Capt. Vicentiu Livovschi & Family during ca 1912, Buzau

Captain Pharmacist Vicentiu Vicentiu Livovschi Roman, aged 33 with his wife Stefania Burada, aged 29 and three of their five children (from left to right): Victor (aged 4 ). Angelica (aged 3) and Valeriu (aged 6).

Capt Vicentiu Livovschi on the Bulgarian Front, during the Second Balkan War (1913). This is the official Wedding Photo of his Orderly who married a Bulgarian native girl from Shivitza. At the wedding ceremony Capt Livovschi acted as Witness in Church

Vicentiu was a graduate in Pharmacy of the University of Bucharest (1896-1900) after which he did his military service (1900-1902) with the Tulcea  nr 33 Regiment (Dorobanti) where he gained the grade of Captain. He served in the second Balkan War (1912-1913) on the Bulgarian front at the end of which he took a lease of the Drogheria Centrala, in Buzau, situated opposite the town hall on strada Targului.

At the beginning of the Great War in 1916 as Romania was occupied by the Prussian armies, Livovschi entrusted his Pharmacy to an administrator. He was drafted as Major in the Army’s Medical Corps being posted to the Military HQ Hospital  nr 6, alongside Drs Varlam, Amza Jianu and Victor Gomoiu.

Dr Victor Gomoiu (left) and Vicentiu Livovschi at the Annual Meeting of the Association of Army Reservists (Uniunea Ofiterilor in Rezerva) 1935

In the wake of the advance of the German armies, Major Livovschi commandeered a train to evacuate refugees from Buzau to  Northern Moldavia which was not yet occupied by the Germans. During the rout of the Romanian Armies Vicentiu’s family suffered severe losses with a brother killed at the Caineni Pass in the Carpathians and another brother suffering from shell shock of which he died later.

On his way to Northern Moldavia, Vicentiu’s train was diverted from Buzau to Brasov, a city of Transylvania which was under imminent threat of occupation by the Germans. Here he managed to organize the evacuation of 3,000 wounded soldiers from the Military Hospital in Brasov and move them to the relative safety of the unoccupied territory, no mean feat given the chaos of the country and the total lack of logistic resources.

On 24 Jul 1917, by Royal Decree, published in the official  newspaper  “Romania” nr 169, of  the Royal Romanian Army’s General HQ at Iasi: Captain V.Z.Livovschi was,  “Granted the Order of the Crown of Romania with swords (Coroana Romaniei cu Spade),  with the grade of Knight (Cavaler) to Pharmacist Captain (Reserve) Vicentiu Zenovie Livovschi, for the Evacuation of the Military Hospital nr 3, for having  frustrated the enemy from capturing several trains laden with wounded soldiers and equipment, from the city of Brasov, in September 1916”  (N.B. it refers to  the evacuation from Brasov of 3,000  wounded  soldiers and medical equipment during a single night, when the Romanian troops withdrew from Transylvania in the wake of German advance)

On the Moldavian front Livovschi who spoke Russian,  was a liaison officer with the Imperial Russian Armies Command, a task for which he was awarded by Czar Nicholas II the Order of St Stanislas.

Romanian Army Gas Warfare Eschool at Cernauti under the Command of Major V. Livovschi 1919

During the war, Vicentiu’s family joined him in Moldavia, settling in the village of Podul Iloaiei,  near Iasi, where the youngest daughter Mariana was born.
In 1919 he was promoted to Lieut Colonel and on being demobilised he became a Colonel for his services in organizing the School of Gas Warfare (Scoala de Gaze) at Chisnau in 1919.

After the war he became President of the Association of Demobilised Officers, (UOR – Uniunea Ofiterilor in Rezerva) having as secretary his cousin Victor Stanescu. He was President of the Red Cross, Deputy Mayor of Buzau, President of the Association “Amicii Artei” ( Friends of the Arts), which had a theatre and an orchestra and  founded with members of his family the town’s first musical Quartet.

On his return from the Great War, between 1920 and 1941  Vicentiu Livovschi took an active part in the

Colonel Vicentiu Livovschi on Remembrance Day parade in Buzau 1935

town’s cultural and civic life. In his professional field as a pharmacist he created in his laboratory new beauty products  (crema “Si”, pudra “Do”) and was running a thriving Pharmacy.

