45 Facts About Vasile Stroescu

Vasile Vasilievici Stroescu, known as Vasile de Stroesco, Basile Stroesco, or Vasile Stroiescu, was a Bessarabian and Romanian politician, landowner, and philanthropist.

Vasile Stroescu inherited or purchased large estates, progressively dividing them among local peasants, while setting up local schools and churches for their use.

Vasile Stroescu became an absentee member of Sfatul Tarii during the existence of a Moldavian Democratic Republic and its union with Romania.

Vasile Stroescu's grandson, Gavriil, was a satrar; Ienache, Gavriil's son, reverted to pastoralism, and owned ranches in Iasi County.

Vasile Stroescu owned ten estates on either side of the border, split between Iasi and Hotin counties.

From his marriage to Profira Manoil Gutu, Vasile Stroescu Sr had many children, of whom Vasile Stroescu Jr was the fifteenth.

The most detailed accounts report that Vasile Stroescu Jr was born on November 11,1845, in Trinca, a Hotin County village ; some of the earlier sources gave his birth year as 1844, and his birth place as the family manor of Stolniceni.

Vasile Stroescu then read up on lay Romanian literature, being especially enthusiastic about Moldavian contributors such as Vasile Alecsandri and Ion Creanga, in whom he identified the primordial wisdom of peasants.

Vasile Stroescu attended the Bessarabian Lyceum of Kishinev, then the school of Kamenets-Podolskiy and Odessa's Richelieu Lyceum.

Vasile Stroescu argued that, of all the Westerners he had ever read, only Maupassant could come close to this triad.

Later on, Vasile Stroescu furthered his training at the universities of Moscow, Saint Petersburg, and Berlin.

Vasile Stroescu was appointed a judge at the Hotin city tribunal in 1867, becoming colleagues with Hasdeu's father, Alexandru Hajdeu.

Vasile Stroescu reportedly drove herds of cattle across several countries, selling them in Vienna at a great profit.

Vasile Stroescu personally verified his plowmen's techniques and corrected their mistakes.

Vasile Stroescu built of refurbished several schools in Bessarabia, founded hospitals in his native village and in Bratuseni, and became ktitor of Bessarabian Orthodox churches in Trinca, Pociumbauti, Sofrincani, and Zaicani.

Vasile Stroescu saw Orthodoxy as equal to its rival Romanian Greek-Catholic Church, arguing that "a religious difference cannot divide us", since "Romanians of both religions behave one to the other as true Christians and therefore as brethren".

Vasile Stroescu's contribution included a Stroescu Fund at ASTRA Society and various payments to the Cultural League for the Unity of All Romanians.

In May 1910, as recognition of his activities, and in particular for his work with the Blaj foundations, Vasile Stroescu was elected an honorary member of the Romanian Academy.

Vasile Stroescu declared himself "at my country's disposal, with all this mind God gave me, from all my heart and with my entire wealth".

Vasile Stroescu sponsored individual Bessarabians to pursue their education abroad, as he did with physician and fellow Romanian nationalist Elena Alistar, and founded an eponymous Vasile Stroescu Help Club for the Romanian Americans of Cleveland.

In Romania itself, Vasile Stroescu was defended by Dumitru Karnabatt, who argued that his accusations were honest and correct.

Vasile Stroescu began investigating the practices of Romanian Transylvanian banks, suggesting that they were dealing in predatory lending.

Vasile Stroescu, who donated 50,000 Kronen to settling disputes between ASTRA and the popular banks, and then to the creation of alternative credit unions, found sympathy with the writing team at Luceafarul, which basked in his critique of "our petty bourgeoisie [and] its plutocratic ideals".

Vasile Stroescu's sponsoring of a Christmas 1913 folk party in Beius almost ended with the prosecution of its organizer, Nicolae Coroiu.

Vasile Stroescu returned to Odessa in 1914, and managed to persuade the authorities to release his protegee Alistar, who had been arrested for sedition.

Vasile Stroescu defended herself by publishing Stroescu's own letter, which had been sent out of Kishinev ; the document dismissed the allegations as "egregious".

Vasile Stroescu was at Soroca, where he signed a manifesto for Bessarabian self-determination, officially backed by the zemstvo and the gentry assembly.

Vasile Stroescu pointed out the case of a local doctor, whom Halippa then proceeded to publicly denounce as a deserter.

However, Vasile Stroescu is known to have been seriously ill from September 1917 to the early months of 1919, leaving for England and France, and only championed the union of Bessarabia with Romania from afar.

At the time, Vasile Stroescu wrote his will, with Pelivan as his executor.

Vasile Stroescu later attached himself to Take Ionescu's National Committee for Romanian Unity.

Vasile Stroescu came out in support of other pan-Romanian causes: in March 1919, he had become honorary president of the League for the Liberation of Romanians in Timoc and Macedonia; its executive leaders included George Murnu, Sever Bocu and Tache Papahagi.

Vasile Stroescu finally arrived in Bucharest, the Romanian capital, during October 1919.

Vasile Stroescu shared his ticket with historian Nicolae Iorga, although the latter was not a PTB man.

Vasile Stroescu was censured by Inculet, who dismissed his speech as "cafe gossip" and a landowner's malcontent, noting that the Bessarabian gentry as a whole reacted with "profound egotism" to the promise of land reform.

Nevertheless, Vasile Stroescu's position was endorsed by the daily Adevarul, which referred to Inculet as a "satrap" who simply ignored criticism, and called Iorga's moderating stance "absurd diplomacy".

The paper denounced Inculet's suggestion that those dissatisfied with his administration, Vasile Stroescu included, could opt to move to Soviet Russia.

Vasile Stroescu was elected its first president, with Costa-Foru serving as his secretary.

Vasile Stroescu never showed up at any election rallies, as these were held during a "harsh winter", and instead relied on Agarbiceanu to present his platform.

In that context, Vasile Stroescu was again shortlisted for the regional chairmanship.

Reportedly, Vasile Stroescu had wanted to be cremated and have his ashes scattered all over Romania.

Vasile Stroescu was instead awarded a state funeral at Bucharest's Sfanta Vineri Cemetery.

Northern Transylvania was absorbed by Regency Hungary after the Second Vienna Award; a street in Cluj, formally named after Vasile Stroescu, was renamed in honor of Mihaly Teleki.

Vasile Stroescu's memory was repressed in the postwar Moldavian SSR and, later, in Communist Romania.

However, in 1968, Halippa managed to invoke Vasile Stroescu and bring up the issue of his being "forgotten", with a formal address to the Academy.