Maria Yakimovna Lisiyuk was born on the left shore of Nistru River seventy-two years ago in the village of Ghidirim. During Soviet times, the village had two kolkhozi (collective farms), one belonging to the Moldovan community and the other to the Ukrainian. Thanks to an extraordinary production of apples, the village became relatively wealthy but this spoiled relations amongst villagers, according to Maria: ‘Everyone, even absolutely distant people were like brothers and sisters, so sincere and good. Now people need to own and never know when it is enough.’
A Ukrainian native speaker, Maria is nostalgic about the past and thinks Transnistria and Moldova should look eastward towards the Customs Union project so strongly desired by Vladimir Putin.
