Fintina Alba Memorial called "Troita" |
Many borders
have been erased or redrawn as the result of greed, war, war reparations, communism,
colonialism, Nazism, Islamic conquests, tribal wars, and other politically and
economically driven search for land, natural resources, drinking and irrigation
water, navigable water, oil, diamonds, and precious metals.
In the 21st
century, the technocracy and the global elitists have pushed the social
engineering much further, by planning to erase all national borders and
destroying sovereignty in order to allow free massive migration of peoples
around the globe, and by redistributing wealth from the haves to the have nots,
regardless of effort.
The British
found out that borders are important and chose to vote for Brexit, the exit
from the mammoth technocratic experiment called European Union, a state-like federation
controlled by Germany.
Angela
Merkel invaded her own people with Islamist “refugees,” men of military age who
have left their wives, mothers, elderly, and children behind to fight their
tribal wars in Syria, while they slashed and burned across Europe, in order to eventually
conquer thousands of years of Christian civilization through demographics and
the politics of multiculturalism.
Nations want
borders, people want to identify with their ancestors, their history, their
families, their language, and their native ancestral lands where their heroes
lay buried, where archeological remnants of their glorious past can be found,
catalogued, and displayed in museums, a collective shrine to our human
civilization.
People are
drawn to those with a common bond that establishes where they came from and exemplifies
the long and arduous history of survival against all odds. Most people are
fascinated by their own genealogical roots and spend time and resources to find
out where they came from. Others hyphenate their names to identify with the
continent where their ancestors came from.
The desire
to belong to your own kind is exemplified by the tragedy that took place 76
years ago at the border between today’s Russia and Romania. On April 1, 1941,
on the day of the Holy Easter, a large column of villagers, who were fed up
with the Soviet utopian exploitation, attempted to cross into Romania. They
were massacred not far from the Romanian border, men, women, children, and
grandparents, by machine guns and swords of the Soviet cavalry at Fintina Alba.
On a snowy
day, Petru Grigor, Director of Historical and Cultural Research of Cernauti,
talked about Romania’s martyrs and their bloody massacre. In the background is
the memorial erected to remember those innocents who died in their quest for freedom,
away from Soviet-imposed border that destroyed and separated Romanian villages
and families of Bucovina. http://trinitastv.ro/stiri-video/ecouri-ale-tragediei-de-la-fantana-alba-si-lunca-80291
The Soviets
had installed a new border in June 1940 between USSR and Romania, cutting large
chunks of Romanian territory and annexing it to the Soviet Union.
The Red Army
had occupied Basarabia, northern Bucovina, and Hertza in the military campaign
of June 28-July 4, 1940, an area of almost 20,000 square miles with a
population of 3.8 million people. Ready to occupy it with a full-scale invasion,
the Soviets gave Romania an ultimatum on June 26 but the Romanian Army, in
order to avoid military conflict, agreed to withdraw from the territories.
Germany knew of the Soviet interest and remained silent. France, guarantor of
Romania’s borders, fell. This emboldened the Soviets to issue the ultimatum of
surrender.
Thus a large
part of Moldova became, on August 2, 1940, part of the Moldova Soviet Socialist
Republic, encompassing most of Basarabia, and part of the Ukrainian Soviet
Socialist Republic, now the breakaway Transnistrian state.
The Hertza
region and other regions inhabited by Slavic majorities in northern Bucovina,
northern and southern Basarabia, became part of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist
Republic.
Those who
objected to the Soviet occupation were politically persecuted, arrested,
deported to labor camps where few survived, and executed.
In January
and February 1941 massacres took place at Lunca in the region Cernauti, and in
spring 1941 at Fintina Alba, in Poiana Varnitei (Varnita canton). About two km
from the border, Romanians, who wanted to return to their motherland and their
ancestral lands, were murdered by Soviet soldiers.
Villagers
had written letters, asking the new Cernauti authorities to allow them to
return to their country. In March 1941, the villagers of Storojinet also petitioned
to return to Romania, but the requests were denied, and the villagers returned
home.
They made the
fateful decision to leave on the rumor that the Soviet authorities would allow
them to cross the border unharmed, and they would be able to rejoin the
Romanian families left behind.
The
villagers of Patrautii de Jos, Patrautii de Sus, and Suceveni went to church,
prayed for a while, raised a white flag to show that their intentions were
peaceful, and over 1,500 people joined a long procession, marching to turn in
their requests to be allowed to return to their motherland, Romania.
Many others
joined this column in the center of Hilbocia, more than 5,000 souls. A Soviet
policeman urged them to return to their homes as their applications were not
even accepted, much less considered. Deciding that they would rather die free
than live under the Soviet boot, the group resolved to cross the border
illegally. As Petru Grigor told the story, the villagers were met by Soviet
border guards with machine guns, who mowed the column down in an inferno of bullets
and death. “God cried that day.”
An
investigation made in 1943 Bucovina, with the help of eye witnesses, discovered
the names of 26 martyrs who died on that fateful day, April 1, 1941, in Fintina
Alba. A monument called “troita” was erected on the site by Ukraine in 1991,
following its installation to power after the dissolution of USSR.
The journalist
Ion Dominte, writing in the newspaper “Bucovina” about the massacre at Fintina
Alba, left a historical record of the events. The mass deportations of
Romanians that took place in the first year of installation of the Soviet
regime in this area came to light. Petru Grigor suggested that archeological digs
should take place today, to find out the true number of those who were killed.
Orthodox Church
pilgrimages with prayers and wreath-placing ceremonies take place every year “in
memoriam” of those who sought freedom at all costs and did not wish to live under
the Soviet boot across the border from their national roots.
Thank you, Ileana, for shining the light on the events of that sad day, April 1, 1941. It's a testament to hope, and just as importantly, remembrance.
ReplyDeleteWe must never forget!
DeleteYour articles are so educational Ileana. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteYou are welcome, Irish Dancer.
Delete