Well-known Moldovan writer passes away

Chisinau, 3 July /MOLDPRES/ - A literary critic, poet, prose writer and publicist, holder of the Order of the Republic Ion Ciocanu died at the age of 81 on 2 July.
The sad news was confirmed by the departed writer’s daughter Argentina Ciocanu-Gribincea, and the secretary of the Moldovan Writers’ Union (USM), Titus Stirbu.  
Contacted by MOLDPRES, the USM head, Arcadie Suceveanu, said that Ion Ciocanu till 1989 had been regarded as a writer susceptible of subversive actions. ‘’He was attentively tolerated by the Communist regime and this given that he  always had a moral and national attitude towards our pressing problems. He was one of the ardent fighters for the scientific and historical truth in the years of the national liberation movement,’’ Arcadie Suceveanu noted.    
Ion Ciocanu was born in the Tabani village, northern Briceni district, on 18 January 1940. In 1962, he graduated from the Moldovan State University. The writer was editor, deputy chief editor of the Cartea Moldovenească publishing house, director of the Hyperion publishing house, director general of the State Department for Languages, scientific researcher at the Literature and Folklore Institute of the Moldovan Academy of Sciences.   
Ciocanu wrote more than 3,000 articles and over 40 books of literary and historical criticism, social linguistics, language cultivation, including scientific studies and articles, three monographs and two textbooks. The writer was awarded the Labour Glory order and the Order of the Republic.   
Ion Ciocanu will be buried at the Central Cemetery on the Armeneasca Street from Chisinau.