Deputy Mayor Livovschi (Panama hat) inaugurating the town's first modern fire engine of Buzau in July 1928

As Deputy Mayor of Buzau,  he tabled the motion of providing the town’s  first modern fire engine to replace the antiquated horse-drawn water pump.

Vicentiu Livovschi, Commander of the Buzau Boyscouts (Cohorta Buzau) ca 1923

In 1920, with the help of his eldest son Valeriu,  Vicentiu Livovschi founded the County’s Boyscout movement (Cohorta Buzau), whose Commander he was. As such he organized at Mamaia, annual summer camps for the boyscouts. These are mentioned by Mircea Eliade in his “Memoirs of the Equinox” and in his novel “Romanul unui adolescent miop”. Vicentiu Livovschi further served as  Governor of the Boys Technical College (Liceul Industrial de Baieti, Buzau) .

Vicentiu Livovschi in his Pharmacy Laboratory in Buzau where he prepared new beauty products

In Buzau he registered a patent nr 21033 (model V.Z.Livovsky) for “Camping-Comfort” a portable suitcase-bed-table-tent-luggage, awarded the gold medal at the National Exhibition of Inventions and national products, under the patronage of the Romanian Ministry for Industry and Commerce.

His house and pharmacy in downtown Buzau were burned down during the retreat of the German armies in 1944, Two years later in 1946 he rebuilt the Pharmacyonly to have it confiscated and nationalised in June 1948 by the communist regime. Like the entire professional elite of a country which he served well, he was left in his retirement without any means of survival other then depending on the financial help of his four children. He was lucky not to die a political prisoner during the witch hunt which destroyed most of his generation: although living at the limit of poverty he remained to the end  optimistic and dignified until his demise in Bucharest, in the 1950s.

Romanian Royal Cavalry 'The Redcoats' (Rosiori) Regiment - whose Honorary Colonel in Chief was Princess Marie of Edinburgh, spouse of Prince Ferdinand of Hohenzollern- Heir to the Romanian throne.

From the 1840s onwards the children of Romanian nobility were educated in Paris, Rome, Vienna, Budapest or Berlin, bringing back some modern and even revolutionary ideas: manners, dress, culture, emancipation, freedom. It was only with the consolidation of Romanian monarchy first as a Principality, under Alexandru Ioan Cuza  (1859-1866) and from 1866 onwards under Prince Carol of Hohenzollern  that Romania was recognized as an independent Kingdom, following the  1877 War of Independence sealed by  the Treaty of Berlin. As a result of these historic changes the urgent need for skilled professionals increased  and Romanians started to graduate in significant numbers from native Universities in Bucharest and Iasi respectively. The peasantry remained largely illiterate with the exception of  village priests who could read and write  and who doubled as village teachers. By the 1880s, after the War of independence, the children of these Orthodox prelates aspired to a higher education in the cities – the daughters went to private colleges – either convent schools, often run by the Catholic nuns (Baratie cathedral School, Notre Dame de Sion) or private boarding schools (such as Pensionul Pompilian) where they were taught foreign languages, music, painting and embroidery.
From 1890s onwards we find some young ladies who, after graduating from boarding colleges or convent schools, wanted to be  gain a University education  at  the Faculties of Pharmacy, Medicine, Architecture Law or the Music Conservatoire, although for them professional emancipation was slow to come. By contrast, their male counterparts  benefited fully from the Kingdom’s economic growth   to start filling civil service positions previously held by foreigners -  Austrian, German or French graduates. This marked the birth and ascendancy of the native Romanian professional and political classes from 1880 to 1947.

With the occupation of the Soviet armies in 1944 and sudden imposition of a new (communist) order, those professionals who resisted the change and who practiced liberal professions (in Pharmacy, Medicine, Law, Finance or served in  the Army) and did not join the Communist Party,  were at best expropriated, or marginalised, left without any means of survival. This fledgling middle class  was systematically destroyed by being dragged to jail on trumped up charges, forced into hard labour  camps, digging the Danube-Black Sea Canal, harvesting reeds in the Danube Delta, or working as  slave labour  in the Carpathian copper mines.

