Browsing by Author "Cojocaru, Ludmila D."

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    CHILDREN AND THE WAR: REFLECTIONS ON THE PERIOD OF FORCED SOVIETIZATION OF TRANSNISTRIA AND BESSARABIA
    (2021-02-11) Cojocaru, Ludmila D.
    On 28 June 1940, based on the additional secret protocol of the RibbentropMolotov Pact, the territory of Romania from the east of the Prut River was annexed to the Soviet Union. Till the end of August 1940, together with the districts on the left bank of the Dniester River, Bessarabia was declared a Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic and immediately fell under the policies of forced Sovietization, interrupted by another unprecedented scourge – World War II, the event which marked in the memory of the local communities by excessive human losses on both sides of the front.The present study aims to elucidate the mechanisms and policies of forced Sovietization of Transnistria and Bessarabia during World War II in the memory of children from the families of “enemies of the people”, later deported to the eastern regions of the USSR. The author draws attention to the importance of researching the voices long marginalized by Soviet historiography – children of the Gulag, able to reveal emotional sensitivity, dramatic feelings and strategies for negotiating with their own past by assuming the status of witnesser. The memoirs of children descended from the families of the “enemies of the people” reflect the discrepancies between the myths of Soviet propaganda about “the happy life in the USSR” and everyday realities. Their voices on the events surrounding the World War II are an important source for synthetic studies on the totalitarian past, but also for researching the impact of Soviet policies on con- temporary society of the Republic of Moldova.
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    UNIVERSUL COPILĂRIEI ÎN GULAG: RECONSTITUIRI DIN MĂRTURIILE DE ISTORIE ORALĂ ALE MINORILOR DEPORTAȚI DIN RSS MOLDOVENEASCĂ ÎN PERIOADA 1940–1941, 1944–1953
    (2020-09-22) Cojocaru, Ludmila D.
    The Gulag childhood universe: restitutions of oral history testimonies by the children deported from Moldavian SSR during 1940–1941, 1944–1953. The article brings to the attention of academic community a series of case studies, relevant for the articulation of a new research topic on the totalitarian regime – the phenomenon of childhood in the Gulag. The case studies we will refer to below reveal the life histories whose course was sealed by the period of the Soviet occupation of Bessarabia, in the years 1940–1941 and 1941–1991. Ignoring this kind of testimony and,subsequently, not valuing the potential of historical document of these sources in knowing the past maintains to this day among the citizens of the Republic of Moldova ambiguous attitudes towards the totalitarian past: from post-totalitarian nostalgia to frustrations, silences and phobias. The history of the victims, told through the testimonies of oral history, can be found among hundreds of files manufactured by the Soviet repression structures, which are today in the funds of the state archives; but not even the most careful scrutiny of them can recover details of personal feelings. Behind the archive files it is impossible to glimpse information about the sufferings, hopes or survival strategies of those sentenced by the regime to forced deportation to the eastern regions of the empire, to forced labor in camps, schooling. The life experiences of children deported from regions entering the Soviet occupation, in accordance with the secret additional protocol of the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact, are the subject of new historical approaches, which try to reconstruct their particularities, including through the exercise of memory.