REMEMBRANCE IN TIME - Index of

Manole BRIHUNEł: Archival Files – Research Sources on the Issue of Religious-Abode … 17
immediately told whether “the priest X. read to the pupils a biology lesson regarding the
lifestyle of the bees” or that in GrinăuŃi village, Briceni, the former deacon activated as
music teacher within the local school. Or how, during the Easter holidays, a baking
factory produced some “spring cake”, using the grandparents’ recipe for the traditional
Easter cake or how some villagers refused to undergo medical procedures, the doctor
being a former priest [4]. This chapter was being worked upon very insistently, the people
being obliged through various modalities to sign church-closure petitions, the priest’s
expulsion from the village, the refuse to activate with the clergymen.
The compartment letters and petitions signed in the hope that the faith would be saved
is completed by reports aiming the monastic community’s economic, cultural, dynamic
activity; data on the monastery leadership or on the church priest. Thus, those information
allowed restoring the picture as regards the drastic diminution of the monastic agricultural
fields, vineyards and orchards, the intimidation of the clergymen and monks, the burning
of the holy books and the devastation of the precious ornaments. Moreover, the soviet
authorities watched very closely the functioning of the churches and of the monasteries,
the smallest income signalled from selling candles or from officiating Christian
sacraments (baptism, wedding or funerals, according to the rules) warned the local
organs. For instance, in 1954 it was noted that the production of the diocesan factory of
candles from Chişinău increased, that the church incomes from selling candles rose, much
as the church attendance (which often became too small for all parishioners), which facts
much disturbed the party activists, who did not fail to come immediately with some
recommendations [5]. Thus, only at Răciula monastery, on its dedication day and other
Christian holidays, above 3000 persons from the nearby villages gathered. The church
restoration, on the expense of the congregation, which donated money and construction
materials or personally participated in the repairs, was likewise a difficult problem for the
authorities [6].
In fact, the material situation of MSSR’s holy establishments, which started to improve
in early 1950, as we note from the archival files, conditioned new repressions on the
church, generated by the decision of MSSR’s Council of Ministers from 16 October 1958,
no. 1159, which stipulated the reduction of the number of churches and monasteries
through their liquidation [7]. In this context, some litigations are mentioned, as regards
the buildings and the land ownership of the churches and monasteries, which were
constrained to wilfully give up, to the benefit of the local kolkhoz, the arable land and its
outhouses. Thus, in 1949, the abbot of Pripiceni-Curchi monastery laments the
confiscation of the mill by the kolkhoz, and the incomes of this mill were used for
supporting the monastic congregation and the church. It was a similar constraining
measure, the archives displaying numerous proofs on the Soviet authorities’ related
debauchery.
We mention on this occasion that, overall, these fields are pre-eminently reflected in
most contemporary publications on the activity of the MSSR’s church during 1944–1991.
Therewith, compartments exist which were only fragmentarily elucidated, in studies of
another profile. In this context, our intention is to highlight the church and monastery
liquidation modality in the light of the architectural monuments destruction, the formation
of specialized commissions, which confirmed the precarious situation of the edifices and
respectively, recommended their closure and destruction. Moreover, the absence of the
parishioners and of a priest facilitated putting the churches out of evidence; thereafter, the
act on the seriously damaged situation of the building came naturally, followed by the