BETWEEN TWO BANKS OF THE DNIESTER.
If we believe Charles Darwin, in result of evolution
the monkey’s tail fell off because no longer needed, and Homo Sapiens.
Certain thinking human beings still continue their
evolutionary way of development. Tails do not grow for them, but essential
features in process of adaptation to conditions of political environment became
changing. Let’s take for example certain individuals who are hanging over near
the newspaper “Glas Naroda”. Their way of development was complicated: from
decisive republicans to accomplices of the president of the neighboring state –
mister-comrade V. Voronin.
In process of evolution, they have changed their
political color, there were noticed psychiatric disorder in form of loss of
historical memory. They started forgetting their martyred compatriots, who had
given their lives for their native land, they started badly orienting in space,
became totally involved, where there was the left or the right bank, they do
not know, where their capital is: in Tiraspol or in Kishinev. In short, all
features of political degradation are evident.
The newspaper “Glas Naroda” keeps silence about
evolution of the struggler for people’s power and social justice, of a
‘finished’ republican Nikolay Buchatski. One says that he also did not avoid
this awful disease of evolutionary re-birth.
Do you know what a guy he was! He said, “Let’s go!” And
Tiraspol home guardsmen moved to the village Koshnitsa to stand to death, and
they stood! And Nikolay Buchatski also dug up a little trench for himself, and
laid down there.
The war was over, N.Buchatski was pleased with himself,
and Dniestrians also appreciated him.
We remember, N.Buchatski, making a speech at one
electoral meeting, being a candidate for Tiraspol city council deputy, he
stroke his opponent by a question: “Dear candidate, who impeded you digging up
a trench near me in 1992 and stand courageously like me?”
Years passed. During that time N.Buchatski won the
elections having become the Tiraspol city council deputy, and also managed to
sit in the Council chairman armchair for the fixed term.
These years, evolutionary processes have started
slowly passing in soul and body of N.Buchatski. Having received authority from
a certain part of Tiraspol electors, he thought that he deserved expressing
will of the whole Dniestrian people. Once he gave a sincere interview to a
correspondent of the Moldavian People’s Front information agency “Flux”, where
he said that people of the Left and Right banks of the Dniester are sick and
tired of living separately, are ready to get united, and only authorities of
Kishinev and Tiraspol are against it.
“Olvia-press” issued that quotation from the “Flux”. N.Buchatski
came to the information agency. You can’t even imagine how furious he was!
Firstly he was beating with his fist at the table, and
then at his chest, proving that he had even no minds to say something like
that. Sure, he was cunning!
Now he expresses these words and ideas in different
ways in the official newspaper of the state that committed bloody massacre in
Dniestria in 1992. But N.Buchatski did not fell down to betrayal at once (a
remark in parentheses: under the word ‘betrayal’ I mean political evolution,
change of political views).
Together with the Supreme Council deputy A.Radchenko, N.Buchatski
decided to exercise in demagogy. Two highly-paid representatives of people’s
power decided to astonish everyone: they claimed for giving the whole power to
people and establish social justice. And in order to realize their cherished
dream of giving deputy authority and of wages to the favorite people, they
established the movement “Power to people. For social justice”. The leaders did
not deny deputy authority, and did not share their high wages with people’s
masses.
That time evolution was smoldering in their hearts, because
they were not finished (I mean: not finally formed). As scientists assert,
changes of natural and political environment influence upon evolutionary
processes. But the environment has changed. And the evolutionaries felt that Communists
of post-ice-age and post-perestroika period may have come to power in Moldova. Their
leader and teacher, Mr. V. Voronin promised plenty. He promised a status to
Dniestria, and not in far future but literary in few days. Soon A.Radchenko
became a friend of the Communist leader.
When the newspaper “Glas Naroda” started relating
about the unification with Moldova, Dniestrians started guessing who could have
bribed the patriotic and even people’s-power newspaper, and with what currency:
in Moldavian leys or Israeli shekels. Everyone knows that the only wage of
Radchenko is not enough to issue a newspaper.
One says, that as soon as A.Radchenko made a
declaration of love to V.Voronin, an inscription appeared on the pages of “Glas
Naroda”: “After having read, do not use it as toilet-paper but give it to
someone else”.
