State officials express condolences in connection with death of Ivan Bodiul

The President, Head of Parliament and Prime Minister offered their condolences to the family, relatives and all those who knew Ivan Bodiul, the first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Moldovan Soviet Socialist Republic in 1961-1980. Ivan Bodiul passed away on January 27 at the age of 95 in Moscow, where he had lived after retirement, Info-Prim Neo reports. In an obituary issued to the press, it is said that Ivan Bodiul was born in Alexandrovka village of Ukraine’s Nikolaev region, in a family of peasants. After doing his military service, he, as a Moldovan ethnic, was delegated to perform economic and party activities in the Moldovan Soviet Socialist Republic, where he held a number of posts, including of first deputy people’s commissioner for agriculture (1946-1948), first secretary of the Chisinau District Committee of the Communist Party (1951-1952), director of the National House of Agronomists (1952-1954), first secretary of the Volintiri District Committee (1954-1956) and Olanesti District Committee (1956), which now form part of Stefan Voda district. During the next three years, he had studied at the Superior Party School in Moscow. In April 1959, he was sent again to the Moldovan Soviet Socialist Republic, where he served as second secretary (1956-1961) and then first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party. He had held this post for almost 20 years. Ivan Bodiul was conferred the highest honors of the former USSR. In 2003, President Vladimir Voronin awarded him the Order of the Republic, which is Moldova’s most important honor.