Liberal deputy Alexandru Muraru, honorary adviser to the Prime Minister, on Thursday told the 11th national conference on „Romanian Communism”, that the disappearance of the Soviet Union did not also mean the end of its methods and actions, noting that crimes against humanity are being committed today at the border of Romania following the „illegal, unprovoked, barbaric and criminal” invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation, Agerpres reports.

„The regimes based on communist ideology have produced, since the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, the death of over 100 million people and the subjugation of hundreds of millions more. Over 1.5 billion people live under repressive communist governments in China, Cuba, Laos, Vietnam and North Korea. These five regimes use the same instruments as the Soviet Union to maintain state control over the citizens,” Muraru said.

He went on to remark that the experience of Romanian communism was the „harshest and most enslaving” of all the states in Central and Eastern Europe, but today Romania has the legal means in place to do justice to the victims’ memory, and education must be put to good use so that, 33 years after the 1989 Revolution, the new generations do not forget the horrors of the past.

Muraru also referred to the „communism nostalgia”, terming it „a dangerous and contagious disease” and slamming as „a big untruth” claims that the situation before 1989 was better than now.

Daniel Sandru, executive president of the Institute for the Investigation of the Crimes of Communism and the Memory of Romanian Exile, spoke about the institute’s most important project – the educational and museum center „Prison of Silence” in Ramnicu Sarat, pointing out that the institution under his conduct will use the latest technologies to spread among the youth the knowledge about the crimes of communism.

In his turn, Constantin Buchet, president of the College of the National Council for the Study of Securitate Archives, said that totalitarian processes and authoritarian temptations should never repeat.

Marian Preda, Rector of the University of Bucharest, referenced the figures of a September-October survey according to which 57 percent of Romanians believe that life quality in Romania is worse than in 1989, compared to 30 percent who believe it is better and 8 percent who consider it the same.

Mioara Anton, deputy director of the Romanian Academy’s „Nicolae Iorga” Institute of History, called for the opening of the archives of the communist regime.

Agerpres