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Moldova

Republic of Moldova Europe Chisinau 3,583,288 inhabitants 33,851 sq km 105.85 inhabitants/sq km Moldovan lei (MDL) population evolution

Famous people from Moldova

Here is a list of famous people from Moldova. Curious if anybody from Moldova made it our most famous people in the world list? Read the aformentioned article in order to find out.

Avigdor Lieberman

Politician

Avigdor Lieberman is a right-wing Soviet-born Israeli politician. He was a member of the Knesset, Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs and Deputy Prime Minister of Israel until 18 December 2012, when his resignation, caused by an investigation in which he was charged with fraud and breach of trust, took effect. He is the founder and leader of the Yisrael Beiteinu party, whose electoral base are the immigrants from the former Soviet Union. Following Lieberman's resignation, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stepped in and as of late December 2012 is serving as acting Foreign Minister. Lieberman's trial ended with an acquittal on 6 November 2013, and he will resume his post as Foreign Minister. Lieberman first entered the Knesset in 1999, and has since served in numerous roles in the government, including as Minister of National Infrastructure, Minister of Transportation, Minister of Strategic Affairs, Deputy Prime Minister, and Foreign Affairs Minister.

Lewis Milestone

Film Director

Lewis Milestone was a Russian-born American motion picture director. He is known for directing Two Arabian Knights and All Quiet on the Western Front, both of which received Academy Awards for Best Director. He also directed The Front Page, The General Died at Dawn, Of Mice and Men, Ocean's 11, and Mutiny on the Bounty.

Vladimir Voronin

Politician

Vladimir Nicolaevici Voronin is a Moldovan politician. He was the third President of Moldova from 2001 until 2009 and has been the First Secretary of the Party of Communists of the Republic of Moldova since 1994. He was Europe's first democratically elected Communist Party head of state after the dissolution of the Eastern Bloc.

Cleopatra Stratan

Folk Artist

Cleopatra Stratan is Moldovan singer, the youngest person ever to score commercial success, with her 2006 album La vârsta de trei ani. She holds the record for the highest paid young artist, the youngest artist to receive an MTV award and the youngest artist to score a No.1 hit in a country. As of late 2011, Cleopatra and her family have relocated and are living in Pipera in the capital of Romania, Bucharest.

Orly Taitz

Lawyer

Orly Taitz is a leading figure in the "birther" movement, which challenges whether Barack Obama is a natural-born citizen eligible to serve as President of the United States. She has also run for state-wide office in California twice and is a dentist, lawyer, and former real estate agent. She also promotes a number of other allegations both related and unrelated to Obama, and has initiated a number of lawsuits on behalf of the "birther" movement.

Valeria Lukyanova

Model

Valeria Lukyanova is a Ukrainian model, best known for her resemblance to the Mattel-manufactured Barbie doll, with several sources describing her as, among other handles, a "real-life Barbie doll" and "human Barbie". To enhance the effect Valeria Lukyanova uses makeup and contact lenses over her naturally green eyes. She has stated that she has had breast implants, but that the rest of her body is completely natural and slender due to daily gym workouts and a special diet.

Kira Muratova

Film Director

Kira Georgiyivna Muratova, née Korotkova is a Ukrainian award-winning film director, screenwriter and actress, known for her unusual directorial style. Her films underwent a great deal of censorship in the Soviet Union. Muratova has spent most of her artistic career in Odesa, creating her films with local studios, mostly casting local actors.

Vlad Filat

Politician

Vladimir Filat is a Moldovan politician who served as Prime Minister of Moldova from 25 September 2009 to 25 April 2013.

Grigory Kotovsky

Military Person

Grigory Ivanovich Kotovsky was an adventurist, Soviet military and political figure, participant of the Russian Civil War. He made a career from a Russian gangster and bank robber, to eventually becoming a Red Army general and member of the Central Executive Committee of the Soviet Union.

Anna Lesko

Singer

Anna Lesko is a popular Romanian singer. Lesko is of Ukrainian origin and she lived in the Moldavian SSR until she was 17 years old, when she came to Romania, where she has lived ever since. One of her passions is painting and her creations can be seen on her official website. She started her career in 2002 with the single "Ard in flacari" which was in included on the album "Flacari". In 2003, she released a new album entitled "Inseparabili", for which she was rewarded with the gold disc in Romania. The third studio album by the artist "Pentru tine" was released in 2004 with three singles sites, the most successful being "Nu mai am timp", written by Bogdan Popoiag and Eduard Alexandru. In 2006 Anna Lesko released the single "Anycka Maya", which quickly became a success in Romania.

