Victor Andreev: “And when the Motherland will regain freedom ...”
Tyragetia, serie nouă, vol. IX [XXIV], nr. 2, Istorie. Muzeologie Chișinău, 2015
Abstract
The history of anti-Soviet and anticommunist resistance in postwar Bessarabia is rich in facts and names of fighters. This article tells about the fate of brothers Victor and Ion Andreev, natives of the village of MănoileТti, who in the spring of 1949, together with other young people, decided to establish an underground organization to fight against the Soviet occupation.
Most members of this organization were intellectuals, mostly rural teachers, who, for reasons of professional and intellectual training, perhaps better than others intuited the harmful effects of Sovietization and Bolshevization of Bessarabia.
The main goals of the organization, organizational criteria, rights and obligations of the members have been for- mulated in the "Freedom Party" Charter developed by Victor Andreev, who at the time had been a primary school teacher in the village of Băcioi in the Kotovski District. The first lines of the Charter contain an appeal to all patriots of Bessarabia for the struggle against the authorities, which emphasizes that only concrete action and self-sacrifice can help to gain freedom. "And when the Motherland will regain freedom, do not come to seek protection" - it was Victor Andreev's message to those who "recognized the vile enemy flag".
Statutory documents, correspondence between members of the organization, literature confiscated during arrests, records of interrogations to which they were subjected are irrefutable evidence of the thirst for freedom and courage of these young patriots.
Sons of unified Romania, being raised and educated in the spirit of Romanian traditions, these young people were unable or unwilling to accept a different way of life, a different social system, collectivization, mass deportations, repression, famine... For them it was "a great misfortune to live in a country other than that of their ancestors". Soviet justice qualified the brothers Andreev's activities as terrorism and treason; on January 27, 1951, by the verdict of the Military Court of the Odessa Military District Victor Andreev was sentenced to death by shooting and Ion Andreev was sentenced to 25 years of imprisonment in labor camps.
Gratitude for the sacrifices of these fighters against communism came much later. On 23 August 2010, in a sign of high appreciation of tenacity, courage and patriotic spirit manifested in the struggle against the totalitarian Communist regime, by Decree of the President of the Republic of Moldova brothers Victor and Ion Andreev were posthumously awarded the Order of the Republic.
List of illustrations: 1. Photo of Victor Andreev with a dedication to his brother Ion, 1948. 2. Ion Andreev with his wife and son, 1948. 3. Ion Andreev with his son Grigore, 1949. 4. Certificate of Ion Andreev's release from prison, where he stayed from June 6 to 28 March 1960. 5. Third category driver's license in the prisoner Ion Andreev's name, 1956. 6. Ion Andreev's Certificate of Rehabilitation issued by the Prosecutor's Office of the Republic of Moldova, 02.20.1992.
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