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Pantelimon Halippa | |
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Member of theMoldovan Parliament | |
In office 1917–1918 | |
President ofSfatul Țării | |
In office 25 November 1918 – 27 November 1918 | |
Preceded by | Constantin Stere |
Personal details | |
Born | (1883-08-01)1 August 1883 Cubolta |
Died | 30 April 1979(1979-04-30) (aged 95) Bucharest |
Resting place | the cemetery ofCernica Monastery |
Political party | Bessarabian Peasants' Party |
Other political affiliations | National Peasants' Party |
Spouse | Eleonora Circău |
Children | One son |
Alma mater | University of Yuryev (today University of Tartu) |
Profession | Journalist |
Parents | Nicolae and Paraschiva Halippa |
Pantelimon "Pan" Halippa (1 August 1883 – 30 April 1979) was aBessarabian and laterRomanian journalist and politician. One of the most important promoters of Romanian nationalism in Bessarabia and of this province's union with Romania, he was president ofSfatul Țării, which voted union in 1918. He then occupied ministerial posts in several governments, following which he underwent political persecution at the hands of theCommunist régime and was later incarcerated inSighet prison.
Halippa was born to the poor peasants Nicolae and Paraschiva Halippa inCubolta, then in theRussian Empire and now inMoldova'sRaionul Sîngerei.
Married to the teacher Eleonora Circău, he had one son. His Chișinău home is preserved as a monument today.
Pan Halippa attended primary school in his native village and then took courses at theYedintsy Spiritual School and theKishinev Theological Seminary. After graduating from seminary in 1904, he enrolled in the Faculty of Physics and Medicine of the University of Yuryev (todayUniversity of Tartu), but a year later theRussian Revolution of 1905 broke out and he was forced to quit university. Back in Kishinev, he became involved with young Romanian intellectuals, working onRevista Basarabia, the firstRomanian-language publication in Bessarabia in that period. In its pages he printed the revolutionary hymn "Deșteaptă-te, române!", which caused the Tsarist authorities to seek his arrest.
Taking refuge inIași, he enrolled in the Faculty of Letters and Philosophy of theUniversity of Iași, where he took classes from 1908 to 1912. At this time he worked on the magazineViața românească, in which he published "Scrisori din Basarabia" ("Letters from Bessarabia"). In 1908, he publishedPilde și novele ("Proverbs and Novels") in Chișinău (usingCyrillic), the first Bessarabian fiction novel, while in 1912 "Basarabia, schiță geografică" ("Bessarabia, Geographic Sketch") appeared. Returning to Chișinău in 1913, he published, together withNicolae Alexandri and with the assistance ofVasile Stroescu, the newspaperCuvânt moldovenesc, which he directed after April 1917. He wrote unceasingly in favour of union with Romania.
Halippa's political activity intensified as the 1910s wore on and in 1917 he founded theMoldovan National Party. The year 1918 found him at the head of the unionist wave, for which he was elected first vice-president, then president of Sfatul Țării, the assembly which voted for the union of Bessarabia with Romania on 27 March 1918. He also took parts in the assemblies atCernăuți andAlba Iulia (Great National Assembly of Alba Iulia), where, respectively, the acts of union ofBukovina andTransylvania with Romania were proclaimed.
After 1918 he held a number of government posts: Minister and Secretary of State for Bessarabia (1919–1920), Minister of Public Works (1927), Minister of Public Works and Communications (1930) interim Minister of Work, Health and Social Protection (1930), Minister Secretary of State (1928–1930, 1932, 1932–1933),senator anddeputy inparliament (1918–1934). He was a member of theNational Peasants' Party after its founding in 1926.
Throughout his time in office, Halippa sought to further Bessarabia's cultural development. He founded theChișinău Popular University (1917), the Moldovan Conservatory, the Society of Bessarabian Writers and Journalists and the Luceafărul Editorial Society and Bookstore in Chișinău (1940). In 1932 he edited and headed the magazineViața Basarabiei ("Bessarabian Life") and the eponymous daily newspaper. In 1918 Halippa was chosen correspondingmember of the Romanian Academy; removed in 1948, he was restored to its ranks posthumously in 1990.
In 1950 he was arrested and imprisoned without trial atSighet prison, inSighetu Marmației. Two years later he was handed over to theNKVD, taken to Chișinău, tried and sentenced to 25 years' hard labour inSiberia. Brought back to Romania, he was held atAiud until 1957.
He died inBucharest in 1979 at the age of 95 and is buried in the cemetery ofCernica Monastery.
Halippa wrote over 280 poems, articles, sketches, translations and memorials, managing to edit a single volume of poetry during his lifetime:Flori de pârloagă ("Flowers of a Fallow Field", 1921, Iași), prefaced byMihail Sadoveanu. He also wrote a few historical studies:Bessarabiâ do prisoedineniâ k Rossii ("Besarabia before Annexation to Russia") (Russian, 1914);Basarabia sub împăratulAleksandr I (1812–1825) ("Bessarabia under Emperor Aleksandr I"),B. P. Hasdeu (1939). Posthumous works includePovestea vieții mele ("The Story of My Life",Patrimoniu, Chișinău, 1990) and a volume of newspaper writings (2001). He also collaborated on the workTestament pentru urmași ("Last Will", 1991).