Nikolay Sklifosovsky

Physician

Nikolai Vasilyevich Sklifosovsky was a Russian surgeon and physiologist of Ukrainian origin. He was born near the town of Dubasari, which is now in Transnistria. Sklifosovsky was a professor of medicine in Saint Petersburg and Kiev. The Moscow Institute of Emergency First Aid, often abbreviated as Sklif, bears his name since 1923. In 2001, the Central Bank of Transnistria minted a silver coin honoring this native of today's Transnistria, as part of a series of memorable coins called The Outstanding People of Pridnestrovie.

Emil Constantinescu

Politician

Emil Constantinescu was President of Romania from 1996 to 2000. He first graduated from the Faculty of Law and then the Faculty of Geology and Geophysics of the University of Bucharest, and subsequently started a career as a geologist. Beginning in 1966, Constantinescu taught in the Geology Faculty of the University of Bucharest, where he also became Propaganda Secretary of the local organisation of the Romanian Communist Party. After the Romanian revolution in 1989, Constantinescu became a founding member and vice president of the Civic Alliance. He was the acting chairman of the Romanian Anti-Totalitarian Forum, the first associative structure of the opposition in Romania, which was transformed into a political and electoral alliance: the Romanian Democratic Convention. In 1992 he was elected president of the University of Bucharest, and became CDR's candidate for president. He lost the election to the incumbent, Ion Iliescu, after a second round. He remains, however, heavily involved in politics through working for many NGOs, both in Romania and internationally. Emil Constantinescu is the current president of the Association of Citizenship Education, of the Romanian Foundation for Democracy and also the founding president of the Institute for Regional Cooperation and Conflict Prevention.

Mihai Ghimpu

Politician

Mihai Ghimpu is a Moldovan politician. He was Speaker of Parliament from 28 August 2009 to 30 December 2010 and Acting President from 11 September 2009 until 28 December 2010.

Abba P. Lerner

Economist

Abba Ptachya Lerner was a Russian-born British economist. Abraham Psachia Lerner was born on October 28, 1903, in Bessarabia. He grew up in a Jewish family, which emigrated to Great Britain when Lerner was three years old. Lerner grew up in London's East End, and from age sixteen, he worked as a machinist, a teacher in Hebrew schools, and as an entrepreneur. He entered the London School of Economics in 1929 where he would study under Friedrich Hayek. A six-month stay at Cambridge in 1934–1935 brought him into contact with John Maynard Keynes. In 1937 Lerner emigrated to the United States. While in the United States, Lerner befriended his intellectual opponents Milton Friedman and Barry Goldwater.

Iurie Leancă

Politician

Iurie Leancă is a Moldovan politician and current Prime Minister of the Republic of Moldova. He was the Foreign and European Integration Minister in the First and Second Filat Cabinet.

Arsenie Todiraș

Pop Artist

Arsenie Todiraş is a Moldovan singer who was the youngest member of the former boyband O-Zone. He now pursues a solo career in Romania, under the mononym Arsenie or at times the stage name Arsenium. Arsenie represented Moldova at the Eurovision Song Contest 2006 with the song "Loca" with Natalia Gordienko featuring Connect-R, finishing in 20th place with 22 points. He took part in the Dansez pentru tine dance contest, the Romanian version of Dancing with the Stars, and took the second place, while the first was given to the Romanian singer Andra. His first album, The 33rd Element, was released in Romania in the summer of 2006, releases in other countries are to follow.

Ben Gold

Politician

Benjamin Gold was an American labor leader who was prosecuted for his communist political views under McCarthyism. He was president of the International Fur and Leather Workers Union from 1937 to 1955.

Paul Goma

Novelist

Paul Goma is a Romanian writer, also known for his activities as a dissident and leading opponent of the communist regime before 1989. Forced into exile by the communist authorities, he became a political refugee and currently resides in France as a stateless person. After 2000, Goma has expressed opinions on World War II, the Holocaust in Romania and the Jews, claims which have led to widespread criticism for antisemitism.

Radu Albot

Tennis Player

Radu Albot is a professional tennis player from Moldova. Albot claimed twelve singles and six doubles Futures titles in his career. He is a permanent member of the Moldova Davis Cup team.

