Eternity Memorial Complex – Chișinău – Moldova

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Victory Memorial - Chișinău - May 9th, 1980

Victory Memorial – Chișinău – May 9th, 1980

Eternity Memorial Complex – Chișinău – Moldova

The memorial park to the fallen of the Great Patriotic War in Chișinău is quite a large complex compared to many of the ones I’ve visited in the other post-Soviet Republics. In Moldova such monuments are now called ‘Eternity Memorials’. One aspect of this memorial (which is repeated in other Moldovan towns) is that the Eternal Flame is still burning. Sadly the flame has been extinguished in many places, for example, in Bishtek (Kyrgyzstan) and Tbilisi (Georgia). So at least in this small country there’s still that element of respect to those who had fallen in the anti-Fascist war.

Though it’s quite a large complex I don’t consider it very attractive – and that’s principally down to the colour of the principal structure and the six large stelae on the edge of the site that separate the memorial complex from the city’s main public cemetery.

The principal structure is in the form of a large, open pyramid formed by five, 25 metre high stylised stone rifles. The numbers 1941, 1942, 1943, 1944 and 1945 are displayed on each of the struts indicating the years from the time that the Soviet Union was invaded until the year that the Red Army entered Berlin. In the centre is a five pointed star which houses the Eternal Flame.

The problem of this monument, for me, is its garish orange colour. That wasn’t always the case as, originally, both the pyramid and the stelae were the colour of the natural stone when the monument was constructed in time for the thirtieth anniversary of the end of the Great Patriotic War on 9th May 1975 (when it was known as the Victory Memorial). The structure went through a renovation in time for August 24, 2006, which marked the 62nd anniversary of the Second Jassy–Kishinev Offensive (an important victory of the Soviet Red Army over the Fascist forces – both German and Romanian – in eastern Romania). It’s almost certain it was during this renovation that the decision was taken to paint the the major structures this stand-out orange colour – an insult (assault) camouflaged as taking care of an important part of Moldova’s heritage.

I have read that the pyramid and the Eternal Flame used to have a permanent honour guard (changing every hour on the hour) but that was not the case when I visited in 2025. It’s more than likely that now the honour guard is only in place during the days surrounding the May 9th Victory Day – which is still celebrated (and is a public holiday) in Moldova. This was the situation in May 2025 in Stalingrad in Russia.

At the western edge of the complex is known as the ‘Heroes Cemetery’ where there are a number of memorials, as well as individual graves, to Red Army soldiers who died in Chișinău, either during battles within Chișinău itself in 1941 or in nearby battles towards the end of the conflict in Moldova, in August 1944, when the Nazi forces were being forced back towards their liar in Berlin. In this part of the complex as well as white pillars with the names of individual soldiers there’s a symbolic belfry and a massive bronze laurel crown which is inscribed with the words ‘We didn’t forget you’. This slogan is reflected on the more modern, major monument where can be read the words ‘No one is forgotten, nothing is forgotten’. Unfortunately, that is not the case for many in the post-Socialist Republics.

This would seem to indicate that there was a relatively small memorial to those who died in the Great Patriotic War constructed soon after 1945 but it wasn’t until 30 years later that the larger and more substantial monument we see today was constructed.

As I type this I’m trying to work out why the Revisionists (and traitors to the October Revolution and the Party, as well as the sacrifice of all those who died in the Great Patriotic War to defend Socialism) who were in control of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1975 decided to sanction the building of such a major monument in Moldova and the other of the Soviet Republics at, more or less, the same time. All I can come up with is that as they were increasingly flailing having betrayed the cause of Revolutionary Socialism and so they celebrated the past in order to hide their ineptitude in the present.

Another monument, one that is much more recent than those related to the Great Patriotic War, is ‘Grieving Mother’, which is dedicated to the ‘War of Independence of Moldova’ from 1991-1992 which resulted in the establishment of the province of Pridnestrovie (called Transnistria by those in the west that challenge its right to exist) refusing – to this day – to be considered part of the Moldova which wants to integrate/ingratiate itself with the European Union.

