He was a Moldovan poet who bravely promoted his country's native language, Romanian, when Moldova was a Soviet republic and Russian was the official language. He fought for the cultural reunification of Moldova and Romania.
He was born in a rural village in northeastern Romania. Five years later, that area was annexed by the Soviet Union under a Nazi-Soviet pact, and became the Socialist Republic of Moldova.
In the 1970s, he wrote "The Little Bee", Moldova's first Romanian-language schoolbook for children.
The President of Moldova, Vladimir Voronin, declared a national day of mourning for Vieru.
Pictured on a Moldovan commemorative postage stamp issued 14 February 2015, the 80th anniversary of his birth.