Alexey Shchusev

Architect

Alexey Viktorovich Shchusev was an acclaimed Russian and Soviet architect whose works may be regarded as a bridge connecting Revivalist architecture of Imperial Russia with Stalin's Empire Style. Shchusev studied under Leon Benois and Ilya Repin at the Imperial Academy of Arts in 1891–1897. From 1894 to 1899, he travelled in North Africa and Central Asia. Shchusev was a diligent student of old Russian art and won public acclaim with his restoration of the 12th-century St. Basil Church in Ovruch, Ukraine. He dwelt on 15th-century Muscovite architecture to design the Trinity Cathedral in Pochayiv Lavra and a memorial church on the Kulikovo Field. He was then commissioned by the Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna to design a cathedral for Marfo-Mariinsky Convent in Moscow. The result was a charming medieval structure of the purest Novgorodian style. Shchusev embarked upon his most wide-scale project in 1913, when his design for the Kazan Railway Station won a contest for a Moscow terminus of the Trans-Siberian Railway. This Art Nouveau design fused elements of the Kremlin towers and traditional Tatar architecture in one of the most imaginative Revivalist designs ever put to execution. The construction of the railway station, however, was not finished until 1940.

Lev Berg

Academic

Lev Semyonovich Berg was a leading Soviet geographer, biologist and ichthyologist who served as President of the Soviet Geographical Society between 1940 and 1950. He also developed his own evolutionary theory as opposed to the theories of Darwin and Lamarck.

Iona Yakir

Military Person

Iona Emmanuilovich Yakir was the Red Army commander and one of the world's major military reformers between World War I and World War II.

Mikhail Larionov

Painting Artist

Mikhail Fyodorovich Larionov was an avant-garde Russian painter.

Natalia Gordienko

Musical Artist

Natalia Gordienko, sometimes spelled as Natalia Gordienco, is a professional dancer and singer of Ukrainian ancestry from Moldova.

Eugen Doga

Film score Artist

Eugen Doga is a Romanian composer. Since the fall of the Soviet Union, he has lived in Moscow, Russia.

Marian Lupu

Politician

Marian Lupu is a Moldovan politician and is the President of the Parliament and served as Acting President of the Republic from 2010 until 2012.

Denys Molchanov

Tennis Player

Denys Molchanov is a Ukrainian tennis player playing on the ATP Challenger Tour. On 19 March 2012, he reached his highest ATP singles ranking of World No. 239, whilst his highest doubles ranking of 114 was reached on 19 March 2012. He also played for the Ukraine Davis Cup team.

Svetlana Toma

Actor

Svetlana Andreevna Toma is a Moldavian actress. She debuted at the Moldova-Film studio in 1966. She worked in Moldova and Russia.

Radu Sîrbu

Pop rock Artist

Radu Sîrbu is a Moldovan singer. He was part of the Moldovan pop music trio O-Zone. He currently lives and works in Bucharest, Romania.

Nachum Gutman

Painting Artist

Nachum Gutman was a Russian-born Israeli painter, sculptor, and author.

Emil Loteanu

Screenwriter

Emil Loteanu was a Soviet film director born in Clocuşna, Moldova which was then a part of Greater Romania. He moved to Moscow in his early life.

Svetlana Nikolaevna Kryuchkova

Actor

Svetlana Nikolaevna Kryuchkova is a Russian actress. Kryuchkova was born in Kishinev in the Moldavian SSR. From 1975 to 1989, she was married to Yuri Veksler, and married Aleksandr Molodsov in 1990. She has one child from each marriage.

William F. Friedman

Author

William Frederick Friedman was a US Army cryptographer who ran the research division of the Army's Signals Intelligence Service in the 1930s, and parts of its follow-on services into the 1950s. In 1940, subordinates of his led by Frank Rowlett broke Japan's PURPLE cipher, thus disclosing Japanese diplomatic secrets before America's entrance into World War II.

Nelly Ciobanu

Singer

Nelly Ciobanu is a Moldovan singer. Ciobanu graduated from music college of the city of Tiraspol. Nelly made her debut on stage in 1993, with her brother as part of duo "Master Dinamit". She represented Moldova in the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest.

Yevgeny Shevchuk

Politician

Yevgeny Vasylovych Shevchuk is an ethnic Ukrainian and the President of the internationally unrecognized Pridnestrovian Moldovan Republic . He was a deputy to the Supreme Soviet of Transnistria from 2000 until his election as president in 2011. Furthermore, he was speaker of Pridnestrovian Supreme Soviet from 2005 to 2009, and the leader of the opposition party Renewal until 2010. Yevgeny Shevchuk is a lawyer who has worked in government and private business. His biography profile describes him as "social democratic technocrat with a European outlook, and a man of profound democratic beliefs". As part of the minority opposition in parliament prior to December 2005, he spearheaded a reform drive by his party to introduce changes to Transnistria's electoral code. Among the changes were a requirement that purely technical qualifications be used as the basis for selecting polling station chairmen and a rule prohibiting state-owned media outlets from publishing results of polls and forecasts related to elections, so as to not influence free voter choice. This was reported in the United States State Department's Country Report on Human Rights Practices 2005.

