Gheorghe Briceag

Gheorghe Briceag (15 April 1928 – 16 August 2008) was a Moldovan human rights activist notable for his opposition to Soviet rule. In the 1940s, Briceag was given a ten-year sentence in the gulag for distributing anti-communist flyers; he was forced to work in coal mines for the length of his sentence. His prisoner number was "P169". After his release, he was sentenced to seven more years of exile. The award citation described him as "a life-long activist for the defense of human rights and the defense of other former Gulag prisoners in Moldova".

Briceag also worked with Amnesty International

Briceag was noted for his large "Solzhenitsyn-style" beard. A few months before his death, he pledged to shave it if Moldova united with Romania, He publicly requested that his body be donated to Chișinău's Nicolae Testemițanu State University of Medicine and Pharmacy following his death.