Reverend Zenovie Livovschi (right) and his Family at Tulcea, 1884: his wife - Polixenia Nicodinescu (left), his mother-in-law Zinca Eiser (centre left), his father-in-law Constantin Nicodinescu (centre right), his eldest son Vicentiu Livovschi, aged five (left) and daughter Ecaterina Livovschi (aged three, seated right)

TULCEA is a Romanian port on the right bank of the lower Danube river, close to the Danube Delta and the Black Sea. It came into its own in 1878, after the Treaty of Berlin which followed Romania’s War of Independence from Turkey. As a result of this treaty Romania regained from the Ottomans the province of Dobrogea, whilst Russia its ally profited from the defeat of the Ottoman empire by occupying Southern Bessarabia, hitherto part of the Principality of Moldavia: it gave Russia control of the mouths of the Danube and a say in the Danube Commission. These latest political border changes resulted in huge exchanges of  population, whereby Moldavians from these lost three counties of Cahul, Ismail and Balgrad were displaced to colonise instead Dobrogea, together with ethnic Aromanians, who were a Romanian-speaking ethnic group from the Balkan Penninsula South of the Danube.

The Livovschi family was part of this same equation:  they left their village of Hadjiabdullah in County Cahul where 22-years old Reverend  Zenovie was the Orthodox parish priest

St Nicholas cathedral Tulcea where Rev Zenovie Livovschi was Dean from 1880 to 1916

to become Deacon of St Nicholas Cathedral in Tulcea. For the young Romanian priest this was a God-sent promotion signed by the diploma of Joseph, Archbishop of the Lower Danube at Galatz on 17 April 1880 (nr 266 countersigned by Arhimandritul Ciuca):

“By the Grace of God, the Most Humble Joseph, Archbishop of Lower Danube”

(Prin mila lui Dumnedeu, prea-Smeritul Iosif, Arhiepiscopul Dunarei de Jos)

Reverend Zenovie’s first challenge was to consolidate the Romanian Orthodox church in the new province as the old-established Greek and Bulgarian Orthodox hierarchs were jostling with each other to preserve their influence and status in the province, in spite of the new order established by the national Romanian Orthodox church.

Spiru Haret College Tulcea where Rev Z. Livovschi held the Chair of Religious Education (1878-1928)

At the same time, young Reverend Zenovie was also to be nominated to the chair of religious education at Tulcea Spiru Haret College which he served for the next two decades. This is confirmed in a letter nr 52617 dated 18 Sep 1878 from the “Ministerul Cultelor si al Instructiunei Publice”  Bucuresti addressed to Rev Zenovie as:

“Cucernice Parinte, Subsemnatul am onoarea de a va face cunoscut, ca va numesc pe diua presentarii la post profesor suplinitor la catedra de religiune de la liceul din Tulcea” (signed by the Minister and Director respectively)

Rev Zenovie’s endeavors did not pass unnoticed  in April 1913 he is promoted By Nifon, archbishop of the Lower Danube (Galati) to the grade of “Stavrofor”  (priest allowed to wear the pectoral cross during the Holly Service) and on the 1914,  5 February he is further nominated to serve as President of the Theological Tribunal in the new territory of Balcic (Southern Dobrogea, acquired from Bulgaria as the result of the First Balkan war 1912-1913).

FAMILY BEGINNINGS: Reverend Zenovie’s direct ancestors were all Romanian Orthodox priests going back to Reverend Ioan of Sudarca, County Soroca (Popa din Sudarca) who built the wooden church of Archangel Michael in 1793: this church is preserved to this day as a national monument in the Open-air Museum in Chisinau, of what is now the Republic of Moldova.

Plan of the wooden church of Sudarca, Co Hotin, erected in 1793 by Rev Ioan Livovschi (Popa din Sudarca), gt gt grandfather of Rev. Zenovie Livovschi of Tulcea

The Reverend Ioan fled the Uniate religious persecution waged against Romanian Orthodox believers from Galicia, a Polish province which was occupied by the Habsburgs during the 18th century partition of Poland. As they fled the city of Lwow, capital of Galicia, to seek refuge in Northeastern Moldavia, then occupied by the Russian Czar, during the first Russian census of Bessarabia the family were nicknamed after the city of Lwow, where they came from, being given the surname of Livovschi. Theirs was a large clan with several cousins graduating form theological schools to climb the slippery ladder of the Orthodox church hierarchy in Russia: one of these cousins was a composer of liturgical music and choir master at the Czar’s cathedral in St Petersburg:

Russian Lithurgical Music by Grigory Lvovsky - Choir master at the Czar's cathedral in St Petersburg

This was Grigory Lvovski whose Cherubic Hymn is sung today in all Orthodox churches around the world.  Another kinsman was during the 19th century the founder of the Russian Orthodox Mission in Japan and another cousin became the abbot of one of the main monasteries of Bessarabia. The Czarist administration of Bessarabia established a rigid social structure on the indigenous Romanian population, along three main classes – aristocrats, clergy and freeholding farmers – the latter having received attractive privileges to induce them settling in a province whose population was dispersed by the ravages of centuries-old wars between the Ottomans and the Russians.

