of the people's memory. The more they lie about the Victory and the feat of the Soviet people, the more they falsify history, the more people there will be, in my opinion. This is a civil protest against tyranny, against what is actually being done in many countries, where the warrior-liberators who lie in this land, who liberated the states of Europe from the fascist-Nazi plague, who liberated them, are recognized as occupiers. Those punishers, those monsters who shot thousands of people in execution pits, who experimented on people, on children, who shot children – they are "heroes". They write this in textbooks. Do you understand? There is a beginning somewhere, and the beginning is 1991, the 1990s. Oblivion of history – and the consequences.
Once again I am convinced of the need to create Pridnestrovie. No one has knocked down or will knock down our slabs, they will never knock them down in their lives. We should even thank the Pridnestrovian people for this. For the creation of the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic. For the fact that historical memory is preserved here. This memory will be preserved here.
Therefore, what can we wish for? That we, dear Pridnestrovians, do not allow this to happen here. This is within our power. This is within our power. Of course, we will do it the right way, the honest way, the human way, the human way, the spiritual way with our work, with our attitude to history, to memory.
