Origins and early career Chioru was a native of
Cartal village in
southern Bessarabia; at the time, the area was in the
Bessarabia Governorate of the
Russian Empire, through
Izmailsky Uyezd (now in Ukraine's
Izmail Raion). His exact birth date, according to later scholarship, is 2 April 1902. He is known to have been enrolled at
Bolhrad High School around the time when Bessarabia achieved independence as the
Moldavian Democratic Republic. He appeared as a singer of folk melodies for a number of benefit concerts, gathering funds for survivors of the
Volga famine. He then emerged as first secretary of the
Ukrainian Komsomol's chapter in the newly formed Moldavian polity; this period saw his first contributions to Soviet propaganda, the brochures
Что такое комсомол ("What Is the Komsomol?", 1925) and
Наша смена – пионе-ры ("Our Shift: The
Pioneers", 1926). Chioru's own interest in the linguistic field led him to serve as publisher of a Russian–Moldovan dictionary, compiled by
Gavril Buciușcan in 1926; he shared editorial credits with writer
Dmitrii Milev. Reviewing this contribution, historian Marius Tărîță notes that, though maintaining a
localized Cyrillic script, it did not yet endorse claims that "Moldovan" was wholly distinct from
Romanian.
Language creation Chioru's experiment with language began in September 1926, when he was assigned as director of the MASSR Scientific Committee—this institute only had one functioning section, dedicated to linguistics and led by the grammarian
Leonid Madan. Looking back on this activity some four years later, Chioru argued that Romanian was not just different from Moldovan, but also "incomprehensible" to speakers of the latter (though he also reported his annoyance that many inhabitants of the MASSR, including "very esteemed scientific cadres", "believe that the Moldovan and Romanian languages are one and the same"). He served as Commissar for Education between 1928 and 1930, when, as philologist
Vasile Bahnaru notes, he argued for the political channeling of linguistics; he supported an emphasis on the differences between the archaic
Moldavian dialect and the modernized Romanian language, proposing that the communists could engineer a Moldovan language out of the former; on this basis, Chioru suggested that Romanian was a language of the "exploiters", whereas Moldovan was one for the "exploited". He took personal charge of the project, superseding Buciușcan's dictionary with his own works in lexicography and a tract,
Dispri orfografia linghii moldovinești (appearing at
Bîrzu in 1929); "either by the choice of Chior or through additions and alterations by the editors", these recommended a
Russified lexis, with terms such as
soiuz for "union" (instead of the Romanian
unire). In his report of November 1929, Chioru asserted that creating new languages was an all-Union process, involving many other
Soviet languages; in his introduction to one of Madan's handbooks, he denounced Buciușcan's standard as too Romanian. In terms of orthography, Chioru favored revamping Cyrillic with direct borrowings from the
Russian alphabet—including
я and
ю—arguing that this was a "democratic, simplified and scientific" approach. Reviewing his contribution, linguist Anatol Lența observes that it "completely changed" the familiar standards of the
Romanian Cyrillic alphabet, being conducive of Russification. Chioru and Milev endorsed Madan, who also invited writers to fabricate a "Moldavian socialist" lexis. With I. Cușmăunsă, they co-wrote an appeal which argued that: "We have no need for
Romanian literary grammar, since that sort of grammar would completely stifle our Moldavian language" (Ноауы ну ни требуи граматикы литерары ромыниаскы кэч ку ашэ граматикы ной ом ынабушы ди тэт лимба ноастры молдовинясы). In 1930, Chioru acknowledged that he was more interested in creating a "mother tongue" and "living language", rather than a full-blown Moldovan
literary language; he also reported being uninterested in the historical background of the MASSR vernacular, simply describing the topic as "difficult". Once he switched focus toward literary expression, he moderated his stance, favoring
old Romanian sources and a reliance on the speech patterns of his native Bessarabia—thereby isolating himself from other activists, who wanted a language based on the comparatively exotic speech patterns of
Dubăsari. Chioru also admired the Romanian folklorist
Vasile Alecsandri, wishing to imitate his work in the field. He repeatedly urged all local communists to become well acquainted with what he termed "
Moldavian literature", and also to promote it in the villages. As noted by ethnographer Maria Ciocanu, Chioru's own activity "the first Soviet Moldovan folklorist" was colored by his other identity, that of a "combative
Marxist ideologue". His research of
Romanian folklore, including the 1927 book
