The Monument to the Victims of Communism (Monumentul Victimelor Comunismului) is a memorial near the Mitocul Maicilor Church in central Iași. Created by artist Vasile Leondar and inaugurated in 2010, it commemorates people who were imprisoned, persecuted, or killed under Romania’s communist regime.
The monument was initiated by former political prisoners from Iași and takes the form of a bronze group of bound human figures. The figures are shown kneeling and restrained, using the image of imprisonment to represent the wider system of political repression that operated throughout communist Romania.
That repression included political prisons, forced labor, interrogation centers, and internal exile. Opponents of the regime, former members of political parties, people who had held important positions before 1944, and those who resisted confiscation or collectivization were among those targeted. Prison systems at places such as Aiud, Gherla, Sighet, Pitești, Suceava, and Râmnicu Sărat became some of the most notorious parts of this apparatus.