But the Communists won the parliamentary elections. V.Voronin
became the President. Under influence of the changed political situation,
mimicries of N.Buchatski began: re-coloration under the Tricolor. That process
was difficult. It is really SOMETHING: to change one’s color so suddenly. Don’t
forget that N.Buchatski was a home guardsmen, there was even a case when he had
been targeting at either chest or head of a Moldavian special police fighter. (He
gave detailed description of that in the newspaper ‘Nezavisimaia Moldova’). But
then N.Buchatski was seized by the syndrome of Rodion Raskolnikov (The hero of
Fiodor Dostoevski’s novel ‘The Crime and the Punishment’ – note of the translator). N.Buchatski was repenting, being
passionate and inspired. His repenting was published also in ‘Nezavisimaia
Moldova’. The author of repenting articles non-purposely give himself totally
away. The conclusion is evident: the former Dniestrian home guardsman wants the
authority of power to notice him, and maybe to keep a ‘warm’ place for him. Otherwise,
why need so many stories that he is not a Dniestrian but from Kriulyany (a
Moldavian village on the Right Bank – note
of the translator), that he is not only a Tiraspol citizen but also a
Kishinev one.
To please the Moldavian ‘Parteigenosse’ V.Voronin, N.Buchatski
burst out criticizing our President I.Smirnov: How I.Smirnov dared to demand
V.Voronin apologize for the aggression of 1992 – V.Voronin is not to blame, his
hands are clean! And since M.Snegur (the first president of Moldova in
1991-1996 – note of the translator)
is not at power now, there is no one to apologize.
I’d like to explain to the evolutionary N.Buchatski as
well as to A.Radchenko that I.Smirnov demanded apology not from an ordinary
citizen of the Republic of Moldova Vladimir Voronin but from the head of the
state.
He is the only one that may and should apologize for
so much grief and suffering inflicted to the people of Dniestria; apologize on
behalf of the whole people and of political authority, which was in 1992 and
the one that is now. Hundreds of martyrs, thousands of wounded, tens of
thousands of refugees, atrocities were committed: tortures, premeditated
murders of peaceful people, robberies were committed, huge material damage was
made. A spiritual wound was inflicted to the people of Dniestria, and there is
no term of remoteness to heal it.
We, Dniestrians, and our President expected that the
present authority of the Republic of Moldova, headed by its president, would
condemn the act of aggression against Dniestria as an inhuman, cruel, and
criminal act. We expected an objective appreciation of the events of 1992 as a
lesson for future generations, for them to remember everything: one cannot make
the people live by laws of the alien state.
The war of 1992 for a sacred war for Dniestria just as
the Great Patriotic war of 1941-1945 for all peoples of the Soviet Union.
There is established world practice, when the leader
apologizes on behalf of its people or organization he heads.
The Roman Pope apologized before the people of the
world for crimes against the humanity committed by the Catholic inquisition as
far as in the Middle Ages.
This repenting was made in order to calm down the
feeling of fault of the Catholic Christians and to prevent such horrifying
crimes. Mind that this repenting was unilateral.
Another example. The Chancellor of Germany, whose hands
were cleaner than those of V.Voronin, apologized on behalf of himself and of
the German people for atrocities committed by the German Nazi in 1933-1945.
Why on behalf of the people? The leader, the head of
an organization, the president hold responsibility for their people and parish,
but the people are also responsible for their leader, maybe not in penal but
moral sense. Mind that the leader is not able to organize military attack or
genocide without mass support. There is a statement: “The people are worth
their leader”.
It’s undoubted that the people of the Republic of
Moldova has what to repent for. And the present president must do it on behalf
of the people. The hands of V.Voronin cannot be called sterile. We do not
remember his appeals for stopping bloodshed on the Dniester. Of course, in
1992, the people of Moldova was not a unite bloody mass; someone was involved
in the war against his will.
Moldavian volunteers deliberately went to fight
against their people. One may assume that the special police fighters
misunderstood their duty and devotion to the oath. They did not give the oath
to fight against their own people, to murder the peaceful population. Their
responsibility was to defend civil population from criminals.
The people of Moldova who were involved in the
massacre have the feeling of repent,
living in remote towns of Nisporeny, Kagul, Kishinev, and in Beltsy. The
medal of Dniester-atrocity participant do not heal their souls.
Mutual repenting is inappropriate. Dniestrians do not
have what to repent for. They were defending their parents’ house, their
families, and their people.
Only certain persons unilaterally beg pardon from the
aggressor, are hypocritical before them. When you read memoirs of the former
home-guardsmen, you are astonished: how can one fall down so that to betray
memory of those who were murdered in the next trench.
