The sovietization of Bessarabia during and after WWII implied in part its Russification. The communist regime fought fiercely against anything that meant Romanian identity: the Romanian language, the Latin alphabet, or Romanian national history. Beginning with the first year of occupation, the Romanian elite - priests, civil officers, politicians, and professors - were arrested and persecuted. Tens of thousands were assassinated or sent in the Soviet Gulag or prisons.
The book presents six testimonies of men and women who were sent into the Gulag. The stories are often dark, but they also reveal ways in which people maintained their humanity in the harshest conditions.