There is supposed to be a black cross which was erected on the site of the graves of fallen German soldiers buried here. However, I missed that (if, indeed, it does exist). It seems to be very strange to have such a fascist monument in exactly the same location as the country’s principal monument to the Soviet fallen in the Great Patriotic War. I’ve come across a monument to the German dead in Tirana, Albania – but at least that’s in a different park to the location of the National Martyrs Cemetery. There’s something off about having a memorial to Fascist dead in the country let alone in a complex commemorating the country’s martyrs to fascism.

Along the walkways there are a total of 155 marble slabs with the names of those who died in the battle against Nazism.

As stated above there are six, very large, square stelae (also now painted the same bright orange as the monument containing the Eternal Flame) which contain images of soldiers but at the same time none of them reference the enemy against which they were fighting – that is, German Nazism. Without knowing the context they could be fighting in any 20th century war.

The first, the one on the left as you look towards the main cemetery with the road at your back, makes an allegorical reference to the war. Here we have a young, almost naked muscular male sitting on the ground (not obviously injured in any way) with his right arm raised, above his head and slightly behind his back. In his hand he holds a huge sword with its point reaching to the edge of the stela. This might mean a willingness and preparedness to fight to defend the cause of Socialism and the lives of his family, friends and comrades. Not really sure I understand why he’s on the ground.

Behind him, is a female standing with her left arm raised with the forearm resting on her head. This would seem to indicate mourning and sadness but also a realisation that the possible sacrifice of the male (as there is no certainty that those going off to war will return) is necessary for the common good. The expression on her face also indicates grief.

In the left-hand top corner of this stela is the number 1941 – the year of the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union.

The next four stelae have images of ranks of armed Soviet soldiers, in all of them marching forward – even though some of their comrades are injured – and urging those behind to join the fight. They are showing determination to throw out the invader although, in the actual war, there were some serious setbacks. But after the victory of the Red Army in Stalingrad the outcome of the war was certain. It was no longer a question of if, it was a question of when.

The final one, with the year 1945 in the top, right-hand corner, celebrates the victory. Here we have the image of three soldiers, almost standing to attention – their weapons no longer pointing towards the enemy. Their uniforms and headwear demonstrating the different units involved and the fur hat of the soldier on the right emphasising that this was a war of all the people’s of the Soviet Republics. The idea of peace is shown by the fact that there’s a young girl standing by the central soldier – who has his left hand resting on her shoulder. It is now safe for her carry on her life as normal, for her and all the children in the Soviet Union.

Near to the gated entrance to the complex there’s an alcove reached by a couple of steps which contains a semi-circle of marble stelae inscribed with the names of Heroes of the Soviet Union – one of them celebrating the achievements of Semyon Timoshenko. I’m not really sure why his name is included on the honour roll here. He was born in the Odesa Oblast in the Ukraine (which is close but still a separate Republic of the Soviet Union) and I’ve seen no reference to him being involved in any of the fronts that were established in Chișinău/Moldova.

Also to be found in this memorial complex to the dead of the Red Army is a Christian chapel. This is now common in such monuments throughout the post-Socialist world. This follows a ‘tradition’ established by the Roman Catholic church from the 15th/16th centuries were Christian churches were placed on top of religious sites of the indigenous American peoples in (now) Central and Southern America. Placing the European religious buildings in such locations was tantamount to thrusting a dagger into the heart of the defeated peoples’ beliefs. This was the so-called ‘extirpation of idolatry’. The same has happened in Europe. Capitalism and its obscurantist appendages are declaring their ‘victory’ over Communism. But such a ‘victory’ is only temporary.

All in all quite a cluttered site with many (often conflicting) messages. But interesting nonetheless.

Sculptors;

A. Maiko and I. Poniatowski

Architect;

A. Minaev.

Location;

9th May 1945 Memorial, Cemetery of the Heroes of the Great Patriotic War, Pantelimon Halippa Street 5,

GPS;

47.00906 N

28.83218 E

Chișinău National Fine Arts and National History Museums

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Lady of the Land

Lady of the Land

Chișinău National Fine Arts and National History Museums

Fine Arts Gallery

One of the notable aspects of the National Fine Arts Gallery in Chișinău is the way it’s been ‘curated’ to eradicate any overtly political reference to the period of Moldova’s socialist period. In this gallery the main concentration of Socialist Realist art is in the basement of the building and was predominantly represented by sculptures.