Soroca Fortress, Bessarabia the County where the Livovschi founded in 1793 the church of Sudarca

It is therefore clear that in the Russian empire, the Clergy had the elevated status of an educated middle class enjoying certain freedoms and privileges. including the use of a property and farming of the glebe land, not to mention the collection of a church tax from the parishioners. As such the Livovschi prelates were beneficiaries of all these rights.  As the Czars extended their empire closer and closer to the Black Sea and the mouths of the Danube, so did Russian-occupied Bessarabia’s borders grow at the expense of the Ottoman empire. With each expansion of the political borders the Livovschis moved South to serve the church in the newly-populated areas. One last such Southward migration during the second quarter of the 19th century was when Reverend Theodore Livovschi, Zenovie’s father moved from County Soroca to TOMAI an area which was the object of an exchange of population whereby the Muslim Tartars were evacuated to the `ottoman provinces of Crimea  and their land was resettled by Christian Turks known as Gagauz who originated form Bulgaria, South of the Danube. Reverend Theodore, grandson of Rev. Ioan, the first settler, died young leaving Zenovie as a young orphan who was taken care of by his elder sister Ana. This Ana Livovschi married Rev Ion Stanescu, parish priest in  Hadji-Abdullah, County Cahul on the estate of the Prince Constatin Muruzi (1815-1878) Prime Minister of Moldavia who was married to Princess Raluca Mavrocordat. Ana Livovschi Stanescu ensured that her younger brother Zenovie enrolled in the Theological Orthodox Seminary of Ismail (Scoala Duhovniceasca) to follow the family’s ancient tradition of clerics. As  the Orthodox church required priests to be married before they were ordained, Zenovie found a wife in the village where his brother-in-law was parish priest. This was Polixenia Nicodinescu daughter of  Constantin Nicodinescu and Zinca Eiser, both refugees from the 1848 Revolution, who fled the city of Fagaras in Transylvania to settle on Moruzi’s estate in Co Cahul. Here Constantin, who was an iron master was employed as miller in the village of Hadji Abdullah.

Transylvania - 1848 Revolution which caused Ironmaster Constantin Nicodinescu of Fagaras to take refuge in Moldavia

Prince Constantin Mavrocordat father of Pss Raluca Moruzi, godmother of Polixenia Livovschi

To this couple of refugees a baby daughter was born, whose godmother was the landlowner’s wife Princess Raluca Mavrocordat. Being the daughter of a Phanariot ruling prince, Raluca Mavrocordat Moruzi chose for her god daughter a Greek christian name of Polixenia. At the age of sixteen Polixenia was to marry Reverend Zenovie in Hadjiabdullah where their first son Vicentiu was born n 1889. This was only a year after the Treaty of Berlin by which the Kingdom of Romania gained its independence. By 1880 the young Livovschi family migrated South to the new Romanian province of Dobrogea where they took with them the elderly Nicodinescu parents – all of them seen in the above photograph, taken in 1884 in Tulcea.

Livovschi between 1880 and 1916 at Tulcea:

Rev. Zenovie Livovschi and Polixenia were to have four sons and two daughters: apart from the eldest son Vicentiu, all children were born in Tulcea and all of them were educated at the local Spiru Haret College, which is now an Academy. They lived at the rectory of the St Nicholas cathedral and by the time the two daughters Ecaterina and Emilia became of school age Spiru Haret came also to accept girl pupils. However, the beginnings of the education system in Romania of the 1880s was confronted with certain financial difficulties causing the Ministry of Education being unable to meet its obligation of paying the school wages: st this critical moment Zenovie was the only member of the staff to carry on working without pay as a RE teacher. Amongst his colleagues was Moisil the father of the Mathematician who was going to become an Academician and who remained a family friend.