From 1949 onwards  the Communist Party devised fast-track courses for “reliable” substitutes, selected  from people with no previous college education to “qualify” as engineers, leaders of Industry or hospitals: this system involved a few months of “intensive” education (…). If, as a result of incompetence, or lack of experience, the new ruling class-on-the make, failed in its duty, then the old professional class served as convenient scapegoats: by the mid 1950s, those Romanian professionals who were not yet reduced to pulp were blamed instead for the ensuing failures and charged with ‘economic  sabotage’. Once the educated elite was effectively decapitated, Romania became a prison-state under the iron fist of  dictators Gheorghiu-Dej (1948-1965) – an electrician  and his cobbler successor Nicolae Ceausescu (1965-1989).

Doamna Stefania Livovschi (nee Burada) with her son Valeriu. ( L.A. Hirsch Ploiesti 1908. Fotografia Bulevard)

The  lady seen in this photo is Stefania Burada,   whose ancestors during the 19th century founded schools and parish churches in the vast steppes of the Danube Plains, which became the ‘granary of Europe’. Born in the 1880s, in rural Romania,  Stefania was herself the daughter of  Reverend Constantin Burada, a  parish priest who founded the local rural school where he served as School Master.  She was the youngest of a large brood of children most of  whom died prematurely of diphtheria. From amongst  these  only two children survived, being isolated, away from home, on the country estate of their  maternal grandfather’s  himself a priest in another village of the Danube Plains. Stefania and her younger brother Constantin reached adulthood, both of them receiving higher education: Constantin Burada  read Law in Bucharest to become a judge at the High Court of Appeal (Inalta Curte de Casatie), whilst  Stefania was educated at the Pompilian Boarding College in Calea Rahovei, Bucharest. Here  she proved to be a gifted pupil  in the class of a Transylvanian painter, Sava Hentia (1848 – 1904), who was schooled at the Accademia di Luca in Rome. This famous art school, founded in the 17th century,  produced an array of artists of international repute, such as Simon Vouet, Charles Le Brun, Antonio Canova, to name just a few.

At the Pompilian College Stefania Burada became a close friend of  Ecaterina Livovschi who like herself was the daughter of an Orthodox prelate, a teacher of Religious Education and Rector of St Nicholas cathedral in  Tulcea.  Ecaterina  went on to study Medicine to become an Ophtalmologist. Stefania married Ecaterina’s eldest brother Vicentiu  a graduate in Pharmacy, from the University of Bucharest. In the early 1900s the couple settled in Ploiesti, where Vicentiu bought a short lease on a Pharmacy.

Vicentiu Livovschi as Captain of the Tulcea Regiment of the Royal Romanian Army. After graduating in Pharmacy at the University of Bucharest he married and leased at Ploiesti the "Farmacia Mihai Bravul"

The Livovschi offspring  were all born before WWI (the eldest of whom is seen in the picture above, with his mother). All children became University went to University Applied Chemistry and Pharmacy or modern languages.
At the turn of the century Ploiesti was a booming city with a fast economic growth,  due to the oil Industry. Oil was extracted on an industrial scale since 1856 to make Romania Europe’s second largest oil producer, after Russia. Here were present French, Dutch, Belgian, American and British oil companies drilling for oil and refining it locally to export it  from the Danube ports to Central Europe or respectively  from the  Black Sea port of Constanta to Western Europe. By the early 1900s when the Livovschi moved to Ploiesti the surrounding countryside looked like the American   ‘Wild West’, with a forest of oil derricks and Canadian pumps called ‘nodding donkeys’.

Ploiesti oil wells 1916 (courtesy furcuta blogspot)

Before WWI Stefania’s family gained in Ploiesti a high profile and social status  as her husband got the lease of a main pharmacy in downtown – the “Farmacia Mihai Bravu”.

"Farmacia Mihai Bravul" Ploiesti leased by Vicentiu Livovschi (seen on the balcony with his wife and son) Photo 1908. The man in a three-piece suit standing in front of the Pharmacy entrance below is the father of the composer Paul Constantinescu.

