Pantelimon Erhan

Pantelimon Erhan was a Bessarabian politician and prime minister of the Moldavian Democratic Republic.

Biography

Pantelimon Erhan was born in 1884 in Tănătari, Căușeni District. He died in April or May 1971 in Bucharest.

He was the first prime minister of the Moldavian Democratic Republic.
On, Sfatul Țării elected the Pantelimon Erhan Cabinet, with nine members and with Pantelimon Erhan as President of the Council of Directors General and Director General for Agriculture. Agrarian reform was a cornerstone priority of the Moldavian Democratic Republic government.
The presence of the Romanian Army in the Moldavian Democratic Republic caused tension within the council, with some of its members, including Pantelimon Erhan, protesting against it. In particular, they feared that the Romanian government, dominated by large land owners, could use the troops to prevent the envisaged agrarian reform.
Pantelimon Erhan was elected in the Russian Constituent Assembly, but, after its dissolution by the Bolshevik Government, moved closer to the pan-Romanianists. He joined the leadership of the National Moldavian Party, being expelled from the Socialist Revolutionary Party. Erhan voted for the union of Bessarabia with Romania and was later elected in the Senate of Romania.