Ieremia Teodor CecanFull name as rendered in Guțuleac, p. 55 (first name also Jeremia, Eremia or Irimia, last name also Ciocan; ; May 31, 1867 – June 27, 1941) was a Bessarabian-born Romanian journalist, Bessarabian Orthodox priest and political figure. During the first part of his life, he was active in the Bessarabia Governorate of the Russian Empire, earning his reputation as a Christian philanthropist and putting out the pioneering church magazine Nashe Obyedineniye. His opposition to Russification and his advocacy of social improvement led to a public scandal and then to his demotion by church officials, and pushed Cecan into independent journalism. However, his sympathies remained with the conservative-antisemitic Union of the Russian People, developing into a critique of Romanian nationalism that was well liked by the imperial authorities. During the latter stages of World War I, Cecan was a chaplain in the Russian Army.
Opposing the union of Bessarabia with Romania from a conservative position, Cecan fled to Odessa in November 1918. For the following two years, he championed the cause of Russian Bessarabia, and came into contact with the Bolsheviks. He recruited for the Red Army, and was himself drafted in 1919, briefly serving under Mishka Yaponchik. Threatened with retaliation by the White movement, and hoping that Romanian loyalism would save his son from a Romanian prison, he returned to Bessarabia in 1920. During the subsequent two decades, he found himself at odds with the Bessarabian church hierarchs, especially after advocating the preservation of services in Russian and Slavonic. Cecan founded a series of short-lived newspapers in Russian, most of which bridged the distance between the Romanians and the White émigrés. Much of his work focused on attempts at dialogue and reunification between the Orthodox and the Catholics, sparking controversy among his colleagues in the Romanian Orthodox Church, but earning notoriety in Western circles. He maintained to his death the vision of a "world church" centered on anti-communism and anti-Masonry, which, in Cecan's opinion, were intertwined.
In the 1920 and early '30s, Cecan became a perennial candidate in elections for the Parliament of Romania. In 1933, retired from active priesthood and finally defrocked, he veered toward Nazism, which he considered a manifestation of Christian socialism. He served for as regional president of the Romanian National Socialist Party, and put out its Russian-language newspaper, Telegraf. When the party fell apart, Cecan attempted to resume his political career with the Iron Guard and the National Renaissance Front. His final activities in the press evidenced his turn to anti-fascism, condemnation of antisemitism, and admiration for the Soviet Union. Increasingly isolated during the final stages of his life, he focused on his work as an agricultural inventor. Cecan was captured by the Soviets during the 1940 occupation of Bessarabia, then sentenced to death for his anti-communist past. He was ultimately shot in Tiraspol during the retreat of June 1941.
Biography In the Russian Empire Cecan was born among the Romanians of Novoselitsa (Noua Suliță or Novoselytsia)Colesnic, p. 369; Scutaru, p. 66 or Beleuța village, Hotin County.Guțuleac, p. 55; Șornikov, p. 142 Both were located in the northern tip of the Bessarabia Governorate, Russia (now in Chernivtsi Oblast, Ukraine). His native area had been split from ancient Moldavia; Western Moldavia remained in Romania, whereas the Moldavian sub-region of Bukovina, just west of Novoselitsa, was administered by Austria-Hungary. Ieremia Teodor's original surname was Ciocan ("hammer"), which was approximated into Russian as Chekan, then mutated back into Romanian as Cecan.Colesnic, p. 369. See also Dumbrăveanu, p. 11 He went on to study in Kishinev (Chișinău), training at the Theological Seminary (in 1889). He began his mission as a priest in Kotylevo, just outside Novoselitsa, before being assigned the central Bessarabian parish of Roșcani, then transferred to Nișcani.Șornikov, pp. 142–143. See also Colesnic, pp. 369–370; Scutaru, p. 66 In 1910 Cecan built a new local church, its inauguration attended by Governor Ivan Kankrin and Marshal of Nobility Alexander N. Krupensky.Ion Muscalu, "Din Basarabia", in Neamul Românesc, Issue 120/1910, p. 1914 His activity doubled as a schoolteacher and catechist, allowing him to open the Nișcani parish school, after running a successful fundraiser in 1912; he then did the same for the communities of Răciula and Păulești.Șornikov, pp. 143, 144 He was by then married and had five children of his own: Lyudmila, Zinaida, Alexander, Nikolai, and Boris.Șornikov, p. 142
The Eparchy of Kishinev and Khotin appointed Cecan as its "spiritual investigator" in Orhei County, and also assigned him to an unpaid position at the Diocesan Temperance Committee.Șornikov, p. 143 He recommended himself as an early champion of the lower classes: "To the end of his days, he remained proud of the fact that he had achieved the dismissal of a zemstvo chief, who struck a peasant in the face."Șornikov, p. 144 While active in his parishes, Cecan also furthered his studies in theology at Kiev Academy. He became a passionate reader and follower of Vladimir Solovyov, as well as a speaker for the reunification of Orthodoxy and Catholicism.Naghiu, p. 2 In his later articles on the subject, Cecan favored leniency toward the use of Filioque in the Nicene Creed and accepted the doctrine of papal infallibility.Naghiu, pp. 2–4