The pharmacy belonged to a Mr Schmettau (probably an Austrian national) and was leased for a period of five years (1906-1911) to the 30-years old  Romanian pharmacist, Vicentiu Livovschi.  Vicentiu represented the first generation of home-grown professional middle classes, educated in Romania. Beyond his professional activity he  played the violin whilst his two sisters, Ecaterina a graduate in Medicine and Emilia a Pharmacist played the cello and the violin respectively. Together the three siblings founded in Ploiesti  the first classic music orchestra – “The Excelsior”. Although Vicentiu and Stefania were newcomers to Ploiesti they already had in the city several uncles, one of whom, Reverend Anghel Burada a paternal uncle was rector of St Basil Orthodox Church (Biserica Sf Vasile) and a maternal uncle Rev. Chiriac Dobreanu was Rector of Sf Ilie Tabaci Orthodox Church. So far as the intermarriages were concerned it is noteworthy  that that the wife of Rev Anghel Burada, known as  ‘Mitza Presbitera’, or ‘Coana Mitza’, was related to the artist painter George Ioachim Pompilian, who  in 1872 was busy painting the iconostasis of St Basil church Ploiesti. Ioachim Pompilian studied Fine Arts at the Accademia di San Lucca in Rome  and was himself the son of yet another Orthodox prelate, Reverend Ioachim Ioachimescu,  One must recall that Stefania Livovschi, nee Burada, was educated at the Pompilian College run by Ioachim’s family, which was related to her uncle the Rev Anghel Burada.  Ioachim Pompilian went on to restore and decorate the internal frescoes of the Metropolitan cathedral in Bucharest.

Judging from the perspective of narrow family angle one could say  on the whole  that the social life in Ploiesti during the 1900s was very tightly knit, being based on strong tribal links. This is understandable, as all family cousins in Ploiesti were part of the new crop of professionals destined to play a crucial part in the economic, social and political life of interwar Romania, a pattern which was replicated throughout the country.  The Livovschi family passage through Ploiesti was curtailed by the First Balkan War when Vicentiu was conscripted to serve as a Captain in the Royal Romanian Army which occupied Bulgaria. As a result of this war Romania gained the territory of Southern Dobrogea which included Balcik a seaside village made fashionable by Queen Marie who built a retreat there: artists soon followed suit to form a small colony known as the “School of Balcic” – of post-Impressionist and fauvist persuasion. On being demobbed and returning to Ploiesti Vicentiu was faced by Mr Schmettau requiring a substantial increase in renewing his lease. As a result, by 1914 we find vicentiu Livovschi a Pharmacist owner of the “Drogheria Centrala” opposite the Townhall of Buzau. (see THE EMERGENCE OF THE ROMANIAN PROFESSIONAL CLASS (2) – BUZAU – 1914 – 1948)

St Basil Orthodox Cathedral church (biserica Sf. Vasile) Ploiesti - marble plaque commemorating Rev. Anghel Burada

Belfry of St Ilie-Tabaci Orthodox parish church Ploiesti, where Rev Chiriac Dobreanu was Rector at the end of the 19th century (Photo courtesy Eyebrowed, flickr)

Rev Chiriac Dobreanu (ca 1850-1910), rector of Sf Ilie Tabaci Orthodox church, Ploiesti and maternal uncle of Stefania Burada. He had eight children all of whom were graduates.

Aurelian (Rică) LIVOVSCHI

Aurel Livovschi (right) in his Heinkel III nr 18

Family Background:

Born on 4 August 1902  in Tulcea, a Romanian port of the Lower Danube, the youngest child in a family of six siblings of Rev, Zenovie Livovschi, (1858-1933) and of Polixenia, nee Nicodinescu. In a direct line the Livovschi family had a long tradition of Moldavian Orthodox clerics whose name derived from the city of Lemberg (Lvov) in the Polish Galicia. By the end of the 18^th century at the time of the first partition of Poland of 1772, the city of Lvov was incorporated in the Habsburg Empire. As a result of the persecution suffered by the Orthodox under pressure to convert to the Uniate faith and recognize the Pope, the family took refuge across the border in Northeastern Moldavia, an Orthodox Principality under Ottoman rule. These were uncertain times  following the defeat  of Napoleon and the subsequent victory of the Russians  over the Ottomans in 1812. As a result of the Peace Treaty of Bucharest, a huge territory between the rivers Pruth and Dniester, in Eastern Moldavia changed hands being annexed by Russia for the next hundred years to 1916. The Russians renamed this new province  “Bessarabia”. This was a fertile land of some 45,000 square kilometres – twice the size of Wales, or two thirds the size of Scotland. During the first Russian census of Bessarabia the family was assigned a surname deriving from the earlier city of origin – Lvov, and so they became known by the nickname of Lvovski to the Russians and Livovschi to the Romanians.

