Footage from Great National Assembly in 1989

JurnalTV has some very interesting footage from the Great National Assembly in downtown Chisinau, which took place on August 27, 1989. August 27 subsequently became Moldovan Independence Day.

One can see Moldovan, Romanian, Ukrainian, Lithuanian, and Georgian flags in the crowd. This was a high point of the struggle for national independence and the ability to speak and learn Romanian. The three major slogans in the footage are "Unire Moldoveni" ["Unification, Moldovans" - which refers to unification with Romania], "Noi suntem acasa" ["We are at home" - referring to the refusal of the protesters to legalize Russian as a second state language], and "Noi suntem poporul" ["We are the people"].

The two people speaking are Ion Hadirca and Grigore Vieru, both well-known poets at the time. Mr. Hadirca recently became an M.P. on the Liberal Party list, while Mr. Vieru, who is probably the most beloved poet by Moldovans, recently passed away after a car accident.