The drama of the persecution of Jehovah’s Witnesses from the Moldovan SSR in memory of the deportation victims

Abstract

The creation and consolidation of the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic was achieved through a series of heinous crimes that qualifies as a tragedy for our nation, but also for all of humanity. The Soviet state as a promoter of atheism will undermine religious freedom. The religious organization ,,Jehovah’s Witnesses” will be outlawed and declared ,,enemies of the people”. In the Republic of Moldova, there are few memoirs, made public and put into the scientific circuit, that reflect the ordeal of the deportation of Jehovah’s Witnesses. The testimonies of the victims of the Stalinist repressions are of indisputable importance that complement the archival documents, constituting the whole picture of the problem of the persecution of Jehovah’s Witnesses and their families in the Moldavian SSR. The study capitalizes on the accounts of the Mucuța and Timoftica families, whose families were deported to the Gulag. The persecution being multifaceted, based on causes of political, religious, ideological, economic and social origin.