Photo by Isabelle DeSisto: In July 2023, an interactive exhibition in Chișinău featured a Soviet-era cattle car to mark the 74th anniversary of the 1949 deportations, when over 30,000 Moldovans were exiled to Siberia and Central Asia. Positioned in front of the Moldovan Government House, now flanked by EU and Moldovan flags, the exhibit symbolized Moldova’s evolving relationship with its Soviet past and European future. My research examines how state repression shapes political attitudes across generations in Eastern Europe. This exhibition illustrates how historical trauma endures, passed down through families, schools, archives, and museums. Visitors linked Stalinist deportations to Russia’s war in Ukraine, echoing statements by Moldova’s pro-European president Maia Sandu. Yet the exhibit also provoked backlash: Russia’s embassy accused it of inciting anti-Russian sentiment, and critics questioned its political intent. This reflects Moldova’s ongoing identity struggles—between Romanian, Moldovan, and Russian narratives, and its precarious geopolitical orientation. By month’s end, the cattle car was removed, but not before sparking a national conversation. With over 10,000 visitors and widespread media coverage, the exhibition became a flashpoint in Moldova’s reckoning with its past and its uncertain, contested future.