In memory of the executed teachers

The names of the first leaders of the Moldavian Pedagogical Institute, as the Pridnestrovian State University was initially called, are immortalized now on the memorial plaque of building A. The plaque was opened today, on the day of remembrance of the victims of political repression. The opening ceremony was attended by Deputy Speaker of Parliament Galina Antyufeyeva and the head of the Victory Heirs movement, Chairman of the Committee on Education and Youth Policy Igor Buga.

Five former leaders of the institute were arrested and repressed in 1937-1938. All of them were accused of spying for Romania and were shot. Abram Yakovlevich Bikhman was the first to be arrested. He headed the Moldavian Pedagogical Institute for the first two years after the opening of the university. Bichman was arrested on the 30th of July, 1937. Abram Bikhman was sentenced to capital punishment on the 8th of October. He was shot at the powder magazine of the Tiraspol fortress on October 13. His remains were discovered in one of the execution pits several years ago. It was possible thanks to the documents found there to reconstruct the entire list of those killed that day.

Three leaders of the Moldavian Pedagogical Institute found themselves in the same execution pit, as volunteers from the Victory Heirs movement found out 80 years later. Mikhail Yakovlevich Kholostenko, who headed the university from April to October 1935, and Dmitry Grigorievich Prestesko, who headed the university for less than two months - from the end of May to July 8, 1937, were shot together with Abram Bikhman, on October 13, 1937.

Two more directors of the institute were arrested and shot near the powder magazine of the Tiraspol fortress on charges of espionage later. Alexander Kharitonovich Pokhinin headed the Moldavian Pedagogical Institute several months in 1935. He was shot on December 17, 1937. Tikhon Ilyich Nitsulas who was director of the university from July 1937 to January 1938 was shot on April 5, 1938.

Among the volunteers who raised the remains of those shot in 1937-1938 near the powder magazine of the Tiraspol fortress was a volunteer of the Victory Heirs movement Anna Shcherbina, a second-year student at the Pedagogical Faculty of Pridnestrovian State University.

The names of 5 executed people who led the Moldavian Pedagogical Institute at different times are imprinted in marble on the memorial plaque, which is now located on one of the walls of building A so that such tragedies do not happen again.