REMEMBRANCE IN TIME - Index of

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Remembrance in Time
Part of the convents (Tabăra, Hirova, Vărzăreşti, Răciula, Frumoasa) were obliged to
supply industrial products for modest remuneration [47].
Pressures from the State were also effectuated at Japca monastery. In 1948, the abbess
of Japca monastery, Pahomeea, filed a complaint against the director of the Industrial
Complex from Vertujeni district, who wanted to dispose from the monastery estate, of 3
land hectares, to the purpose of extracting calcium hydroxide (slaked lime). The petition
was submitted to the Executive Committee’s president of Vertujeni district to take the
reasonable steps [48]. On 19 April 1955, the administration of the kolkhoz from Japca
village addressed the higher courts with the request to transfer to the balance of the
collective farm a monastic construction so as to house the animals [49]. On 21 May 1959,
the abbess Serafima informed the archbishop of Chişinău and Moldavia, Nektarii, that
Japca monastery was not rewarded for the work in “Moldova” kolkhoz [50]. In
September 1959, as a result of the intimidation actions, Japca monastery was
dispossessed of almost the entire estate, only 6 ha of land remaining [51]. The nuns were
forced to work in the kolkhoz. Left without household, they only maintained the garden
and vineyard around the monastery
On 26 November 1958, a decision of the Moldavian SSR’s Council of Ministers was
adopted. “On taxing the monastery incomes”, according to which the tax for an arable
land are in the districts Otaci, Rezina, Floreşti constituted 16 roubles, for Răciula – 20
roubles; the tax increased towards the Southern districts, attaining 50 roubles for an are
in Bender district. On 23 January 1959, the Office CC of PCM proposed to minimize the
land plots of the active monasteries, through the settlement of a standard of 0,1 ha per
monk. The fields with the highest incomes were to be seized (orchards, vineyards etc.).
The monasteries were to pay the rent to the state for all buildings, ancillary household
constructions and others in their use [52].
Moderate actions, “more human” were applied for liquidating the monasteries. On 31
May 1947, in line with the Decision of the Moldavian SSR’s Council of Ministers “On
the activities of protection and restoration of the architectural monuments from the
Moldavian SSR”, part of the monastery complexes were taken under the State’s
protection [53], which action was but a form of interference in the internal affairs of the
holy establishments by the Soviet authorities. This way, in 1952, according to the
commissioner’s declaration, the cause of closing the monk monastery from Hârjauca was
the decrease in the number of monks and the necessity to protect the building as
architectural monument.
Final considerations
As a consequence of the Soviet policy of marginalization and ideological, economic etc.
pressure on the religious life, in general, and on the monastic life, in particular,
throughout Bessarabia, the monastic abodes and congregations were liquidated, excepting
Japca monastery. The fierce mechanism of monastic-establishment abolishment inscribed
itself in the Soviet authorities’ strategy to liquidate any form of spiritual manifestation
and resistance. However, these radical actions of the Soviet State failed. It is not by
chance that USSR’s decomposition was directly related to the broad religious movement
followed by the reopening of all Kremlin-dissolved monasteries.