Alexandru Epureanu

Soccer

Alexandru Epureanu is a Moldovan footballer. He plays for FC Anzhi Makhachkala on loan from FC Dynamo Moscow.

Ilya Oleynikov

Actor

Ilya Oleynikov is an actor.

Maria Cebotari

Opera singer

Maria Cebotari was a celebrated Romanian soprano and actress born in Bessarabia, Russian Empire, who made her career in Germany and Austria.

Alexandru Suvorov

Soccer Midfielder

Alexandru Suvorov is a Moldovan footballer who plays as a striker for FC Mordovia Saransk and the Moldova national team.

Alexander Isaakovich Gelman

Playwright

Alexander Isaakovich Gelman, original given name Shunya, is a Bessarabian-born Soviet and Russian playwright, writer, and screenwriter. A survivor of the Holocaust during childhood, Gelman became a playwright and screenwriter after working as a newspaper journalist in Leningrad in the 1960s, winning the USSR State Prize in 1976. He has resided in Moscow since 1978. A supporter of Mikhail Gorbachev's reforms, Gelman was elected to the Supreme Soviet of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in 1989 and to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union upon Mikhail Gorbachev's recommendation in 1990, before leaving the Communist Party of the Soviet Union less than a year later.

Mircea Snegur

Politician

Mircea Ion Snegur was the first President of Moldova from 1990–1997. Before that he was Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet 1989–1990 and Chairman of the Supreme Soviet from 27 April to 3 September 1990. In the Soviet era, he was often known in English as Mircha Ivanovich Snegur, a transliteration from the Russian Мирча Иванович Снегур.

Samuel Bronfman

Organization founder

Samuel Bronfman, CC was a Canadian business magnate and philanthropist. He founded Distillers Corporation Limited, and is a member of the Canadian Jewish Bronfman family.

Nikolay Zelinsky

Chemist

Nikolay Dimitrievich Zelinsky, Russian and Soviet chemist, academician of the Academy of Sciences of USSR. Zelinsky studied at the University of Odessa and at the universities of Leipzig and Göttingen in Germany. Zelinsky was one of the founders of theory on organic catalysis. He is the inventor of the first effective filtering activated charcoal gas mask in the world. The crater Zelinskiy on the Moon is named in his honor. In 2001, the Central Bank of Transnistria minted a silver coin honoring this native of today's Transnistria, as part of a series of memorable coins called The Outstanding People of Pridnestrovie.

Samuel Bronston

Film Producer

Samuel Bronston was a Bessarabian-born American film producer, film director, and a nephew of socialist revolutionary figure, Leon Trotsky. He was also the petitioner in a U.S. Supreme Court case that set a major precedent for perjury prosecutions when it overturned his conviction. Bronston was born in Kishinev, Bessarabia, Russian Empire and educated at the Sorbonne. He worked for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's French unit in Paris before setting up as an independent film producer by the 1940s. His first film for his new production company, Samuel Bronston Productions, was Jack London, followed by a series of epic films: John Paul Jones, King of Kings, El Cid, 55 Days at Peking and The Fall of the Roman Empire. In 1962, he was awarded a Special Merit Golden Globe Award for El Cid. He was a pioneer in the practice of locating epic-scale productions in Spain to reduce the massive costs involved. The success of his films inspired him to help build gigantic studios in Las Rozas near Madrid. Bronston frequently worked with a regular team of creative artists: the director Anthony Mann, the screenwriters Philip Yordan and Jesse Lasky Jr., the composer Miklós Rózsa, the co-producers Jaime Prades, Alan Brown and Michal Waszynski, the cinematographer Robert Krasker and film editor Robert Lawrence. He also favoured Charlton Heston and Sophia Loren as his leading actors.

Natalia Barbu

Pop Artist

Natalia Barbu is a Moldovan singer who represented Moldova on the Eurovision Song Contest in 2007 with the song Fight.

I. A. L. Diamond

Screenwriter

I.A.L. Diamond was a comedy and drama writer in Hollywood from the 1940s through the 1980s. He wrote eleven screenplays with Billy Wilder for Wilder's films.

Ion Suruceanu

Man

Ion Andreevich Suruceanu is a Moldavian singer and former parliamentarian. In 1990 he was awarded the People's Artist award of Moldavian SSR.

