The popular Moldovan news website Point.md today cited reporting from tv8.md on the declassification of tens of thousands of files on Moldovan citizens deported, most significantly from the Stalin era. Because the website’s report is currently only available in Romanian and Russian, we have taken it upon ourselves to provide an English translation for those interested.
The URL to the original article (in Russian) can be reached by clicking here.
Moldova declassifies the last of the deportation files: people will be able to access to the archives in July
12 June 2025
The state is completing an important historical process – declassifying the files of deported Moldovans. Today, the Ministry of Internal Affairs transferred the last 20,000 files related to victims of Stalin’s repressions to the National Archives.
The website tv8.md reports that this is the final stage of the work that began in 2010. In total, 50,000 cases are being prepared for release.
Beginning July 5, victims’ relatives will be able to access these documents. As noted by the director of the National Archival Agency Igor Kashu, within a month the documents will be transferred and fully organized , after which they will be freely accessible.
The declassified files are not just archival documents, but stories of real people. Among such cases is the story of a teacher at an agricultural college in Soroca, Marina Aleksey.
He was sentenced to 8 years in the camps only because he studied in Iasi and was a member of the Romanian Parliament during the period when Bucharest opposed the USSR. After serving his sentence, instead of being released, he was sent to work in a mine in a remote region. His letters to the USSR prosecutor’s office provide valuable evidence of what the deportees went through.
Today, a solemn ceremony was held in memory of the thousands of people who were taken from their homes. According to official data, 57,000 families were deported from Moldova. Only half returned home. Many died from cold, hunger and unbearable conditions.
Interior Minister Daniela Misail-Nikitin stressed, “These cases are more than documents. These are broken lives, this is an attempt to restore dignity to those who were deprived of the right to life and memory.”
Prime Minister Dorin Recean also spoke about his family’s personal tragedy: 6 of his paternal grandfather’s 12 children were deported to Siberia, and three had to hide in Romania. He noted that there are thousands of similar stories in Moldova.
The declassified materials cover not only the fates of intellectuals, but also ordinary people who could be exiled simply for attending church or being suspected of disloyalty.
Decades later, the state is taking a step towards historical justice – so that the families of the deported can learn the truth about their loved ones and reconnect with their own history.
Translating History 