Family life continued in a very happy environment and to the credit of Zenovie, he succeeded in being able to keep in higher education all his children who went to become graduates from the University of Bucharest:

Ecaterina Livovschi Panea - photo taken after her graduation in Medicine from the University of Bucharest. Seen here in 1904 (left) with her brother Vicentiu and sister-in-law (seated) Stefania Burada

the eldest son Vicentiu graduated in Pharmacy. `his sister Ecaterina attended a private school in Bucharest, the Pensionul Pompilian where she befriended Stefania Burada who was going to become Vicentiu’s wife. Ecaterina took a degree in Medicine to become an ophtalmologist and married a fellow doctor Ion Panea. They both started their medical career in Focasni, in Moldavia, before WWI. Emilia, the second daughter also read Pharmacy and married a fellow pharmacist Barozzi who had his pharmacy on Calea Calarasi in Bucharest. As for the younger sons, Virgil Livovschi and Octavian Livovschi, they both studied engineering, one graduating from the University of Grenoble where he was a contemporary of a cousin on his maternal side George Savuleanu. One of them died during the Great War whilst fighting the Germans in the Carpathians at Caineni Pass whilst the other never recovered from shell shock being interned at the Hospital in Cosciugeni, in Bessarabia, where he died soon after.

Tulcea: The Monument to the War of Independence of 1877. Vicentiu Livovschi was Captain of the Tulcea Regiment nr 33 Dorobanti and was mentioned in dispatches both during the Second Balkan War as well as the Great War of 1916-1919.

The eldest brother Vicentiu did his military service at Calarasi with the local Tulcea Regiment the 33 Dorobanti. There was a fourth son Aurelian, the youngest and coming as a surprise to the old couple – Rica as he was known, was less academically inclined but a great sportsman/ His education unfortunately was interrupted by the Great War as he had, together with his parents to take refuge in the Danube Delta in the wake of the Bulgarian occupation. Rica established an unusual record on skating on the frozen Danube during winter with the aid of an umbrella which he used as a sail covering the distance between Tulcea and Sulina on the Black Sea in record time. Unfortunately never anyone before or after repeated this feat which was not officially recorded.

Romania entered the Great War on the side of the Allies only after the demise of King Carol I in 1916. By this time all but one of Reverend Zenovie’s children was at home, the youngest son Aurelian (Rica) which was still in secondary education in Tulcea. By this time all his siblings fled the parental nest living either in Bucharest, Buzau or Focsani. The rumblings of the war started to be heard in Tulcea as Romania was occupied by the German armies with the exception of the province of Dobrogea where the Bulgarian armies were out to seek revenge from their defeat in the Second Balkan war, which caused them to lose Balcik with two counties known as the “Cadrilater”. The Bulgarian occupied Tulcea where they made a beeline for the Deanery of St Nicholas cathedral, hoping to extract by hook or by crook all the gold cache which orthodox priests were reputed to have secreted away as savings: no little was their disappointment when Reverend Zenovie told them that he had none: whatever savings he had it went paying the huge university expenses of five of his six children – the Bulgarians would not believe him so they took candles from the cathedral to burn the toes of the old prelate with candle wax, but still to no avail, so they left empty-handed trying their luck elsewhere. The parishioners were horrified knowing Zenovie as a much loved and saintly person, leading a sober life devoted to the church and its community. Amongst them there were some native Tulceans of Bulgarian extraction who took it upon themselves to warn Rev Zenovie that they heard to troops would come back to have a second go at extracting money out of him: they urged Zenovie and his family to flee Tulcea, which he did, hiding with his wife and youngest son Rica in the wilds of the Danube Delta, until the war was over in 1918 and the occupying German and Bulgarian armies repelled.

Tulcea - the Church of the Transfiguration (Schimbarea la Fatza) where Reverend Preot Econom Stavrofor Zenovie Livovschi was Rector from 1918 to his retirement in 1930

During the family’s absence the Deanery was destroyed. Now the Reverend Zenovie was given by the Bishop a new, less demanding assignment, as rector of the Church of the Transfiguration (Biserica Schimbarea la Fata), the most ancient church in Tulcea, known as the Russian Church. It stood on the top of one of the seven hills in Tulcea, not far from the Independence Obelisk memorial to the War of Independence, which earlier during the occupation was destroyed by the Bulgars. A new and last chapter was going to unravel for the Livovschi’s presence in the city of Tulcea from 1918 to 1930 when, after 50 years of service to the Orthodox church in town Zenovie and Polixenia retired to a modest retirement house in Bucharest bought for them by their Pharmacist daughter Emilia Barozzi.

Livovschi in TULCEA between 1918 and 1930:

see follow up article

THE EMERGENCE OF THE ROMANIAN PROFESSIONAL CLASS (3 – part II) – TULCEA: 1918 – 1930

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