Sudarca Wooden church 1793

The Livovschi continued their vocation of clerics which represented one of the three acknowledged  “estates” (social classes) in Imperial Russia, enjoying both status and  privilege.  In 1793 the first Livovschi settler built a wooden church  in Sudarca, Northern Bessarabia, now preserved as a historic monument in the Open-Air Museum of Chisinau. The first settler  was known as  “Popa din Sudarca”, that is  the “Vicar of Sudarca” and Reverend Zenovie Livovschi represented the fifth documented generation of Orthodox clerics descended  in direct line from this vicar. Zenovie was born in 1858, after the Crimean War, the son of Rev. Theodor Livovschi of Tomai. Amongst his kinsmen who served the Russian Orthodox Church  loomed large  several distinguished figures. One was the composer and choir Master Gregory Lvovski (1830-1894), director of the Cathedral choir of the St Alexander Nevsky  of Sankt Petersburg, whose  Cherubic Hymn is sung in all Orthodox churches around the world.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0Ol_vXZdBw&feature=related

Another kinsman was Rev Dimitrie Lvovski (aka Dimitrie Riofusiki to his Japanese brethren) composer and church choir master at the Russian Orthodox Mission in Tokyo, during the second half of the 19th century.  Zenovie had a brother Rev. Ilie Livovschi an Elder (egumen-staret) of the Calarasoaica (?) Monastery in County Soroca.

In 1878, at the age of twenty, Zenovie graduated, with a BA in Divinity from the Theological Seminary in Ismail, at the time of the Russian-Ottoman war of 1877-1878.  As the Orthodox canons required  priests to be married before they were ordained, young Zenovie married  the only daughter Constantin Nicodinescu and Zinca Eiser  exiles from Fagaras, in Transylvania, who  fled the 1848 Revolution. Constantin was a mill mechanic on the estate of Prince Alexander Murousi in County Cahul, Southern Bessarabia. The Prince’s wife was a lady of a Pahanriot family from Constantinople. In 1860 Princess Murousi was  godmother  to Constantin’s daughter and she chose for her goddaughter the Greek name of Polixenia.  By 1878 the newly-weds Zenovie and Polixenia had a first son by the name of Vicentiu, the eldest of six children which were to follow.  Among this brood the youngest was Aurelian, 24 years younger than his brother Vicentiu. At the conclusion of the Russian-Ottoman war  the Principality of Romania gained independence and was granted by the Treaty of Berlin of 1878  the province of Dobrogea which gave it access to the mouths of the Danube and the Black Sea.

Two years on, in 1880, Rev. Zenovie Livovschi moved his young  family from Russia  over the border to the newly-independent Kingdom of Romania.  He settled in the town of Tulcea, a port on the Lower Danube, where he soon became a respected figure  as a co-founder of the Boys Secondary School (Liceul Spiru Haret) where he taught Religious Education. At the same time he served  in the Diocese of the Lower Danube for over 46 years, first as Dean of the cathedral church of St. Nicholas, Tulcea (1880-1916) and after a two years interruption, due to the Bulgarian occupation during WWI, a further period as rector of the church of The Transfiguration, Schimbarea la Faţă (1918-1928) until his retirement at the age of 70. During his time in the Diocese, Rev. Zenovie gained in the hierarchy of the Church with the grades of “Econom Stavrofor” and served on the Council of the Ecclesiastical Court.

The cathedral of St. Nicholas Tulcea where rev Zenovie Livovschi was Dean for 36 years.

The Family during The Great War of 1916-1918:

The first World War left deep scars on the family, a time during which Rev. Zenovie was tortured by the Bulgarian occupation soldiers who were hoping to find a cache of gold for which purpose they burned his toes with church candles in an attempt of extracting a confession. At a time in Romania the national currency was in gold coins and banks were not existent so well-to-do people kept their gold savings at home. The old reverend who led an austere existence  had no savings  as all his investments went into the education of his six children, so the Bulgarians went empty handed in spite of their exertions. Zenovie’s son Octavian (1890-1916), a graduate in elctrotechnical engineering from Iasi University and a Captain of the 72^nd Infantry Regiment (Mizil) died in September 1916  at the battle of  Caineni Pass, in the Carpathians. Another son, Virgiliu (1885-1928),  a student in mechanical Engineering from the University of Grenoble returned from the front line severely shell-shocked, a condition for which he was treated at the infamous Costiujeni hospital, in County Chisinau, where he died. Zenovie’s eldest son, Vicentiu was a graduate from the faculty of Pharmacy in Buchartest and during WWI was cited in dispatches several times and received from H.M. King Ferdinand the Military Order of the Grand Cross of Romania for having successfully organized the evacuation of a military hospital from Brasov with over 1,000 wounded soldiers in the wake of the German advance. In 1916 Captain Vicentiu Livovschi comandeered a train convoy to evacuate the wounded to safety in what was left of the free territory of Romania iin Couty Iasi. During the Great War Vicentiu was also head of the Chemical Warfare School (Scoala Militara de Gaze) and a liaison officer with the Tsar’s Allied Command before the Russian armies mutinied to foment the Bolshevic Revolution. For his services Tsar Nicholas II bestowed on him the  military Order of St. Stanislas.