Vladimir Purishkevich

Politician

Vladimir Mitrofanovich Purishkevich, was a Russian politician before the Bolshevik revolution, noted for his monarchist and antisemitic views. He was also a significant proponent of the Blood Libel. Born in a family of a poor nobleman in Bessarabia Purishkevich graduated from Odessa university with a degree in philosophy. Purishkevich was a far-rightist who in 1905 was one of the founders of the Union of the Russian People, and deputy chairman of the Union. Later after a split within the organization in 1908 he founded his own organization known as Union of Archangel Michael. During the Russian Revolution of 1905 he organized Black Hundreds militia, noted for its participation in numerous pogroms. Purishkevich was elected as a deputee into II, III and IV Russian State Duma, where he became a notorious leader of the radical monarchist right and gained fame because of his emotional speeches, flamboyant and scandalous behaviour, and his monarchist and anti-Semitic views. During World War I Purishkevich quit politics and was put in charge of a medical aid train on the front.

Dina Vierny

Deceased Person

Dina Vierny was an art dealer, collector and museum director and former artists' model. Born as Dina Aibinder into a Jewish family in Kishinev, Bessarabia, Vierny was a 15-year-old lycée student in Paris when she met the almost 60 years older artist Aristide Maillol, in the mid-1930s. The architect Jean-Claude Dondel, a friend of her father, decided that she would make the perfect model for the artist, who was then 73 years old, and reportedly in the professional doldrums. She was Maillol's muse for the last ten years of his life. Both Matisse and Bonnard, artists for whom she also posed, attributed a renewed inspiration for painting and sculpture to Vierny.

Bianna Golodryga

Journalist

Bianna Golodryga is an American television journalist and co-anchor of the weekend edition of Good Morning America.

Dorin Chirtoacă

Politician

Dorin Chirtoacă is a Moldovan politician.

Gherman Pântea

Politician

Gherman V. Pântea was a Bessarabian-born soldier, civil servant and political figure, active in the Russian Empire and Romania. As an officer of the Imperial Russian Army during most of World War I, he helped organize the committees of Bessarabian soldiers, oscillating between loyalty to the Russian Provisional Government and the cause of Bessarabian emancipation. Pântea was subsequently Military Director of the Moldavian Democratic Republic, answering to President Ion Inculeţ. He personally created a Bessarabian defense force, tasked with combating Bolshevik subversion and Russian intimidation, but also braced for defeat after the October Revolution. With some hesitance, Gherman Pântea endorsed the Republic's union with Romania, and affiliated with Romania's National Liberal Party. Having parallel careers as teacher, lawyer and journalist, Pântea remained a presence in Romanian political life, as member of Parliament, negotiator of détente with the Soviet Union, and three times Mayor of Chişinău. He was however mistrusted for his defense of arrested Bolsheviks, his critique of centralized government, and his alleged corruption. During World War II, Pântea was Mayor of Odessa under a Romanian occupation. He intervened to save Jews from the 1941 Massacre and the subsequent deportations to camps in Transnistria. He had a tumultuous relationship with Ion Antonescu, the Romanian dictator, and was kept in check by the occupation authority. His administration managed to set in motion a plan for Odessa, and helped the city overcome devastation through the adoption of free trade, but also created various controversies.

Lia Manoliu

Olympic athlete

Lia Manoliu was a Romanian discus thrower who won three Olympic medals, including one gold. She was the first Track & Field athlete to compete at six Olympics. Lia started her Olympic career at the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki, where she finished 6th with a throw of 42.64m. She bettered this distance at the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne, Australia, throwing 43.90m for a ninth place finish. At the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome, she held the lead after the first round with a throw of 52.36m, and although she was unable to improve upon this in subsequent rounds, the throw was sufficient to earn her the bronze medal. At the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Manoliu was lying in fourth place after round four, but she produced a throw of 56.96m on her fifth attempt to gain her second Olympic bronze medal. In the winter of 1967–68, the Romanian Athletics Federation informed the 35 year-old Manoliu that she was too old to try for the Olympics again and that she need not bother turning out for their training camp sessions. This only served to increase Manoliu's determination, and after months of hard and lonely training, she qualified for the Romanian team to the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City. In Mexico, she carried an injury to her throwing arm sustained in a shot-putting accident into the competition, and the team doctor warned her that it was good for only one good throw. One throw was all Manoliu needed, registering a distance of 58.28m on her first attempt, which proved good enough for the gold medal.

