Ioan Frimu

Born Oct. 4, 1871, in the village of Bîrzesti, Vas-lui District; died Feb. 6, 1919, in Bucharest. Figure in the Rumanian working-class movement.

A carpenter by trade, Frimu joined the revolutionary movement in 1891. He helped organize the Social Democratic Party of the Workers of Rumania (SDPWR) in 1893 and became a member of the editorial board of the party’s central press organ, the newspaper România muncitoare, in 1902. In 1908 he became a leader of the Socialist Union of Rumania.

In 1910, Frimu opened the First Congress of the revived SDPWR, now called the Social Democratic Party of Rumania. In 1911 he maintained ties with V. I. Lenin. Frimu was a delegate to the Third Zimmerwald Conference, which took place in Stockholm in September 1917. In December 1918 he helped organize workers’ demonstrations in Bucharest and the provinces. Frimu was arrested and died in prison.