(14.2.1935 – 18.1.2009)

While still a student at the Chișinău Pedagogical Institute, the 22-year-old Vieru published his first book for children, Alarm, through which he discovered his vocation – to teach children through poetry, songs and fairy tales.

Yet the title of his collection Thank You for the World reveals that his greatest teachers were, in fact, the youngest among us. For only through the purity of a child’s eyes can the extraordinary within the ordinary be seen.

It was for children that he created his poetic primer The Little Bee, through which first-graders in Moldova discover the magic of letters. Through his journalism, Grigore Vieru also defended the independence and national culture of present-day Bessarabia.

The bas-relief was created by Valeri Zhelyazkov.