All the eldest five of the Livovschi children followed a higher education to become professionals and all four sons served with distinction in the First  World War, which brings us to the youngest – Pilot Aurelian “Rica” Livovschi.

Early Education:

In 1909 to 1916 Aurelian enrolled as pupil of the Spiru Haret Lycée in Tulcea where his father taught Religious Education and his elder brother Virgiliu, seventeen years his senior taught Physics and Chemistry. However, unlike his much older brothers and sisters who graduated either in Pharmacy, Medicine or Engineering, Aurelian was not academically inclined being instead keen on sports where he excelled in swimming, skating and hockey. In 1916 his education was interrupted by the occupation of the Bulgarian armies. During this time we find him with his parents in the relative safety of the Danube Delta, at Chilia Veche. Here the fourteen-years old Aurelian enrolls as a boy scout on a warship of the Romanian Royal Navy. This momentous period shaped his future career as he achieved the unusual distinction of skating in record time on the frozen Danube over a distance of 72 kilometres between the ports of Tulcea and Sulina: to this end he usesdan umbrella as a prop instead of sails, to increase his performance. Once the war was over  Aurelian reintegrated the Lycée but was compelled in 1919 to re-sit his finals which he passed (just) at another school – the Voyevode Mihai Lycée of Cahul, in Southern Bessarabia.

Aviation Career:

Aurelian’s brothers feats of arms during the Great War caused him to do his bit for his country and so he enrolled in the Aviation School of Tecuci where he qualified as a pilot, aged 22 (Livret de Serviciu Militar 1924, matricola 128 CR). Here, at Tecuci, in October 1925, he further trained to become one of the first Romanian Military parachutists. He was drafted for  national military service, which he completed in 1926 with the grade of  “plutonier aviator”, at the 3^rd Aviation Corps (Galati) commanded by squadron leader Capitain Alexandru Cernescu. Unfortunately he failed the medical test for which he retired from active service to pursue between 1926 to 1939 a civil career in Bucharest  as office clerk.   In spite of this disappointment during all this period the passion for flying remained very much alive as he joined an elite group, the “League of Romanian Airmen” – “Liga Piloţilor Români” (membership card nr 21 dated 24 July 1936). On 30th March 1939 he wishesd again to enroll as an active military pilot, but failed again the medical test (“neconcentrabil”). Two weeks later, so his eldest brother pharmacist  Colonel (Reserve) Vicentiu Livovschi found him  a place at the “Scoala de Piloţi de Război” (School of Fighter Pilots) of Buzau where on la 17th March 1939, Aurelian enrolled at a refresher course , graduating as “adjudant pilot”  on 20th June 1939. The following 17th September 1939 he was drafted as an active fighter pilot in the “Flotila 3 de Aviaţie” (Third Aviation Corps), and on 1st March 1940 attends the School for Twin-Engine Aircraft  “Şcoala de Bimotoare”. On 1st Iuly 1940 he is drafted as a fighter pilot on Heinkel 111 aircaft and in July 1941 he is a member of the “Flotila 1 Bombardiere “(First Corps of Bomber Aircraft).

Over a period from July 1940 to September 1941 Livovschi is entrusted with 31 missions on the Eastern front. His last mission, on 21st September 1941 is the  Odesa srailway station targeted by a formation of nine Heinkel aircraft He-111H3. His twin-engine Heinkel nr. 17 (he usually flies nr 18) gets a direct hit from the anti-aircraft artillery in Odessa and Livovschi’s plane plunges in Lake Ialpug in Southern Bessarabia. There are no survivors from the crew of five airmen (Esc 78/Gr.5 Bomb) formed of the following: adj.stag.r.pil. Aurel Livovski (sic)+ adj.sef.obs. Florea Truică+ smstr. Petre Dăbuleanu+ serg.mitr. Nic. Avramescu+ cap.mitr. Petre Iliescu.

