{{Short description|Bessarabian politician (1873–1955)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=October 2023}} {{Infobox officeholder | name = Elena Alistar-Romanescu | image = Elena Alistar 1996 stamp of Moldova.jpg | caption = Alistar on a 1996 stamp of Moldova | office = Member of Sfatul Țării | term_start = 1917 | term_end = 1918 | predecessor = | successor = | birth_date = {{Birth date|1873|06|01|df=y}} | birth_place = Vaisal, Ismail County, Romania | death_date = {{Death date and age|1955|||1873|06|01|df=y}} | death_place = Pucioasa, {{ill|Ploiești Region|ro|Regiunea Ploiești}}, Romanian People's Republic | resting_place = Bellu Cemetery, Bucharest | resting_place_coordinates = <!-- {{coord|LAT|LONG|display=inline,title}} --> | party = Moldavian National Party | spouse = Dumitru Alistar | relations = | children = | alma_mater = Medical Faculty of the University of Iași | occupation = politician | profession = physician | signature = | website = | footnotes = }}
'''Elena Alistar-Romanescu''' (1 June 1873 – 1955) was a Bessarabian physician and politician who was part of Sfatul Țării from Bessarabia.<ref>Clark, Charles Upson: Bessarabia: Russia and Roumania on the Black Sea. Dodd, Mead & Company, 1927. p. 151.</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://alistar.uv.ro/ |title=Liceul Alistar |access-date=6 March 2019 |archive-date=7 February 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080207164540/http://alistar.uv.ro/ |url-status=dead }}</ref>
She was the aunt of poet Magda Isanos.<ref>Ecaterina Țarălungă, ''Enciclopedia identității românești'', Editura Litera, 2011, {{ISBN|978-606-600-246-2}}.</ref>
== Biography == Alistar was born on 1 June 1873 in Vaisal commune, at the time in Ismail County, Romania (now in Odesa Oblast, Ukraine). According to some historical sources, she was of Bessarabian origin. She was born in a family of priest Vasile Bălan. Her mother was Elisabeta Bălan.<ref name="stiri.romanism.net">{{Cite web |url=http://www.stiri.romanism.net/?p=1240 |title=Natașa Peteu: Unica femeie deputat din Sfatul Țării: Elena Alistar, un exemplu de conștiință politică |access-date=7 March 2010 |archive-date=14 November 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071114185319/http://www.stiri.romanism.net/?p=1240 |url-status=usurped }}</ref><ref>Ion Gherman: Românii din jurul României. Editura Vremea 2003. p. 449. {{ISBN|9789736450839}}</ref> She graduated from primary school of Congaz of Cahul County, and then, attended the Chișinău Eparchial School. There she met the young theologian Dumitru Alistar. They married. After a while, her husband became a priest and she followed him. Since 1890, she worked as a teacher in the such villages as Văleni, Roșu, Zîrnești, Cahul, Rezeni, and Chișinău.<ref name="stiri.romanism.net"/> After her husband's death, she was encouraged by the journalist Mihai Vântu to leave for Iași, Romania. In 1909–1916, she attended the Medical Faculty of the University of Iași.<ref name="BrezianuSpânu2010">{{cite book|author1=Andrei Brezianu|author2=Vlad Spânu|title=The A to Z of Moldova|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SsF94kyuHs4C&pg=PA32|date=26 May 2010|publisher=Scarecrow Press|isbn=978-1-4616-7203-6|pages=32–}}</ref> She was arrested for "nationalistic activity" together with the members of Daniel Ciugureanu's group. The group has claimed the need for forced liberation of Bessarabia from the Russian influence.<ref>Mariana Hausleitner: ''Deutsche und Juden in Bessarabien, 1814–1941: zur Minderheitenpolitik Russlands und Grossrumäniens''. IKGS Verlag, 2005. p. 54. {{ISBN|9783980888387}}</ref> In 1916, she was recruited by the army as a military doctor. She continued to practice medicine at Costiujeni Hospital near Chișinău.
She was the member of the Moldavian National Party and was elected as an MP from the Cetatea Albă County for the Sfatul Țării.<ref>Ioan Răducea, [http://astra.iasi.roedu.net/texte/nr36romaniidinbugeac.html "Românii din Bugeac"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110724043306/http://astra.iasi.roedu.net/texte/nr36romaniidinbugeac.html |date=24 July 2011 }}, ''Revista română'', Anul X, nr. 2 (36), iunie 2004.</ref><ref>Iurie Colesnic: ''Femei din Moldova: enciclopedie''. Museum, 2000. p. 12. {{ISBN|9789975905428}}</ref> She was one of the two women elected as MP, and actively took part in the political events that led to Bessarabia's unification with Romania. On 27 March 1918, she voted for the Union of Bessarabia with Romania. The other woman MP, Nadejda Grinfeld, was shot by the Romanian Army for opposing such an unification.
