Krihan, Anton

Born in the Singerei of the Beletsky district .

On the male line, Anton Krihan came from the ancient boyar clan Krihan, the first mention of which dates back to the reign of Stefan the Great (1457-1504) ^[1] . According to the letter of acknowledgment of the gospel of Constantine the Grave ^[2] , the ancestors of Anton Krikhan had the boyar title "butler".

In 1914, Krihan graduated from the lyceum for young men. He participated in the First World War as an officer of the Russian army. In 1917 he graduated from the Faculty of Economics of Novorossiysk University . He headed the party of Moldavian Socialist Revolutionaries ^[3] .

In 1918 he moved to Iasi , and while still an officer in the Russian army , Anton Krikhan, together with captain Emanuel Catelli, with the consent of the white general D. G. Shcherbachev, organized the Moldovan cohorts - armed formations of the Bessarabian troops, reorganized in Odessa under the Moldovan command during the random retreat of the Russians divisions from the Romanian front to protect the local civilian population from criminals released from prisons by Kerensky ^[4] . Cohorts got their name by analogy with units of the ancient Roman army .

In 1919, Krihan along with P. Khalippa , , , , , , and joined the steering committee of the credit union, created to assist the Bessarabian peasants in connection with land reform.

He was elected deputy of the Romanian parliament five times (in 1919, 1920, 1922, 1932 and 1937), was a minister without a portfolio in the Romanian government .

In 1924, Crihan was part of the Romanian delegation at the Romanian-Soviet conference in Vienna .

He actively participated in the political life of the Romanian kingdom. Adhered to conservative, nationalist and anti-communist views. He was a supporter of the constitutional monarchy and was a member of the leadership of the .

In 1924 he graduated from the Faculty of Law in Bucharest.

In 1925, a village in the Orhei region was named after Krihan.

In 1934, Krihan received a doctorate in political and economic sciences from the Sorbonne . In the period from 1934 to 1945 he taught at the Iasi Polytechnic Institute.

After the war ended, Krihan went underground, and in 1948 he crossed the border with Yugoslavia on foot and emigrated to France. For some time he taught history and literature at the Sorbonne .

On August 23, 1946, the general meeting of the peasants of the village of Krikhan decided to rename the village to the new name Novoselovka. On September 25, 1946, the Kiperchensky District Executive Committee of Orhei Uyezd of the MSSR approved the decision of the general meeting and sent the relevant documents to the Orhei Uezdispolk. Similar decisions were made regarding villages named after Ion Inkults and Ion Pelivan . The village of Inkulets was renamed Ustye, and the village of Pelivan was renamed New Mitok. Subsequently, the original names were returned to all villages.

In 1951, Crihan left for the United States, where he lectured and wrote articles and books, upholding the reunification of Moldova and Romania. At the request of the King of Romania, Mihai Anton Crichan was appointed a member of the Romanian National Committee in exile.

In emigration, Krihan married Olivia Lula, niece of Peter the Storm .

He died in St. Louis in 1993 from cancer, being at an advanced age and being the last living member of the Sfatul Tsarii. According to his last will, he was buried in his homeland next to his mother’s grave at the Central Cemetery in Chisinau .

In 1917, Anton Crihan joined the Sfatul Tsarii according to the list of the .

As a member of the Sfatul Tsarii, he headed the agrarian committee, and after the proclamation of the Moldavian Democratic Republic, he voted for its incorporation into Romania . In addition to the agrarian committee, Crihan led the establishment of Casa Noastră (Our Home), which was involved in the development of land reform.

After Bessarabia became part of the Romanian kingdom, Krihan, along with Khalippa and others, joined the and became its vice president.

In 1922, a split occurred in the Bessarabian Peasant Party. The inculc , taking the post of Minister for Bessarabia, created a new committee along with Puntei and Byrka. Pelivan and Krihan took a more radical position and accused Inkults of sabotage. As a result, the Inkults group joined the . The Bessarabian peasant party lasted, led by Pelivan, for another year, after which it joined the .

In 1926, despite serious ideological disagreements, the Romanian National Party merged with the Peasant Party into the . Anton Krihan entered her leadership. The leader of the new party was Julio Maniu .

On November 25, 1937, the National Peasant Party, the National Liberal Party, and the Iron Guard entered into an election alliance. Maniu considered this alliance a platform against the establishment of a royal dictatorship. None of the three parties won the election, which allowed Carol II to appoint Octavian Gogu as prime minister. On February 10, 1938, the regime of the royal dictatorship was established and enshrined in the new Constitution. Octavian Goga was fired. This meant the end for the direct participation of most of the Romanian politicians and parties in the life of the country.

• Capitalul străin în Rusia (1915)
• Chestiunea agrară în Basarabia (1917)
• Cum s'a facut unirea Basarabiei cu România (1969)
• O scrisoare catre Generalul C. Petre-Lazar (1976)
• Romanian Rights to Bessarabia According to Certain Russian Sources (1986)

Awards of the Russian Empire :

• Order of St. George (III degree)
• Order of St. Anne (III and IV degrees)
• Order of St. Stanislav (II and III degree)

Romanian Awards :

• Order of the Star of Romania (officer)
• Order of Ferdinand I (officer)

• In honor of Anton Krihan in 1925 the village of Krihan was named. In Soviet times, it was renamed Novosyolovka ^[5] . In 1999, the village was returned to its historical name. The commune, which includes the village, was also called Krihan.
• In 2007, journalist wrote a book about Anton Crihan.
• In 2013, the Moldovan Post issued a stamp dedicated to Anton Crihan.
• The name of the last deputy of the Parliament of the Moldavian Democratic Republic Anton Crihan is the streets in Iasi , Chisinau , Ungheni , Soroca and Singerei .
• In 2018, a public library was named in honor of Anton Krikhan in the commune of Parkov . Also in Parkov, Anton Krihan was installed a memorial plaque.

In honor of Krihan educational institutions are named:

• Gymnasium No. 4 “Anton Krikhan” in the town of Singerei ;
• Secondary school No. 2 "Anton Krihan" in the city of Singer .

• Sfatul Tsariy
• The movement for the unification of Romania and Moldova
• Greater Romania

• Anton Crihan Dead; Moldova Exile, 99, Escaped Soviet Rule (English)
• Death - Newspaper Kommersant No. 12 (235) from 01/26/1993