Alexander Goldenweiser

Pianist

Alexander Borisovich Goldenweiser was a distinguished Russian pianist, teacher and composer. Goldenweiser was born in Kishinev, Bessarabia, Russia, and studied at the Moscow Conservatory under Sergei Taneyev and Vassily Safonoff, winning the Gold Medal for Piano upon his graduation in 1897. He joined the faculty of the Conservatory shortly afterward, and during his tenure there, his pupils included Grigory Ginzburg, Lazar Berman, Samuil Feinberg, Dmitry Kabalevsky, Galina Eguiazarova, Nikolai Petrov, Nikolai Kapustin, Alexander Braginsky, Sulamita Aronovsky, Tatiana Nikolayeva, Dmitry Paperno, Oxana Yablonskaya, Nelly Akopian-Tamarina, Dmitri Bashkirov, Dmitry Blagoy and many others. Rachmaninoff's Second Suite, Op. 17, was dedicated to him as well as Medtner's Lyric Fragments, Op. 23. He made a number of renowned recordings as a pianist. He died in 1961, in Moscow Oblast.

Itzhak Shum

Soccer Midfielder

Itzhak Shum is a retired Israeli football player and was lastly the manager of Cypriot First Division side Alki.

Vasile Tarlev

Politician

Vasile Petru Tarlev is a Moldovan politician, and was Prime Minister of Moldova from 2001 until 2008.

Sergiu Dadu

Soccer Forward

Sergiu Dadu is a Moldovan footballer, who plays as a striker for Moldovan side FC Sheriff Tiraspol. He is also a member of Moldova national football team.

Sam Zemurray

Businessperson

Samuel Zemurray was a U.S. businessman who made his fortune in the banana trade. He founded the Cuyamel Fruit Company, and later became head of the United Fruit Company, the world's most influential fruit company at the time. Both companies played highly controversial roles in the history of several Latin American countries and had a significant influence on their economic and political development.

Olga Bancic

Deceased Person

Olga Bancic, also known under her French nom de guerre Pierrette, was a Jewish Romanian communist, known for her role in the French Resistance during World War II. A member of the FTP-MOI and the Manouchian Group, she was captured by Nazi German forces in late 1943. She was tried with Missak Manouchian and 21 others in February 1944. While the others were executed immediately after the trial in France, she was transported to Stuttgart, Germany and beheaded in May.

Maria Bieşu

Singer

Maria Bieșu was a Moldovan opera singer. Debuting in 1961, she eventually went on to become the chief vocalist of the National Opera and Ballet Theatre of Moldova. Her artistic excellence brought her international recognition and invitations to sing in other countries, including Italy, where she performed at the Milan Opera from 1965 to 1967.

Aleksandar Malinov

Politician

Aleksandar Pavlov Malinov was a leading Bulgarian politician who served as Prime Minister on three occasions. He was born in Pandakli, Bessarabia in a family of Bessarabian Bulgarians. Malinov was known for his support for close ties to Russia and he pursued this policy during his first ministry of 1908-1911. Malinov, who veered towards liberalism, presided over a relatively unremarkable tenure during which his main concern was stabilising the newly independent country. He was vehemently opposed to the increasing economic links with Germany which followed his period of office. He urged Vasil Radoslavov to follow a policy of neutrality after the outbreak of the First World War, fearing that Germany would simply exploit Bulgarian resources for her own war effort. He was recalled as Prime Minister in 1918 specifically to attempt to negotiate an Armistice with the Allies as he had a reputation for moderation and consensus building. After these attempts failed Malinov vowed to fight on, although when a new investment of German money did not materialise he was forced to look for peace. Although Malinov had been appointed as he was seen by both the Tsar and Germany as a trustworthy hand, his position was severely weakened by the fact that the army had lost all interest in the war. He oversaw Bulgarian surrender but resigned on 28 November 1918 after Romania occupied the Dobruja region.

Eduard Văluţă

Soccer Defender

Eduard Văluţă is a Moldovan football defender, who played for Persikabo Bogor in Indonesia.

Irina Lachina

Actor

Latchina, Irina Olegovna is a Moldovan-Russian actress, the daughter of Svetlana Toma.

Alla Bayanova

Singer

Alla Nikolayevna Bayanova was a Russian Romance singer sometimes compared with Édith Piaf for her simple yet dramatic style of performance.

Iurie Roşca

Politician

Iurie Roşca is a Moldovan politician who has served as president of the Christian-Democratic People's Party since 1994.

Victor Berco

Soccer Forward

Victor Berco was a Moldovan footballer, retired in 2010.

Ilie Ilașcu

Politician

Ilie Ilașcu is a Moldovan-born Romanian politician, famous for being sentenced to death by the separatist Transnistrian government for alleged involvement in two murders and for actions which have been described as Moldovan state-sponsored terrorism by Transnistrian government officials.

Natalia Valeeva

Olympic Archer

Natalia Valeeva is a naturalized Italian archer. Natalia Valeeva is the top female archer in Italy. She is a five-time Olympian and former world number one, and a native of Moldova, having represented the Unified Team, Moldova and Italy, at the Olympic Games of 1992, 96, 00, 04 and 08. She won the individual and team bronze medals in the 1992 Olympic Games. Valeeva is the mother of twins, and is married to an Italian native. She is sponsored by Hoyt Archery and Easton Technical Products as a member of their Pro Staff.

