Talk:Religious persecution during the Soviet occupation of Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina

Untitled
Interesting article, but you should use a more neutral wording, making clear that martyr is just a title used by the Romanian church. Also, please use other sources than the one published by the Romanian Church propaganda department. We don't use books published by some warmongering immams when writing articles about Islamic fundamentalist suicide bombers (also called martyrs by some ).Xasha (talk) 20:41, 21 March 2008 (UTC)


 * How about "Clergy killed during the Soviet occupation of Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina"? That seems more neutral to me. Biruitorul (talk) 21:58, 21 March 2008 (UTC)

a NPOVing attempt
After the Soviet occupation, the religious life in Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina underwent a persecution similar to the one in Russia between the two World Wars. In the first days of occupation, certain population groups welcomed the Soviet power and some of them joined the newly established Soviet nomenklatura, including NKVD, the Soviet political police. The latter has used these locals to find and arrest numerous priests. Other priests were arrested and interrogated by the Soviet NKVD itself, then deported to the interior of the USSR, and killed. Research on this subject is still at an early stage. As of 2007, the Christian Orthodox church has granted the martyrdom to ca. 50 clergymen who died in the first year of Soviet occupation (1940-1941)

In 1940-1941, many churches were sacked, looted, transformed into public or utility buildings, or closed. Taxes were set, which the believers were obliged to pay if they wanted to pray and be allowed to hold the mass. When Romanian authorities have returned after June 1941, churches and monasteries were rebuilt and opened again, but persecution resumed in 1944, when Soviet forces reconquered the territory.

The (incomplete) list below contains clergymen of any denomination. Like the majority of the population of the region, most of the people named below were Romanian Christian Orthodox. A person is listed below only if the church has officially used the term martyr in reference to the individual. In doing so, Christian Churches have to follow a three step rule: martyrium materialiter (violent death), martyrium formaliter ex parte tyranni (hate for the faith on the part of the persecutors), martyrium formaliter ex parte victimae (conscious acceptance of God's will).


 * Alexandru Baltagă, founder of Bessarabian religious press in Romanian language, member of the Sfatul Ţării (1917-1918)
 * Alexandru Motescu, a Bessarabian Romanian Orthodox priest in the city of Tighina. According to the deposition of several witnesses in face of the Comisia de triere in Buzău in 1941, at the onset of the Soviet occupation of Bessarabia, he was caught by a group of Communist supporters and violently mocked. His tongue and ears were cut, then he was taken to the altar, where he was set on fire, and died in horrible pain.
 * Artemie Munteanu, abbot of the Noul Neamţ Monastery
 * Gheorghe Munteanu (b. April 22, 1909, d. 1940), a Bessarabian Romanian Orthodox priest. In 1931, he graduated from the Faculty of Theology of the Univesity of Iaşi, and was ordained a priest in December 1931, being assigned to the Neruşai parish, Ismail County. On July 1, 1935, he became parish priest of the Regina Maria Church in a suburb of the city of Ismail. He was arrested in the summer of 1940 his hair was cut and his beard was shaved amidst demands that he renounce his faith. When he repeatedly refused, his NKVD tormentors smashed his head on the steps of the Cathedral in Ismail. The people of the city buried him secretly.

Comment
Seems more balanced. However, saying that churches were transformed into stables and depots, and not mentioning they were also transformed in hospitals, schools and administrative buildings is not quite right. Also, it needs a more encyclopedic introduction (i.e. a short definition of the title)Xasha (talk) 14:06, 23 March 2008 (UTC)
 * Feel free to add in, perhaps in a separate version below. Didn't notice that one about stables, yes. --Illythr (talk) 21:11, 23 March 2008 (UTC)

Title
Article is about Christianity and should be titled Persecution of Christians during the Soviet occupation of Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina. Athenagoras (talk) 18:28, 5 August 2009 (UTC)