100TH ANNIVERSARY OF KOMSOMOL MARKED IN MOLDOVA

Over 700 people gathered on Monday evening in the National Philharmonic Society in Chisinau to mark the 100th anniversary of the Komsomol - the All-USSR communist youth league. The event was attended by Komsomol veterans from all over Moldova including the Transnistrian region, by ex-Presidents Petru Lucinschi and Vladimir Voronin etc.

Bright concert program included the performances of Moldova's People's Artist Lidia Botezatu, Honored Artists Margareta Ivanus and Iurie Sadovnic, Group DoReDos and other.

The former Secretary of the Central Committee of the Soviet Moldovan Komsomol, incumbent Chairman of the Grenada civil society organization Grigore Cusnir said: "The Komsomol was the most numerous youth organization in the whole history of the mankind. In the small Moldova alone, over 2 million young citizens went through the school of Komsomol".

Another former leader of the Moldovan Komsomol, ex-Prime Minister Dumitru Braghis, reminded that in the territory of the Moldovan Soviet Socialist Republic (MSSR) there also were major Komsomol construction projects such as the Rybnitsa Cement Plant, the Ungheni Carpet Factory, the irrigation of southern Moldova.

Commenting on the attitude to the remarkable anniversary and to the celebration event shown by Moldova's leadership personalities, who ignored the invitations sent to them, Braghis said that in other former Soviet Union countries, the 100th anniversary of the Komsomol received a totally different attitude.

"In the Russian Federation, three First Secretaries of the Central Committee of the all-USSR Komsomol Union were decorated with high state awards. And President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko, upon coming to the grand meeting at the Belarus Independence Palace, said that he had taken his Komsomol card with him. He named the anniversary a remarkable historic event", said Dumitru Braghis.