Almira Skripchenko

Chess Player

Almira Skripchenko is a French chess player who has achieved the FIDE International Master and Woman Grandmaster titles. She won the second European Open Women's Chess Championship in 2001.

Stanislav Namașco

Soccer

Stanislav Namaşco is a Moldovan footballer, who plays for Domžale in the Slovenian PrvaLiga. In the 2007-2008 season he won the Moldovan Championship and the Moldovan Cup. In March 2011, he is credited with an incredible performance in the game with Sweden, after stopping, among many things, a penalty shot of Zlatan Ibrahimovic.

Roman Borvanov

Tennis Player

Roman Borvanov is a professional tennis player who represents Moldova. He represented the United States until the end of 2010. Borvanov has won nine singles and four doubles Futures titles in his career. His coach is Aaron Gross.

Miron Constantinescu

Sociologist

Miron Constantinescu was a Romanian communist politician, a leading member of the Romanian Communist Party, as well as a Marxist sociologist, historian, academic, and journalist. Initially close to Communist Romania's leader Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej, he became increasingly critical of the latter's Stalinist policies during the 1950s, and was sidelined together with Iosif Chișinevschi. Reinstated under Nicolae Ceaușescu, he became a member of the Romanian Academy.

Alexandru Gațcan

Soccer Midfielder

Alexandru Gaţcan is a Moldovan international footballer who currently playing for Rostov and the Moldova national football team. In 2007, he became a naturalized citizen of Russia. He played 2 games in 2006 FIFA World Cup qualification and 7 games in UEFA Euro 2008 qualifying. Gatcan has appeared in 16 matches for the Moldova national football team, scoring one goal.

Eugen Sidorenco

Soccer Forward

Eugen Sidorenco is a footballer who plays as a forward or attacking midfielder. He currently plays for FC Tom Tomsk in Russian Football Premier League and the Moldova national football team.

Radu Marian

Musical Artist

Radu Marian is a Romanian/Moldovan male soprano or sopranist. Marian possesses a pure soprano voice in the range of C4 to C6, and he is considered an important singer in Baroque music. His repertoire incorporates cantatas written for soprano by composers like Handel, Bononcini, Carissimi, and Frescobaldi, and the repertoire of the old castrati. Marian has been called "the Baroque nightingale" by the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. Marian is an "endocrinological castrato" or "natural castrato". A natural castrato is a singer who never went through puberty and so kept his "unbroken" voice intact.

Lilia Stepanova

Woman

Lilia Stepanova is a contortionist. She was born in Chişinău, Moldova, to parents who were also contortionists. She started training with her mother at the age of five. As of 2010, Stepanova is living in Las Vegas, Nevada, where she is known for performing at many NBA halftime shows. She is also known for her ability to perform archery with her feet while on hand-balancing canes, the piece she performed on Season 1 of America's Got Talent.

Cristina Iovu

Weightlifter

Cristina Iovu is a Azerbaijani weightlifter competing in the –53 kg division. Iovu recently won gold at the 2012 European Weightlifting Championships. At the 2012 London Olympics, Iovu won the bronze medal in the 53 kg event.

Gary Bertini

Conductor

Gary Bertini was an Israeli conductor and composer.

Nichita Smochină

Man

Nichita P. Smochină was a Transnistrian-born activist, scholar and political figure, especially noted for campaigning on behalf of ethnic Romanians in the Soviet Union. He was first active in the Russian Empire, serving with distinction in World War I, then in the Ukrainian People's Republic, where he earned his reputation as a champion of Transnistrian Romanian interests. An anti-communist, he narrowly escaped the Bolsheviks and crossed into Romania, which became his second home. A protégé of historian Nicolae Iorga, Smochină earned his academic credentials and also made himself known internationally as an expert on minority rights. Beginning in the 1920s, he contributed to historical research, ethnography and folkloristics, as well as jurisprudence. During most of World War II, Smochină backed the authoritarian regime of Ion Antonescu and paid service to Gheorghe Alexianu's Transnistria Governorate. His scientific work included a recovery of pre-Bolshevik or anti-Russian Romanian folklore in Transnistria and beyond. Such activities, along with his exposure of Soviet brutality, made him a wanted man once the communist regime took over in Romania. He was eventually captured, sent to prison and deprived of his academic honors. Partly reinstated by the late 1960s, he spent his final decades encouraging the second-generation communist authorities to take a firmer stand against controversial Soviet policies such as "Moldovenism".

