50 Lei Mihai Dolgan - 80 years since birth

Mihai Dolgan founded Noroc, the Moldovan beat group whose 1960s recordings remain some of the most recognizable pop output from the Soviet Moldavian republic. The band's trajectory was repeatedly disrupted by Soviet cultural authorities suspicious of Western-influenced arrangements, and Dolgan spent much of his career negotiating between genuine artistic ambition and ideological constraint. He died in 2008, meaning this issue marks a birthday he did not live to see.