V. Niţu (personal communication, Sep. 2002) makes the following remarks:

“So he was part of the 5^th Corps, an elite unit of the Romanian war aviation. I recall from my visit to Air Commander Dan Stoian some of the photos he had shown me which were intended for his forthcoming book. Amongst these there was one particular picture showing a He-111 airplane being rescued from a lake. It may have been very likely this very aircraft. There was also a rather gruesome picture of an airman decapitated as the aircraft was hit.”

Livovschi’s remains were first buried in the nearby village of Vlădiceni, County Ismail and subsequently reburied by his brother Col. (Res) Vicenţiu Livovschi in the village of Cuza Vodă, County Cahul where their father and grandfather respectively served as Orthodox parish priests.

On 4th November 1941 Aurelian Livoschi, a member of the din Romanian Royal Airforce (Aeronautica Regală Română -  Esc.78/Gr. 5 bomb.) who died in action aged 39 39 receives by Royal decree of H.M. King Mihai I, the Gold Cross of the “Virtutea Aeronautică de Război cu spade” (Brevet nr 387 IDN Nr 3037), “for having completed, in very difficult conditions, 31 missions”.

Aurelian (Rică) Livovschi is mentioned in the Memoirs of Grigore Olimp Ioan, sub titlul  published by the OFAR publishing house, Bucharest under the title “Noi dela Bombardament” (vezi fattached photo, as a pilot of his Heinkel aircraft).

Likewise, his former colleague Capt. Ion Profir  recalls Livovschi in his Memoirs:

“Pilot Livovschi had a raven called Antonică which was constantly perched either on his aircraft (The Heinkel He-111 nr 18) or sometimes in front of his tent which was pitched nearby the airstrip. After his master failed to return from his fateful mission  Antonică also disappeared.”

Sixty years after the end of WWII the memory of Romanian airmen who fought to preserve the territorial integrity of their country is yet  to be honoured in a manner which is done by all civilized European nations.

NOTE: for the biography in Romanian  visit:

http://www.aviatori.ro/dict_pers.php?sel=L

S-a născut la Tulcea la 4 August 1902 într-o familie de şase copii, fiind fiul mezin al preotului econom stavrofor Zenovie Livovschi,

Aurel Livovschi (in dreapta) la mansa unui avion Heinkel III

(1858-1933) si a presbiterei Polixenia, nascută Nicodinescu, provenită dintr-o familie din Făgăraş refugiată în urma revoluţiei dela 1848. Pe linie directă familia avea o tradiţie lungă de preoţi ortodocşi moldoveni al căror nume se trăgea dela orasul Lvov de unde au fost alungaţi la sfârşitul secolului XVIII datorită “osândirii Uniaţilor”. Părintele Zenovie era o figură cunoscută si venerată în Tulcea unde a fost profesor de religie si co-fondator al Liceului Spiru Haret din oraş.  Timp de 46 de ani a slujit ca preot mai întâi la catedrala Sf. Nicolae din Tulcea (1880-1916) si apoi la biserica Schimbarea la Faţă (1918-1928) până la pensionarea lui, la vârsta de 70 de ani. Aurelian şi-a făcut studiile şcolare la liceul din oraş, dar acestea au fost întrerupte în timpul primului război mondial  de ocupaţia bulgară. S-a refugiat cu părinţii săi la Chilia Veche, în Delta Dunării unde s-a înrolat ca cercetaş pe un vas fluvial de război al Marinei Regale Române. Aceasta perioadă i-a marcat viaţa mai întâi printr-un record sportiv care l-a obţinut patinând pe Dunărea îngheţată între Tulcea şi Sulina, pe o distanţă de 72 Km, ajutându-se cu o umbrela pentru a-şi mări viteza.  Devenise un  sportiv desăvârşit  în nataţie si hockey.

In 1924, la vârsta de 22 de ani, obţine calificarea de pilot  de la Şcoala de Aviaţie din Tecuci. În  acelaş an începe serviciul militar în Aviaţie (Livret de Serviciu Militar 1924, matricola 128 CR),  timp în care, în Octombrie 1925, devine unul dintre primii paraşutişti militari din România. La sfârşitul serviciului militar, în 1926,  îl găsim plutonier aviator, la grupul 3 de aviaţie Galaţi, sub conducerea comandantului de escadrilă Căpitan Al. Cernescu. Din păcate, cariera sa în aviaţie este întreruptă din motive medicale, pentru care între 1926 şi 1939 îşi continuă viaţa civilă la Bucureşti ca funcţionar.

