Daniel Ciugureanu

Daniel Ciugureanu (9 December 1885 – 19 May 1950 ) was a Romanian politician from Bessarabia, deputy in Sfatul Țării from Chișinău, Prime Minister of the Moldavian Democratic Republic from 29 January 1918–21 April 1918, Minister for Bessarabia in four Romanian Governments, Deputy and Senator, vice-president of the Chamber of Deputies, vice-president and President of the Senate of Kingdom of Romania.

He was born in 1885 in Șirăuți, Khotinsky Uyezd, in the Bessarabia Governorate of the Russian Empire, the son of Alexandru Ciugureanu, a priest, and his wife, Ecaterina, a teacher. After attending secondary school in Bălți and the theological seminary in Chișinău, he enrolled in 1905 at the Kyiv Imperial University of Saint Vladimir, graduating from medical school in 1912.

Ciugureanu was one of the founders and leaders of the National Moldavian Party and one of the promoters of the Union of Bessarabia with Romania. On 6 February 1918, the Sfatul Țării voted unanimously to proclaim the independence of the Moldavian Democratic Republic. The Board of Directors became the Council of Ministers, and Ciugureanu was elected Prime Minister of the new republic. In fact, it was a reconfirmation of the function in the light of the fact that he was elected First Director on 29 January 1918.

After the Union of Bessarabia with Romania he served as minister for Bessarabia in four Romanian governments from 9 April 1918 to 30 November 1919.

Ciugureanu was arrested on 5 May 1950 by the communist authorities of Romania. While being transported in a van, he had a stroke at Turda. According to some sources, he died at a nearby hospital the next day; according to official records of the Securitate, he died several days later at Sighet Prison. He was buried at the Sighetu Marmației Paupers Cemetery, in a common grave.

As his grave is not known, in 1993 a cross was installed at the Sighet Cemetery, while his son, Gheorghe Ciugureanu, had a cenotaph erected at the cemetery next to Cernica Monastery, near Bucharest.