[[Image:Sfatul Tarii, 10 December 1918.jpg|thumb|Sfatul Țării Palace, 10 December 1918; Alistar is seated in second row, fifth from the right]] [[File:Bellu 130222 79.jpg|thumb|Grave in Bellu Cemetery]] Alistar founded the Women's Cultural League of Bessarabia. She was the president of the People's Party, founded by Mareșal Alexandru Averescu, who was also originally from Babele, a commune near Izmail, Budjak which was at the time in the United Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia and is now in Ukraine. The newspaper ''"New Romania"'' was founded and headed by Onisifor Ghibu, in which have been published many articles signed by Elena Alistar.<ref>Iurie Colesnic, ''Basarabia necunoscută''. Articolul: ''Elena Alistar''. Ed. Universitas, Chișinău, 1993, pp. 202–207. {{ISBN|9789975905503}}</ref> In 1927, she established in Bessarabia the ''Romanian Women Group''.<ref>Iurie Colesnic: Femei din Moldova: enciclopedie. Museum, 2000. p. 15. {{ISBN|9789975905428}}</ref> She became famous for her activity for the Romanian Women Orthodox Society which operates under the patronage of Mrs. Alexandrina Cantacuzino.<ref>Francisca de Haan, Krasimira Daskalova, Anna Loutfi: ''Biographical Dictionary of Women's Movements and Feminisms in Central, Eastern, and South Eastern Europe: 19th and 20th Centuries''. Central European University Press, 2006. p. 118.9. {{ISBN|9789637326394}}</ref> After the Soviet occupation of Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina of 28 June 1940, she fled to Romania. After a short stay in Iași, she was arrested by the Communist regime<ref>[http://www.memoria.ro/?location=view_article&id=775&page=4 Ivănoiu, Tamara: Amintiri din Basarabia]. memoria.ro</ref> and sent to the town of Pucioasa, then in {{ill|Ploiești Region|ro|Regiunea Ploiești}} and now in Dâmbovița County, where she died in 1955.<ref>Ioan Lăcustă: ''De la o unire la alta: memorie sau memorialiști 1859–1918''. Editura Albatros, 2005. p. 257. {{ISBN|9789732410868}}</ref> Years later, she was reburied at the Bellu Cemetery in Bucharest.<ref>Bejan, Vlad, Românii din sudul Basarabiei, Editura Fundației "Axis", Iași 1998, pp. 89–90</ref>
== Works == * Elena Alistar – ''Mișcarea feministă din Basarabia. Începuturi și realizări. Spre un viitor mai frumos''. In: Mișcarea Feministă. 1. Nr. 1 (1933): 2.
== Bibliography == *Gheorghe E. Cojocaru, ''Sfatul Țării: itinerar'', Civitas, Chişinău, 1998, {{ISBN|9975-936-20-2}} *Mihai Taşcă, ''Sfatul Țării şi actualele autorităţi locale'', "Timpul de dimineaţă", no. 114 (849), 27 June 2008 (page 16) *Alexandru Chiriac. Membrii Sfatului Ţării. 1917–1918. Dicţionar, Editura Fundaţiei Culturale Române, București, 2001.
== External links == * [http://www.curierul.forter.ro/07ist/02.htm Unica femeie deputat din Sfatul Ţării. Elena ALISTAR, un exemplu de conştiinţă politică] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210603113017/https://curierul.forter.ro/07ist/02.htm |date=3 June 2021 }} * [http://enciclopediaromaniei.ro/wiki/Elena_Alistar Elena Alistar] * {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20071114185319/http://www.stiri.romanism.net/?p=1240 Nataşa PETEU: Unica femeie deputat din Sfatul Ţării: Elena ALISTAR, un exemplu de conştiinţă politică]}}
== References == {{reflist}}{{Moldavian Democratic Republic}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Alistar, Elena}} Category:Romanian people of Moldovan descent Category:1873 births Category:1955 deaths Category:People from Bolhrad Raion Category:National Moldavian Party politicians Category:Moldovan MPs 1917–1918 Category:Moldovan medical doctors Category:Burials at Bellu Cemetery Category:Moldovan female MPs Category:20th-century Romanian women politicians Category:Grigore T. Popa University of Medicine and Pharmacy alumni Category:Prisoners and detainees of Romania Category:19th-century Romanian women Category:19th-century Romanian medical doctors