Officially, Cecan favored Russification and displayed his support for the House of Romanov and Tsarist autocracy—by 1906, he had joined the Union of the Russian People (SRN, known locally as the "League of True Russians"), serving as a member of its executive board in Călărași.Alexis Nour, "Scrisorĭ din Basarabia III. Liga 'adevăraților rușĭ' în Basarabia", in Adevărul, December 31, 1906, p. 1 Cecan "was co-opted into the union's leadership in 1907 and served as the official Bessarabian representative within the union's Main Board."Cușco, p. 21 Later, he put up some opposition to Archbishop Seraphim Chichagov, who opposed all forms of Romanian nationalism. On the archbishop's orders, the Eparchy began putting out journals with increasingly Russified content, and also with shows of support for the monarchy.Scutaru, pp. 62–63 As seen by historian Piotr Șornikov, Cecan was an exponent of "Moldavian patriotism" during the Russian Revolution of 1905; this meant advocating for Bessarabian autonomy and language rights in the province, while expressing loyalty toward the Romanovs' "Russian statism".Șornikov, pp. 143–144 The outlook was shaped by Seraphim, whom historian Andrei Cușco depicts as "the first Moldovanist"; Seraphim himself "articulate[d] the idea of the fundamental difference and even antagonism between Moldovan and Romanian linguistic identity".Cușco, pp. 17–18
From December 18, 1909,Serjant, p. 324 Cecan and his wife Eugenia began putting out Nashe Obyedineniye ("Our Association" or "Our Union"). Presumably "the only private-owned church magazine" in early 20th-century Russia,Colesnic, pp. 371–372; Danilov, p. 114. See also Șornikov, p. 144 it had a maximum of 800 copies per issue. Although mostly in Russian, this publication was mainly aimed at the Bessarabian–Moldavian priests and other Romanian-speaking intellectuals. Its Romanian-language content was directed at the peasants and the schoolteachers, focusing on ideals of social improvement and education.Colesnic, p. 371; Dumbrăveanu, p. 12; Serjant, p. 324. See also Șornikov, pp. 143–144 These were regarded as independent and progressive stances—for such reasons, it came to be indexed by Okhrana agents.Colesnic, pp. 369–371; Danilov, pp. 113–114; Scutaru, p. 63
As a Romanian nationalist, Ion Pelivan doubts that Nashe Obyedineniye was ever pro-Romanian in content: "[it] came out with corresponding text in Roumanian to fight against the increasing influence of Roumanian newspapers."Pelivan, p. 10 Similarly, in a Bessarabian column published by Neamul Românesc in October 1910, Cecan's paper was described as a "clerical gazette", whose Moldavian-only content was to "facilitate the learning of Russian by the Moldavians." It called Cecan (or "Ciocan") a "Russified Romanian priest". Criticized by Seraphim and by the conservative Russian press (the journals Besarabskaya Zhizn and Drug), Nashe Obyedineniye closed down formally in August 1911 and reemerged instantly as Obyedineniye, with Eugenia Cecan for its editor.Colesnic, p. 371; Danilov, p. 114; Serjant, pp. 324–325. See also Dumbrăveanu, pp. 11–12 Published from Nișcani, it drew contributions from Orthodox intellectuals such as Andrei Murafa.Dumbrăveanu, pp. 11–12 Despite being identified as anti-conservative dissenters, the Cecans generally took up the cause of far-right Russian nationalism. In its pages, Obyedineniye expressed full support for the SRN, and in particular for the antisemitic agitator Pavel Krushevan.Colesnic, pp. 370–372; Dumbrăveanu, pp. 11–12; Scutaru, p. 63. See also Danilov, p. 114; Șornikov, p. 144; Stratulat (2001), p. 154
Reportedly, Father Ieremia was also co-opted by his former critics at Drug, which was otherwise noted for its strong expressions of anti-Romanian sentiment. In preparation for the legislative election of September 1912, he was called upon by Alexander Makarov, the Russian Minister of Internal Affairs, to oversee the election and ensure that overt expressions of Romanian nationalism were being marginalized. Cecan and Alexandru Baltagă founded some 29 electoral committees on Eparchy grounds. This led them into open conflict with Archbishop Seraphim, who had ordered his clergy not to interfere with politics.Colesnic, p. 370; Dumbrăveanu, p. 12; Scutaru, p. 66 After signing their names to a letter of protest against Seraphim's "absolutism", Cecan and Baltagă were demoted and stripped of their parishes.Colesnic, p. 370 Obyedineniye put out its last issue on August 23, 1912.
World War I and revolutionary exile Șornikov notes that, although in conflict with Seraphim and threatened to lose his income, Cecan was honored by the Russian authorities. Awards he received included medals marking the annexation of Bessarabia centennial (1912) and the 300th anniversary of the Romanovs (1913), as well as the Order of Saint Anna, 3rd class.Șornikov, pp. 144–145 Reassigned to the Kishinev Church of the Nativity, where he opened a school, Cecan was finally able to resume his journalistic activity, founding, in 1914, the newspaper Bessarabets.Colesnic, p. 372. See also Danilov, p. 128; Dumbrăveanu, p. 12 He was moderating his stances: although still representing the "right-wing section of the Eparchy", he opened up to former adversaries on the right and the left, together with whom he put out Bessarabya (1914), then Bessarabaskaya Pochta and Nash Dolg (both 1915).Colesnic, p. 372; Șornikov, p. 145 The latter functioned as an appendage of the Church of the Nativity and its orphanage.
During World War I, Cecan enjoyed friendly contacts with the eparchy's officials, who allowed him to publish in the official bulletin, Kishinyovskie Eparhial'nye Vedomosti. In August 1915, he contributed therein a piece in favor of agricultural schools for the newly orphaned. He argued that doing so would empower the future peasants economically and ensure that they remained patriotic and proud citizens of the Empire.Dumbrăveanu, pp. 10–11, 12 Sociologist Andrei Dumbrăveanu describes this text as proof that Cecan, "many times defeated, arrived, whether aware or unwitting, at shaping the minds of Bessarabians as required in times of war."Dumbrăveanu, p. 12 The following year, Cecan was designated as editor of the revamped Kishinyovskie Eparhial'nye Vedomosti, though this revival never actually took place.Serjant, p. 325 Pelivan notes that, like Drug, Bessarabya was receiving secret funding from the