Ion Druță, the writer of the Moldovan countryside

Ion Druță was a prose writer and playwright who made the village life of Bessarabia the centre of Moldovan literature. From 1969 he lived in Moscow and wrote in both Romanian and Russian. He died in 2023 at the age of 95 and, at his own request, was buried in Soroca.

Link with MoldovaIon Druță was born in Horodiște in northern Moldova, wrote about the Moldovan countryside and since 2023 has lain buried in Soroca, beside the Lumânarea Recunoștinței monument that he himself had erected.

Druță was born on 3 September 1928 in Horodiște, then in the Romanian county of Soroca and now in Dondușeni district. He attended a forestry school and later the higher literary courses at the Gorky Institute in Moscow. His first stories appeared in the early 1950s. Well-known works include Frunze de dor, Balade din câmpie (State Prize of the Moldavian SSR in 1967), Povara bunătății noastre (The burden of our kindness), Clopotnița, Biserica albă and Păsările tinereții noastre (1971). From 1960 he also wrote in Russian, and in 1969 he moved to Moscow.

In the late 1980s he was one of the leading figures of the national movement in Moldova, and in 1989 he became a People's Deputy of the USSR. Later his stance in the language debate became more ambiguous. He was made an honorary member of the Romanian Academy in 1990 and a member of the Academy of Sciences of Moldova in 1992, and he received the Order of the Republic in 1993.

The link with Moldova

Druță was the driving force behind the Lumânarea Recunoștinței (Candle of Gratitude), a monument some 29.5 metres high on a hill above the Nistru in Soroca, unveiled on 27 March 2004.

Where you will find him

He died in Moscow on 28 September 2023. On 2 October, a day of national mourning, he was buried in Soroca as his will requested, after a service at the Candle. If you visit Soroca Fortress, the monument is easy to add to your trip.