Alexei Petrovich, head of the “Victory” Coordination Committee, announced via his Telegram channel the installation of a memorial marker in honor of Red Army soldiers who fell during the liberation of Chișinău from the Nazis.
The memorial marker was unveiled on the 82nd anniversary of the start of the Jassy–Kishinev Offensive at the memorial in Chițcani. It is dedicated to the soldiers and officers of the Red Army who perished on the Șerpeni bridgehead on August 18–20, 1944.
Alexei Petrovich emphasized that the August offensive from the bridgehead near Chițcani became one of the key moments of the operation. The rapid advance of the Red Army and the remarkably low casualties during the Jassy–Kishinev Offensive, he said, were made possible by the courage, resilience, and heroism of the soldiers and officers who stood their ground to the death at the Șerpeni bridgehead.
“The enemy was convinced until the very end that the Red Army would advance on Chișinău precisely from here, along the shortest route to the Moldovan capital. Soviet commanders managed to mislead the Wehrmacht and deliver a strike in a direction the enemy did not expect,” he noted.
Petrovich’s words were given particular weight by a story he shared. During one of the burial ceremonies in Șerpeni, before a fresh mass grave of fallen heroes, Guard Major Georgiy Parul, a war veteran and platoon commander of submachine gunners in the 280th Guards Rifle Regiment of the 92nd Guards Rifle Division, knelt down. The veteran removed his cap and quietly said:
“Thanks to these guys, I survived. Right here in Șerpeni, they died for us.”
Back in 2014, the Moldovan Search Movement opened the Alley of Dniester Bridgeheads at the Șerpeni bridgehead. Granite cubes were filled with soil from all the fiery bridgeheads on the Dniester: Chițcani, Cioburciu, Varnița, Răscăieți, Purcari, Palanca, and Șerpeni. As Petrovich wrote, this was done so that the living would never forget the price at which freedom was won.
The unveiling of the memorial marker in Chițcani is yet another reminder that war does not end as long as memory lives on. For Moldova, which became the scene of fierce battles during the Great Patriotic War, such initiatives are especially important. They preserve the bond between generations and bring back from oblivion the names of those who gave their lives for the liberation of Moldovan soil. As long as we remember — we are alive.
