Gheorghe Ghimpu

Gheorghe Ghimpu (July 26, 1937 – November 13, 2000) was a Romanian politician and a political prisoner in the former Soviet Union and then in Moldova.

Gheorghe Ghimpu
Gheorghe Ghimpu on August 30, 1992
Member of the Moldovan Parliament
In office
1990–1994
Personal details
Born(1937-07-26)July 26, 1937
Colonița, Kingdom of Romania (now Moldova)
DiedNovember 13, 2000(2000-11-13) (aged 63)
Chișinău, Moldova
Resting placeColonița
Political partyRomanian National Party
Other political
affiliations		Popular Front of Moldova
National Patriotic Front
Spouse(s)Zina Ghimpu
Children2
RelativesMihai Ghimpu (brother)
Dorin Chirtoacă (nephew)
Alma materT. G. Shevchenko University
Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union
ProfessionProfessor
Physicist
ParentsIrina Ursu
Toader Ghimpu

Early life

Ghimpu was born on July 26, 1937 in Colonița, a village in Bessarabia, then in Romania. His mother, Irina Ursu (daughter of Haralambie Ursu) died in 2003; she worked at the local kolkhoz. His father, Toader Ghimpu (death in 1980), was an elementary school teacher. Gheorghe Ghimpu is the oldest brother of Simion Ghimpu (born May 24, 1939), Visarion, Valentina (mother of Dorin Chirtoacă) and Mihai Ghimpu.

Ghimpu completed his studies at T. G. Shevchenko University in Tiraspol. Then he obtained his PhD at the Institute of Biological Physics, Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union in Moscow. Ghimpu was a teacher in Strășeni and a professor at T. G. Shevchenko University in Tiraspol and the Moldova State University in Chișinău.

He was married to Zina and had two children, Oana and Corneliu.

Political activity

Between 1969 and 1971, he was a founder of the clandestine National Patriotic Front of Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina, established by several young intellectuals in Chişinău, totaling over 100 members, vowing to fight for the establishment of a Moldovan Democratic Republic, its secession from the Soviet Union and union with Romania. In December 1971, following an informative note from Ion Stănescu, the President of the Council of State Security of the Romanian Socialist Republic, to Yuri Andropov, the chief of the KGB, Ghimpu as well as Alexandru Usatiuc-Bulgăr, Valeriu Graur, and Alexandru Șoltoianu were arrested and later sentenced to long prison terms. He was sentenced on July 13, 1972. Ghimpu spent six years in prison (1972–1978), as result of his political activities.

Ghimpu took part in the Moldovan national movement and was a supporter of the independence of the Moldovan SSR from the Soviet Union. He was a founding member of the Popular Front of Moldova and a member of the Moldovan Parliament (1990–1994).

He died in Chișinău on November 13, 2000, after an unclarified traffic accident, which occurred near Dondușeni on October 27, 2000.[1]

Legacy

The Commission for the Study of the Communist Dictatorship in Moldova will study and analyze the 1940–1991 period of the communist regime.

References
  1. New volume by the late Gheorghe Ghimpu will appear by yearend (azi.md)
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