Devine membru al “Ligii Piloţilor Români” (carnet nr 21 din 24 iulie 1936). La 30 Martie 1939 doreste să îşi reia activitatea de pilot, dar este considerat “neconcentrabil” şi două săptămâni mai târziu, la 17 Martie 1939 se înscrie la “Scoala de Piloţi de Război” de la Buzău la un curs de perfecţionare.

La 20 Iunie 1939 obţine brevetul de adjutant pilot. La 17 Septembrie 1939 intra in serviciu activ ca pilot de război în Flotila 3 de Aviaţie, iar la 1 martie 1940 face un curs la “Şcoala de Bimotoare”. La 1 Iulie 1940 este concentrat ca pilot de război pe avioane bimotoare de tip Heinkel 111 unde îl găsim în 1941 la Flotila 1 Bombardiere.

In perioada Iulie 1940 – Septembrie 1941 efectuează 31 de misiuni pe frontul de Est. Ultima sa misiune este la 21 Septembrie 1941 are ca obiectiv gara  Odesa spre care se îndreapta o formatie de nouă avioane de tip He-111H3. Bimotorul Heinkel nr. 17 pilotat de Livovschi este atins de tirul artileriei antiaeriene si se prăbuşeşte in lacul Ialpug din Sudul Basarabiei . In echipajul Esc 78/Gr.5 Bomb. se afla adj.stag.r.pil. Aurel Livovski (sic)+ adj.sef.obs. Florea Truică+ smstr. Petre Dăbuleanu+ serg.mitr. Nic. Avramescu+ cap.mitr. Petre Iliescu+ fără nici un supravieţuitor.

V. Niţu (comunicare personală, Septembrie 2002) remarca următoarele:

“Deci a fost în Grupul 5 Bombardament, unitate de elită a aviaţiei române. Ţin minte că atunci când am fost la cdor. Dan Stoian el mi-a arătat niste poze pentru noua carte printre care erau şi unele cu un He-111 care îl pescuiau dintr-un lac. E foarte posibil să fi fost chiar acest avion. Era şi o poza mai urâtă cu capul unui membru al echipajului, care fusese decapitat cand s-au prăbuşit.”

Corpul neînsufleţit este recuperat din lacul Ialpug,  Livovschi fiind mai întâi adus în satul Vlădiceni, judeţul Ismail, iar apoi fratele sau Col. (Rez) farmacist Vicenţiu Livovschi din Buzău îl îngroapă la cimitirul din satul Cuza Vodă, judeţul Cahul unde tatăl şi bunicul au fost preoţi.

La 4 Noiembrie 1941 Aurelian Livoschi, din Aeronautica Regală Română, (Esc.78/Gr. 5 bomb.) mort la datorie în vârstă de 39 de ani, primeste post-mortem, prin decret Regal semnat de M.S. Regele Mihai I, Crucea de aur, Ordinul “Virtutea Aeronautică de Război cu spade (Brevet nr 387 IDN Nr 3037).

” pentru a fi complectat 31 de misiuni de război în condiţii foarte dificile”

Aurelian (Rică) Livovschi este mentionat in cartea de memorii a lui Grigore Olimp Ioan, sub titlul  “Noi dela Bombardament” aparuta la Editura OFAR din Bucuresti (vezi fotografia, la manşa avionului Heinkel) precum şi în cartea de memorii al colegului de grup  Capitanului Ion Profir care evocă într-un paragraf:

“Adj. Livovschi avea un corb, botezat Antonică. Acesta obişnuia să stea mai tot timpul pe avionul lui sau în faţa cortului de campanie. După ce acesta nu s-a mai întors din misiune, Antonică a dispărut şi el.”

[schiţă biografică comunicată de Dr Constantin Roman, ianuarie 2010 si scrisa initial pentru "Dictionarul Aviatorilor Romani"]

http://www.aviatori.ro/dict_pers.php?sel=L

NOTA: pentru a vedea biografiile altor piloti Romani vizitati site-ul;

http://www.aviatori.ro