Zicătoarele moldovenești ("Moldavian Sayings"), only compiled that which "agreed with Soviet ideology". His output as a musicologist included a book of "revolutionary songs", co-written alongside the composer Mihail Bak and printed at Balta at an unknown date (possibly in the late 1920s). Chioru had personally handled their translation into Russian, and had written down the corresponding musical scores, expressing a hope that choirs would be formed "in every village". The book unusually featured a
Romanian nationalist anthem,
Hora Unirii, presented here as the "
Hora of the Workers". In 1928, Chioru became involved in the Moldovanization campaign, announced by
Iosif Badeev as a standard policy of the
Moldavian Communist Regional Committee (Obkom). Both Badeev and Chioru explained that the Soviet Union was preparing for war with the
Kingdom of Romania, and stood to conquer Bessarabia (defined as "an inalienable part of Soviet Moldavia"). When he asked for the literary standard to be based on the core Bessarabian dialect, he noted that such a choice "would facilitate the national liberation of all Moldovans." Chioru advocated Moldovenization as a "grand rehearsal", at the end of which MASSR "cadres" would be ready to "pass into Bessarabia" and take over its administration. Despite the revolutionary content of
Zicătoarele (including the cover featuring the
proletarian-internationalist slogan, "
Workers of the world, unite!"), he found himself criticized for including samples from throughout the region of
Moldavia (including
Western Moldavia), as well as an adaptation of lyrics by
Mihai Eminescu. Historian Petru Negură believes that Chioru, like his fellow writer
Samuil Lehtțir, either did not know, or pretended not to know, that Eminescu's poetry was not peasant folklore. The Chioru collection earned praise from the refugee anti-communist scholar,
Nichita Smochină, who noted that he had transported Alecsandri's standards into the MASSR, while at the same time introducing Romanians to Moldavian folklore from as far afield as the
Caucasus.
Downfall and posterity Chioru's toned-down approach, which included finding linguistic inspiration in the chronicles of the old Moldavian principality, earned praise from a fellow communist leader, Ion Ocinschi. The latter recalled that Chioru had also authored a dictionary, which was in itself "progressive, and had a positive role" (despite the author being "poorly prepared"). Criticized by others for his approach to Moldovanization, Chioru justified himself as backed by
Korenizatsiia. In a June 1928 letter to
Lazar Kaganovich, who was serving as the
Ukrainian First Secretary, Chioru explained: "I see
Ukrainization as no worse than Moldovanization, for example, and I will carry out 'Georgianization' no less than a Georgian if I am sent to work in
Georgia tomorrow, because the understanding of this need was instilled in me by the party as a school of revolution". In some instances, Chioru followed the
Romanian Academy standard, but criticized Romanian communist emigrants to the MASSR for their usage of
Frenchified terms. From 1932, Chioru was an enthusiastic supporter of
Soviet Latinization campaigns, which effectively brought the
Romanian alphabet into the MASSR. Moreover: "According to some participants in the events, the initiative for Latinization and rapprochement of Moldovan and Romanian cultures came from Stalin himself." It was as a result of this transition, and also because of the perceived failures of Moldovan nationalism, that Chioru lost his position at the Scientific Committee in 1931. His immediate successor was Ochinschi, who proceeded to attack Madan as an alleged "counter-revolutionary", and demanded that Latinization be pursued alongside lexical diversification; as Chelaru notes: "Briefly, the new official language in the MASSR was in no way different than the language spoken in Romania." During the peak of such campaigns, Chioru was absent from the republic, having been sent to Moscow. As argued by historian Oleg Galushenko, he was possibly being considered for a high-ranking position in the MASSR's administrative apparatus. Still invested in the promotion of Moldovan folklore, he made a point of attending performances by a locally famous
Lăutar, Gheorghe Murgu. Chioru was arrested by the
NKVD in either June (all other
Plugarul Roșu staff members had been similarly rounded up during one night). During his interrogation, he and
Ivan Krivorukov both "confessed to having been part of a nationalistic plot" led by the disgraced communist
Grigore Starîi. Historians Gheorghe Negru and
Mihail Tașcă validate the latter date, but also note that on Chioru and Badeev, alongside 16 others death-row inmates, actually received a
stay of execution on 11 October, through a decision made by
Nikolai Yezhov. Smochină recorded claims that copies of Chioru's works had been burned by the Soviet authorities, since they showed a "spiritual unity of Romanians across all the lands." ==Legacy==