In these sculptures there is often a reference to the workers or peasants as a part of society, as individuals but part of a community, even though they may be depicted alone. An image of a worker isn’t the image of that person rather he or she is a representative of the participants in that particular work place, whether it be in industry or in agriculture.

But the sculptures don’t just make reference the national situation but also to international issues. For example, there’s a statue of a grieving mother (making reference to the Zionist bombing of Lebanon) and there’s a ceramic sculpture of a young Vietnamese woman – an idea of international solidarity amongst Socialist nations with the US imperialist aggression in Vietnam. Here we have a physical, artistic representation of the Socialist concept of solidarity with other peoples – something which doesn’t exist in present day Moldova whose concept of internationalism is in doing anything that will make the European Union accept their supplications for membership.

The exhibits on the other floors were very much displayed without any real effort of organisation as there didn’t seem to be any logic in what was on the walls in the majority of the rooms. A picture depicting workers during the 1960s at a hydroelectric dam, for example, would be next to one of an aristocrat/wealthy merchant from the end of the 19th century. But this lack or organisation (or, at least, any that I could see) does demonstrate the difference in emphasis from the different historical periods.

It shows the different way in which workers are depicted in Socialist Realist art from that under capitalism. Before the October Revolution ‘realist’ paintings of workers would emphasise the drudgery, the monotony, the drabness of labour. Socialist Realist art stresses the importance and necessity of labour but instead of a worker bring under the control of capitalism and working for the benefit of a few under a Socialist system the workers are working for themselves. Whether that always was the case is not important. That was the aim of the new society. Under capitalism labour is ALWAYS appropriated by the capitalist and insecurity is ALWAYS the lot of the worker.

And if workers are not depicted as being exploited and oppressed there is often a condescension oozing out of the canvas. For example, in this gallery there was a painting of a young (child) shepherdess playing a flute in the countryside – but she is bare footed. We have here a ‘cute’ image but it depicts the subject as if she is happy with her lot and poverty is not the scourge that it is – then and now.

It’s also noticeable that in the art produced following the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s (and the rejection to a greater or lesser extent by the various republics of the socialist ethic) is that the art then turned back to what it was pre 1917. Basically, we have the return of religious imagery, depictions of the rich and the powerful, and again the marginalisation of workers in the true sense. (‘Good’ examples of this dark and depressing religious post-Soviet art can be seen in the last rooms of the New Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow.)

Workers only appear as the backdrop. They’re only there to serve the rich and the powerful. The last thing they are allowed to have is choice and an active part in the society. They can vote, but only if they vote for what the oligarchs, the powerful, the rich, the capitalists actually want. If not, with the aid of the western powers (principally of America but also those of Europe and of Britain) local capitalists and reactionaries will do their best to foment dissension and division. Hence, in the last few years there have been demonstrations calling for ‘democracy’ which were disrupting daily life in Georgia and Moldova itself. These events follow the pattern that was so ‘successful’ in the Ukraine in 2014 and which led, inevitably, to the now more than four year proxy war in that country between the US/UK/NATO/EU and Russia. The role of organisations such as USAID and the National Endowment for Democracy (and all the other clones of those US financed ‘soft power democratic change’ organisations) has become more widely known in recent years but there will always be some who are prepared to betray their class and their country for a mess of pottage.

The birth of the Virgin

The birth of the Virgin

There was a small collection of religious art in one room of the gallery but it was mainly from the 19th century. However, these relatively late examples followed the same conventions which had been established three or four hundred years previously. A couple of images I found interesting in this particular exhibition (and which you’ll come across in many European art galleries) was the depiction of the birth of the Virgin – not referenced at all in the Bible – as a child coming from a wealthy family although in the traditional Christian story of the Nativity Mary is just an ordinary peasant woman – who’s married to a carpenter! Yet come the Renaissance she was converted into someone from an aristocratic background, with her birth being attended by many women in a very sumptuous bedroom. I’m not exactly sure when and where that idea first came into the Christian story but it seems to be all part of the appropriation of the original, humble story, to fit in with the life styles and ideology of the wealthy and powerful in society. After all, when they had themselves depicted as attending the Nativity they didn’t want to have to be seen, in all their finery, standing knee deep in cow dung.

