The directory «Plots»

Halippa Pantelimon
(1883—1979)

Pantelimon "Pan" Halippa was a Bessarabian and later Romanian 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 of Sfatul Ţării, which voted union in 1918. He then occupied ministerial posts in several governments, following which he underwent political persecution at the hands of the Communist régime, being incarcerated in Sighet prison.

Halippa was born to the poor peasants Nicolae and Paraschiva Halippa in Cubolta, then in the Russian Empire and now in Moldova's Raionul Sîngerei. He attended primary school in his native village and then took courses at the Yedintsy Spiritual School and the Kishinev Theological Seminary. After graduating from seminary in 1904, he enrolled in the Faculty of Physics and Medicine of the University of Yuryev, but a year later the Russian Revolution of 1905 broke out and he was forced to quit university. Back in Kishinev, he became involved with young Romanian intellectuals, working on Revista Basarabia, the first Romanian-language publication in Bessarabia in that period. In its pages he printed the revolutionary hymn «Deşteaptă-te, române!», which caused the Tsarist authorities to seek his arrest.

Taking refuge in Iaşi, he enrolled in the Faculty of Letters and Philosophy of the University of Iaşi, where he took classes from 1908 to 1912. At this time he worked on the magazine Viaţa românească, in which he published "Scrisori din Basarabia" ("Letters from Bessarabia"). In 1908, he published Pilde şi novele ("Proverbs and Novels") in Kishinev (using the Cyrillic alphabet), the first Bessarabian fiction novel, while in 1912 "Basarabia, schiţă geografică" ("Bessarabia, Geographic Sketch") appeared. Returning to Kishinev in 1913, he published, together with Nicolae Alexandri and with the assistance of Vasile Stroescu, the newspaper Cuvânt moldovenesc, which he directed. He wrote unceasingly in favour of union with Romania.

Halippa's political activity intensified as the 1910s wore on and in 1917 he founded the Moldovan 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 Ţării, the assembly which voted for the union of Bessarabia with Romania on March 27, 1918. He also took parts in the assemblies at Cernăuţi and Alba Iulia, where, respectively, the acts of union of Bukovina and Transylvania 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 and deputy in parliament (1918-1934). He was a member of the National Peasants' Party after its founding in 1926.

Throughout his time in office, Halippa sought to further Bessarabia's cultural development. He founded the Chişinău Popular University (1917), the Moldovan Conservatory, the Society of Bessarabian Writers and Journalists and the Luceafărul Editorial Society and Bookstore in Chişinău (1940). In 1932 he edited and headed the magazine Viaţa Basarabiei ("Bessarabian Life") and the eponymous daily newspaper. In 1918 Halippa was chosen corresponding member 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 at Sighet prison, in Sighetu Marmaţiei. Two years later he was handed over to the NKVD, taken to Kishinev, tried and sentenced to 25 years' hard labour in Siberia. Brought back to Romania, he was held at Aiud until 1957. He died in Bucharest in 1979 at the age of 95 and is buried in the cemetery of Cernica 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, Iaşi), prefaced by Mihail Sadoveanu. He also wrote a few historical studies: Bessarabiâ doprisoedineniâ k Rossii (Russian, 1914); Basarabia sub împăratul Aleksandr I (1812-1825), B. P. Hasdeu (1939). Posthumous works include Povestea vieţii mele ("The Story of My Life", Patrimoniu, Chişinău, 1990) and a volume of newspaper writings (2001). He also collaborated on the work Testament pentru urmaşi ("Last Will", 1991).

Moldova, 1998, Pantelimon Halippa

Moldova, 2007, «Viata Basarabiei», Pantelimon Halippa