Denis Zmeu

Soccer Midfielder

Denis Zmeu is a Moldovan footballer who can play as a central midfielder.

Victor Bologan

Chess Player

Viktor Bologan is a Moldovan chess grandmaster. On the April 2005 FIDE list, Bologan had an Elo rating of 2700, making him number 18 in the world and Moldova's best chess player. His major accomplishment has been winning the Dortmund Sparkassen 2003, ahead of higher-rated and well-known players such as Vladimir Kramnik, Viswanathan Anand, and Peter Leko. In 2003 he won also the Aeroflot Open, one of the largest open tournaments with 150 grandmasters participating. He won the 2005 Canadian Open Chess Championship. In May 2010, he tied for 1st–2nd with Zahar Efimenko in the 40th Bosna International tournament in Sarajevo. Bologan played for Moldova in the Chess Olympiads of 1992, 1994, 1996, 1998, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008, and 2010.

Roman Greenberg

Professional Boxer

Roman Greenberg is a British-based Israeli heavyweight boxer, currently International Boxing Organization's Intercontinental heavyweight champion, with a 27–1 record. Greenberg has been nicknamed the "Lion from Zion."

Ion Sturza

Politician

Ion Sturza is a Moldovan politician and businessman who served as Prime Minister of Moldova between 19 February 1999 and 9 November 1999.

Vitalie Bordian

Soccer Defender

Vitalie Bordian is a Moldovan football defender who plays for Moldova national football team and FC Volga Nizhny Novgorod in the Russian Premier League.

Igor Țîgîrlaș

Soccer Midfielder

Igor Ţîgîrlaş is a Moldovan football midfielder who currently plays for the Kazakhstan Premier League club Astana. He is also a member of the Moldova national football team.

Natalia Gherman

Diplomat

Natalia Snegur-Gherman is a Moldovan politician.

Alecu Russo

Author

Alecu Russo, was a Moldavian Romanian writer, literary critic and publicist. Russo is credited with having discovered one of the most elaborate forms of the Romanian national folk ballad Mioriţa. He was also a contributor to the Iaşi periodical Zimbrul, in which he published one of his best-known works, Studie Moldovană, in 1851-1852. He also wrote Iaşii şi locuitorii lui în 1840 "Iaşi and its inhabitants in 1840" - a glimpse into Moldavian society during the Organic Statute administration, and two travel accounts, Piatra Teiului and Stânca Corbului. Russo is also notable for his Amintiri, a memoir.

Luda Kroitor

Dancer

Luda Kroitor is the reigning five time world Salsa champion. She is popularly known for her role as dance instructor on Dancing with the Stars. She rose to fame after winning Dancing with the Stars series 8, with her partner Luke Jacobz, who was an actor on Home and Away and McLeod's Daughters. She also won while partnered with singer Johnny Ruffo, in series 12. Luda is married to Matt Wilson and they are expecting a child together.

Yehuda Leib Maimon

Politician

Yehuda Leib Maimon was an Israeli rabbi, politician and leader of the religious Zionism movement, originating from Bessarabia.

Nicolae Simatoc

Soccer

Nicolae Simatoc, aka Miklós Szegedi, was a Romanian footballer who played for a number of clubs throughout Europe, including Ripensia Timişoara and Carmen Bucureşti in Romania, Nagyváradi AC in Hungary, Hungaria FbC Roma, Inter Milan and Brescia in Italy, and Barcelona and Real Oviedo in Spain. After retiting as a player he became a coach, and managed Spanish side UE Lleida between 1959 and 1960, and CE Sabadell FC between 1960 and 1961. He then coached Budapest Sydney.

Alexandrina Hristov

Woman

Alexandrina Hristov is a Moldovan singer currently living in Romania, who became popular with her song "Fata merge pe jos" included in the album "Om de lut" released in 2009. She is also a painter and an actress.

Ilie Cebanu

Soccer Goalkeeper

Ilie Pavel Cebanu is a Moldovan footballer who plays for FC Tom Tomsk.

Alecu Donici

Romanian Speaker

Alecu Donici was a Moldavian-born Romanian poet and translator.

Alexandre Pliuschin

Cyclist

Alexandre Pliuschin is a Moldovan road bicycle racer for UCI Continental Team IAM Cycling. He is a four-time National Road Race Champion; winning in 2008, 2010, 2011 and 2012. Pliuschin also represented Moldova in the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, having participated in the Men's Road Race and the Men's Individual Pursuit.

Nina Karpachova

Politician

Nina Karpachova is a Ukrainian lawyer and politician. She has been Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights since 1998.