When I visited the art gallery at the end of 2025 there was a temporary exhibition of photographs on the top floor of the building. These were photographs of people who were defined by their relationship to the means of production. It was interesting to compare this exhibition of ‘workers’ with the images of the workers from the socialist period in the basement. The impression you got from these photographs was that these were purely individuals who happened to work in a particular industry or a particular profession. They were presented as individuals, their relationship to society in general being absent.

National History Museum

The Socialist period of Moldova’s history barely gets mention in this museum. There’s a small, although quite colourful reference to the art of that period in a small section of the top floor. Here there are a few ‘classic’ paintings of Socialist Realism, a few posters and in one large glass case different artefacts that would have been common pre-1990s. These include busts of VI Lenin, banners and pendants with Soviet imagery, ceramics with images of revolutionary heroes and the like. Also a series of abstract murals which were not that common in Socialist art.

Anyway, the images in the slideshow below will hopefully give you an idea of what is on show in the Art Gallery/Historical Museum in Moldova’s capital city of Chișinău. As well as in the art in a ‘formal’ context you can also see examples of Socialist art in the mosaics in Chișinău itself (as well as in Cahul and Bălți).

Location;

National Museum of Fine Arts of Moldova

31 August 1989 St 115, Chișinău

GPS;

47.02199 N

28.83021 E

Open;

Tuesday-Sunday 10.00-18.00

Closed Monday

Entrance;

Adults; 50 MDL

Pensioners/students; 25 MDL

National History Museum of Moldova

Location;

31 August 1989 St 121A, Chișinău

GPS;

47.02269 N

28.82811 E

Open;

Tuesday-Sunday 10.00-18.00

Closed Monday

Entrance;

Adults; 50 MDL

Pensioners/students; 20 MDL

Development of German Socialism 1890-1939

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The German Revolution - November 1918

The German Revolution – November 1918

Development of German Socialism 1890-1939

Apart from the works of Karl Marx and Frederick Engels Germany produced a disproportionate number of Socialist/Progressive theoreticians from the late 19th century up to the start of World War II. Some of these were involved in heated and substantial debates with VI Lenin as he was developing the revolutionary element of Marxism (which led, in 1917, to the victory of the October Revolution in Russia) whilst in German the emphasis was being placed upon what became Social Democracy.

Even one of the most revolutionary of the German Communists, Rosa Luxemburg, carried out a persistent polemic against Lenin on the need for an organised and structured revolutionary Party to lead the workers in the taking of state power. Whilst not the sole factory in the defeat of the Spartacist Revolution in 1918 the lack of such an ideologically organised Party certainly played its part in the failed insurrection.

The works presented below are all part of building up an extensive library of Socialist/Communist thought up to and following the October Revolution. The success in Russia in 1917 and the struggle for the building of Socialism subsequently certainly challenged the ideas of Social Democracy but the victory of revisionism following the death of JV Stalin has allowed these erroneous ideas to again establish a foothold in the anti-capitalist movement. The denigration of the achievements of Socialism in those countries which made efforts to construct a Socialist society from the 1945 onwards, principally the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics – USSR, the People’s Socialist Republic of Albania, the People’s Republic of China and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, also played its role in undermining revolutionary Marxism-Leninism. The ‘easy’ (though in reality the most difficult) road of Social Democracy has been, therefore, able to re-establish its sway in worker and peasant movements worldwide.

German Communism

Creating German Communism, 1890-1990 – from popular protests to Socialist State, Eric D. Weitz, Princeton University Press, 1997, 465 pages.

Rosa Luxemburg

On the National Question, Marxist Internet Archive edition, with internal hyperlinks as well as outside links to other documents on the MIA site, 146 pages.

The Mass Strike, the Political Party and the Trade Unions, English translation of 1906 German original, MIA edition.

The Crisis in the German Social-Democracy, (The Junius Pamphlet), The Socialist Publication Society, NY, 1919, 141 pages.

The Russian Revolution, Workers Age Publishers, NY, 1940, Marxist Internet Archive edition, 2020, 41 pages.

The Russian Revolution and Leninism or Marxism, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 1961, 117 pages.

