REMEMBRANCE IN TIME - Index of

ARCHIVAL FILES – RESEARCH SOURCES ON
THE ISSUE OF RELIGIOUS-ABODE
LIQUIDATION THROUGHOUT MSSR
Manole BRIHUNEł 1
Lately, the attention of the researchers in history was drawn by numerous previously
secret files, which highlighted the various problems faced by the Moldavian church
during the communist regime. Due to the archive documents, to the memoirs of the
participants in the events, to the literature, we may outline a few church-closing stages.
This way, in 1918–1940, the liquidation of the parish churches on the left of the Dniester,
the adaptation of the buildings to the household needs, the book burning and the icon
destruction are on a high scale. After 28 June 1940, the first attempt to close the
Bessarabian monasteries occurs, the monastic community from Frumoasa being
abolished.
After the possibility of religious-establishment reopening, in 1941–1944, the Moldavian
church faces the second massive liquidation wave on churches and monasteries, 1944–
1963. The greatest “boom” in the fight against faith was registered in 1959–1960. Some
communities specifically resisted, especially the nuns from Răciula. Every church and
monastery had its special fate, thorough liquidation files; ideological, economic and
political reasons of coercion and misrepresentation being invoked. The archival files
assist the researcher involved in studying the issue. They often allow completing the
information as regards the liquidation modality, the use of the kolkhoz building in the
locality, the difficult faith of the parish priest or monastery abbot, who were even housearrested
or sentenced to 15 prison years (abbess of Răciula monastery). A special interest
is shown by having modified the architectural aspect of the churches, monasteries, abbeys
and monastic cells. At the same time, due to the archival files and appended images, the
aspect of irrecoverably destroyed cult edifices could be identified.
From the beginning, note that at present the researchers refer to the files regarding the
Soviet period, within the collection of the National Archive of the Republic of Moldavia
(NARM) and of the Archive of the Social-Political Organizations of the Republic of
Moldavia (ASPORM), which also stand for the vast majority of the documents. The
access of the historians and theologians to the files from the collections 2848, 3305, 3046
from NARM and the collection 51 from ASPORM became possible thanks to the
democratization process in the country, they having been recently declassified and
opened for research. An issue occurred once with the open access to the secret files is
their adequate and appropriate treatment, resorting from several factors - political,
economic, religious or cultural. The memory and memoirs of the persons who have gone
1 National Museum of Ethnography and Natural History of Moldavia, Chişinău, Republic of
Moldova.