50 Lei Famine in Bessarabia

In 1946–47, a combination of severe drought, Soviet grain requisitioning quotas, and deliberate policy failures killed an estimated 150,000 to 200,000 people in Moldovan SSR — the majority in the regions historically known as Bessarabia. Soviet authorities suppressed all documentation of the famine for decades, and it was not formally recognized by the Moldovan parliament as a genocide until 2010.

A commemorative issued in 2026 places this recognition within living memory of survivors.