Mircea Snegur (17 January 1940-13 September 2023) was head of state of the Moldavian SSR from 27 April to 3 September 1990 (succeeding Ion C. Ciobanu) and President of Moldova from 3 September 1990 to 15 January 1997 (preceding Petru Lucinschi).
Biography[]
Mircea Snegur was born in Trifanesti, Romania (now Moldova) on 17 January 1940, and he was trained as an agronomist before working as the director of a kolkhoz agricultural directive from 1961 to 1968 and later as an official at the Ministry of Agriculture. Having joined the Communist Party of Moldova in 1964, he became secretary of the Communist Party committee of the Edinet district in 1981, serving until 1985. That year, he became Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Moldavian SSR, serving until 1989, when he became head of state as Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet. On 27 August 1991, he was elected the first President of Moldova on Moldovan independence, and he was opposed to immediate reunification with Romania. He signed the act that made Moldova a member of the Commonwealth of Independent States in December 1991 and the United Nations in March 1992, and a new constitution was adopted in June 1994. In 1995, Snegur founded the Party of Rebirth and Conciliation of Moldova (PRCM), but he was defeated for re-election in 1996 and left office in 1997.