The Accumulation of Capital, Routledge and Kegan Paul, London, 1951, translated by Agnes Schwarzschild, introduction by Joan Robinson, 474 pages.

The Accumulation of Capital, Routledge and Kegan Paul, London, 2003, translated by Agnes Schwarzschild, with a new introduction by Tadeusz Kowalik, 453 pages.

The Accumulation of Capital – an anti-critique and Imperialism and the Accumulation of Capital (by Nikolai Bukharin, written in 1924). Two separate works in one volume, edited with an Introduction by Kenneth Tarbuck, Monthly Review Press, NY, 1972, 289 pages. Luxemburg’s work is a reply to critics of her 1913 work (see above), while Bukharin’s work is another critique of Luxemburg which focuses on her 1915 Anti-Critique.

Letters to Karl and Luise Kautsky from 1896 to 1918, edited Luise Kautsky, translated from German by Louis P. Lochner, Robert M. McBride and Co., NY, 1925, 249 pages. Luise Kautsky’s introduction to this book is a good source for biographical information about Rosa Luxemburg.

Letters from Prison, Publishing House of the Young International, Berlin,1923, 79 pages.

Reform or Revolution, Vanguard Pamphlets, New Malden, 1951, 74 pages.

Leninism or Marxism, Independent Labour Party, London, 1971, 16 pages.

The Mass Strike, the Political Party and the Trade Unions, Young Socialist Publication, Colombo, 1970, 88 pages.

The Essential Rosa Luxemburg – Reform or Revolution and the Mass Strike, Helen Scott, ed., Haymarket, Chicago, 2008, 194 pages.

Selected political writings of Rosa Luxemburg, Dick Howard. ed., Monthly Review, NY, 1971, 441 pages.

The Rosa Luxemburg Reader, Peter Hudis and Kevin B. Anderson, ed., Monthly Review, NY, 2004, 447 pages.

The Complete Works of Rosa Luxemburg, Volume 1, Economic Writings 1, Peter Hudis, ed., Verso, London, 2013, 559 pages.

Rosa Luxemburg, Women’s Liberation, and Marx’s Philosophy of Revolution, Raya Dunayevskaya, Harvester Press, Sussex, 1981, 234 pages.

Rosa Luxemburg’s views on The Russian Revolution, Clara Zetkin, first published by the Communist International, 1922, reprint Red Star Publishers, 2017, 212 pages.

Karl Liebknecht

Militarism and Anti-Militarism, written in 1907, Rivers Press, Cambridge, 1973, Marxist Internet Archive version, 206 pages.

The future belongs to the People, speeches made since the beginning of the War, Macmillan, NY, November 1918, 148 pages.

Voices of Revolt – speeches of Karl Liebknecht, International, NY, 1927, 104 pages.

Karl Liebknecht – man without a country, Karl W. Meyer, Public Affairs Press, Washington, 1957, 191 pages.

In Memoriam to our Comrades Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg, Martyrs to the German Revolution, Max Bedacht, Socialist Party of San Francisco, 1919, 16 pages.

During the Weimar Era

Communism in Germany under the Weimar Republic, Ben Fowkes, Macmillan, London, 1984), 134 pages.

Barricades in Berlin, Klaus Neukrantz, International/Martin Lawrence, NY/London, n.d. 1933?, 191 pages. This is a novel based closely on the actual events of the police attack on the 1929 May Day demonstrations in Berlin.

During the Nazi Era

The German Communist Resistance: 1933-1945, T. Derbent, Foreign Languages Press, Paris, 2021, 128 pages.

Ernst Thaelmann

Ernst Thaelmann, fighter against war and Fascism, International Labor Defense, NY, 1935, 16 pages.

German Social-Democracy in the Late 19th Century and Early 20th Century

General

German Social Democracy, six lectures, Bertrand Russell, with an appendix on the SDP and the Woman Question in Germany by Alys Russell, Longmans, Green and Co., London, 1896, 216 pages.

The German Social-Democratic Party: 1914-1921, Abraham Joseph Berlau, NY. Columbia University Ph.D. thesis, 1949, 373 pages.

The SDP and World War I

The Socialist Party in the Reichstag and the Declaration of War, P. G. La Chesnais, T. Fisher Unwin, London, 1915, 140 pages.