Here is what the former home-guardsman tells about his
pitiful attitude towards the aggressor: he targets the chest but feels pity, he
targets the head but again feels pity. Then he imagined the stooped father of
the special policeman, who would have to go to the morgue for recognizing, and
decided: let him live. The bullet shot by our hero, may have flown up in the
sky. The survived policeman felt no pity, and murdered our guardsman.
Such an idiot pacifism! Or maybe it’s another thing, more
shaming – cowardliness. Let N.Buchatski appreciate himself regarding that. The
people was standing behind him, waiting for defense but not for reflections.
Ten years passed, and the evolutionary N.Buchatski çàäíèì ÷èñëîì
presents his ìàëîäóøèå as courageous act. Here are óãîäíè÷åñêèå articles which N.Buchatski writes: “Could
we have believed that in terrible 1992 far-seeing binnacles would watch every
tree and house, which keep warmth of my father’s hands. And the son of my
teacher Evghenia Pavlovna – Vova Boyarnitski – who was the deputy chief of
police department of the town Drokia in 1992, died having been blown up on a mine. And that very mountain,
from which we were admiring our native land, became the place of one of the
most bloody battles in one of the most íåëåïåéøèõ wars”.
What a sentimentality! Vova Boyarnitski had come
riding a stick! The chief of the special police units came to the edge of
battle to murder Dniestrians. And do not bewilder readers by saying that the
mountain in Kriulyany was the center of the cruel war. There were no defenders
of Dniestria in Kriulyany. Our positions were being shot from Kriulyany
mountain. Mines and shells were flying up from near the house of N.Buchatski. They
were flying to the Dniestrian positions. Why mix up the divine gift with an
omelet?
What made N.Buchatski beg Kishinev so humbly? Can this
man be really led by small self-interest? Maybe he wants to receive a
free-of-charge plate of porridge from V.Voronin?
It’s hard to answer these questions.
N.Buchatski wrote many fables about robbing of
Dniestria; at first sight they seem real. Here is one of them:
“Persons who were the most close (to the Dniestrian
authority – note of the translator)
took huge credits in the Dniestrian bank under ridiculous. For example, they
were buying a wagon of vodka and taking it to some stockpile. And inflation was
galloping. A year later they were selling a box of vodka from that very wagon.
Money they gained was enough to pay the credit and interests. Then they were
taking a new credit”. Any seller of goods can reject that fairy tale, who was
trading during the period of inflation.
All creditors, bankers, wholesale sellers, and buyers
were correlating (and do it still) the Dniestrian ruble exchange rate with that
of a converted currency (e.g. with the US Dollar). No matter how the ruble, or
ley (Moldavian currency), or grivna (Ukrainian) galloped, the price of vodka
(in USD) has been nearly the same.
Now about ‘ridiculous’ interests for credits. As we
know, the Dniestrian Republican bank (DRB) started being created from minimal
financial resources. If banking interests were really ridiculous, he would
become bankrupt soon. But it did not happen. On the contrary, the bank got so
strong that it plans to hold long-term crediting.
Now about returning credits. Those who faced problems
of crediting, know very well that in case of inflation there is indexing of
debts. And the former city council chairman knows it pretty well, anyway he
should know it. For example, if you take a ruble, a year later it grew into a
million, so the debt will also be a million plus the interests. And vodka would
get more expensive for a million times. So N.Buchatski is lucky not to have
bought a wagon of vodka, otherwise he would have become a bankrupt.
A.Radchenko and N.Buchatski pompously call themselves
leaders of the people’s opposition. The circle of that opposition is small. In
the Supreme Council, there number reduced for 5 times, as well as in the city
council, in other cities and districts they are not numerous, too. So it’s not
‘people’s’ at all, but just an opposition within a group of the population who
consist a quite little minority.
We could understand the opposition, who offer their
plan of political and economic enforcement of their ‘native state’ – the
Dniester Moldavian Republic.
The people’s-power party benefactors claim for ceding
of our Republic to Moldova, to liquidate our ethnic and linguistic equality, to
put the two-billion (in USD) debt of Moldova on many generations of Dniestrians,
to cancel the Constitution for which the people voted. How can we call these
opposition? We do not call you betrayers – you will sew us, no other word can
be used.
For example, at war time these people would be shot
for such a propaganda directed at liquidation of their own state. At peaceful
time we can just wish A.Radchenko and N.Buchatski settle down nearer to
V.Voronin, to learn the state Romanian language successfully, to taste the good
of democracy there. How long can you rush between the two banks? Move there!
But please do not call us, Dniestrians, to follow us. Somehow
we’ll survive without you.
***
V.Kochubey ****