Politics

Ion Inculeț

Președintele Sfatului Țării · 1884–1940

A politician who led Sfatul Țării (the Country's Council), the parliament that voted in 1918 for the union of Bessarabia with Romania. He later held ministerial posts in Romania.

Ion Constantin Inculeț (b. 5 April 1884, Răzeni, Chișinău county – d. November 1940) was a politician, professor and academician, president of Sfatul Țării (the Country's Council) and one of the principal architects of the union of Bessarabia with Romania in 1918. Born in a Bessarabian village, he became a central figure of the historic moment that redrew the national map.

Education

Inculeț began his studies in his native village, then continued them at the Theological School in Chișinău. Drawn, however, to the exact sciences, he enrolled at the University of Dorpat (Estonia), from where he transferred to the Imperial University of Saint Petersburg, specialising in the sciences. In the imperial capital he became involved in academic and political life, forming himself as a leader.

Role in the Union of 1918

In April 1917, in the midst of the Russian revolution, Inculeț returned to Bessarabia at the head of a group of Bessarabians, students and professors from Petrograd. On 21 November 1917 he was elected president of Sfatul Țării. In this capacity, on 24 January 1918 he initiated the proclamation of Bessarabia's independence from Soviet Russia, and on 27 March 1918, under his leadership, Sfatul Țării voted for union with the Kingdom of Romania.

Later career

After the Union, Ion Inculeț held numerous offices in the Romanian state: minister for Bessarabia, minister of the interior, of health, of public works and deputy prime minister, and he was also elected a member of the Romanian Academy. He died in November 1940, shortly after the Soviet occupation of Bessarabia of June 1940 — an event which, according to his contemporaries, hastened his end. He remains in history as one of the fathers of the Union.

Recognition

For his role in the Union of 1918, Ion Inculeț has remained in history as one of the founding fathers of Greater Romania. He was elected a full member of the Romanian Academy and also pursued scientific work. The family manor at Bârnova, near Iași, preserves his memory. His death, which came shortly after the Soviet occupation of Bessarabia of June 1940, was seen by his contemporaries as the result of the grief caused by the loss of the province for which he had fought and which he had brought, through the vote of Sfatul Țării, to the mother country.