Otto Bauer

Otto Bauer (1881-1938): Thinker and Politician, Ewa Czerwinska-Schupp, Brill Open Access, Leiden. 2017, 442 pages.

August Bebel

Woman and Socialism, Jubilee 50th Edition, Socialist Literature Co., NY, 1910, 513 pages.

Speeches of August Bebel, International Publishers, NY, 1928, 104 pages.

My Life, by August Bebel, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, n.d. 1912?, 358 pages.

Karl Kautsky

The Class Struggle, written in 1892 about the 1891 Erfurt Program, Charles H. Kerr and Co., Chicago, 1910, 217 pages.

Communism in Central Europe in the time of the Reformation, T. Fisher Unwin, London, 1897, 298 pages.

Ethics and the Materialist Conception of History, n.d. but the original German book was written in 1906, 216 pages.

The Social Revolution, with 2 lectures presented by Karl Kautsky in Amsterdam in 1902: Reform and Revolution and The Day After the Revolution, Charles H. Kerr and Co., Chicago, 1910, 190 pages.

The High Cost of Living: Changes in Gold-Production and the Rise in Prices, Charles H. Kerr and Co., Chicago, 1914, 133 pages.

The Dictatorship of the Proletariat, translated by H. J. Stenning, National Labour Press, Manchester, n.d. 1918 or 1919?, 158 pages.

Terrorism and Communism: A Contribution to the Natural History of Revolution, National Labour Press, Ltd., London, n.d. but first published in 1920, 245 pages.

The Guilt of William Hohenzollern, Skeffington and Son, Ltd., London, n.d. but late 1919 or early 1920, 270 pages.

Georgia – a Social-Democratic Peasant Republic: Impressions and Observations, translated by H. J. Stenning and revised by the Author, International Bookshops, Ltd., London,1921), 118 pages.

The twelve who are to die: The trial of the Socialists-Revolutionists in Moscow, with W. Woitinsky, published by the Delegation of the Party of Socialists-Revolutionists (i.e., the Russian Social-Revolutionary Party), Berlin, 1922), 144 pages.

Foundations of Christianity – a study of Christian origins, International Publishers, NY, 1925, 488 pages.

The Labour Revolution, George Allen and Unwin, London, 1925, 293 pages.

The Economic Doctrines of Karl Marx, A. and C. Black Ltd., London, 1925, 264 pages. Translated by H. J. Stenning.

Are the Jews a Race?, International, NY, English translation of 2nd German ed., 1926, 254 pages.

Thomas More and His Utopia, International Publishers, NY, 1927, 257 pages.

Academic and Historical Works on the Revolutionary Movement in Germany

General and Overall

The German Revolution, 1918-1919, Ralph Haswell Lutz, Stanford University, 1922, 187 pages.

The German Revolution and After, Heinrich Ströbel, Jarrolds, London, n.d. but circa 1923, 319 pages.

The November Revolution (of 1918) and the Overthrow of the Emperor

And the Kaiser abdicates – the story of the death of the German Empire and the birth of the Republic, told by an eyewitness, S. Miles Bouton, Yale University, New Haven, 1920, 280 pages.

Germany after the Armistice, Maurice Berger, Putnam, NY, 1920, 374 pages. About prevailing social conditions and attitudes.

Ebert and the German Republic, Robert George Brehmer, Jr., University of Wisconsin MA thesis, 1926, 172 pages. Supportive of Ebert’s bourgeois-democratic politics.

The Spartacist Revolt – the attempted Socialist Revolution following World War I

Failure of a Revolution: Germany 1918-1919, Sebastian Haffner, Banner Press, Chicago, 1986, 224 pages. Somewhat messy scan; our apologies.

The Forgotten Revolution – Germany, a conceptual map, by Gaard Kets and James Muldoon, 2019, 24 pages.

The Spartacist Uprising of 1919, and the crisis of the German Socialist Movement, Eric Waldman, Marquette Univ. Press, Milwaukee 1958, 269 pages.

On the KPD up until World War II

We are neither visionaries nor Utopian dreamers, Willi Münzenberg, the League Against Imperialism, and the Comintern, 1925-1933, Fredrik Petersson, Ph.D Thesis, 2013, 598 pages.