Asachi, Gheorghe

Born Mar. 1 (12), 1788, in Gertsa; died Nov. 12 (24), 1869, in Iasi. Moldavian and Rumanian writer and enlightener.

Asachi fought for the development of a national culture at the time of the disintegration of feudalism. He organized the first theater performances in the native language (1816) and published the newspaper Albina Romînească (1829–49) and others. His collections Poems (1836) and Selected Fables (1836) and his historical short stories Princess Roxana (1841), Helen, the Moldavian Girl (1851) and The White Valley (1855), which were patriotic and didactic works, played a well-known role in the history of Moldavian and Rumanian literature.