Țurcanu was born on January 15, 1946 in Găurenii de Sus, former Lăpușna County. He graduated from the State University of Moldova in 1969 and obtained his doctorate in history in 1975. He started work as a teacher in the village Bărboieni, Nisporeni District. After getting his PhD, he became a senior lecturer, then lecturer at the Pedagogical Institute "Ion Creangă". In the years 1993-1997, he worked at the History Institute of the Academy of Sciences of Moldova. Since 2001, he returned to his professorial career in higher education, this time at the State University of Moldova. He participated in the creation, in 1988, of the Democratic Movement in Support of the Perestroika,. In the years 1987–1990 he published a series of articles in the Chișinău press to inform the population on the thorny subjects of the history of Bessarabia, and that of all Romanians. In the same context he initiated a critique of the historiographical Soviet propaganda that falsified the historical themes mentioned above. In the years 1990-1994 he was a Member and Secretary of the Parliament. In 1998, he established the New Moldavian National Party, which participated in the localelections in 1999 and parliamentary ones in 2001, but without obtaining significant results. Țurcanu was the editor of the publishing house "Moldovan Book", and director of the publishing house "Universitas". In the 1990–1993 he published, as editor, the historical journals "Patrimoniu" "Magazine of History of Moldova." He published a number of studies and books on various historical subjects: the political events in Bessarabia in 1917-1918, Bessarabian agrarian relations during the interwar period, the Bessarabian famine of 1946-1947, the resistance movement against Soviet occupation of Bessarabia during 1944-1953, political and ethnic relations east of the Carpathians in the period preceding the founding of the Romanian state of Moldova, the Greco-Roman antiquity on the Lower Dniester and the neighboring territories, the philosophy of history from the perspective of some Romanian thinkers, historical bibliography of Bessarabia and Transnistria, social and political realities in modern Moldova etc. He wrote several syntheses of Romanian history. He also had some literary preoccupations, which occurred occasionally and with great interruptions.
Works
Развитие материальной базы культуры села Молдавской ССР, Chișinău, 1978.
Satul basarabean. Studii social-economice, Chișinău, 1980.
Relații agrare din Basarabia în anii 1918-1940, Chișinău, 1991.
Foametea din Basarabia în anii 1946-1947. Mecanismul organizării ei, Chișinău, 1993.
Creangă în contextul pedagogiei timpului său, Chișinău, 1994.
Basarabia din nou în fața opțiunii istorice, Chișinău, 1994.
Unirea Basarabiei cu România în anul 1918. Preludii, premise, realizări, Chișinău, 1998.
Moldova antisovietică. Aspecte din lupta basarabenilor împotriva ocupației sovietice. 1944-1953, Chișinău, 2000.
Republica Moldova independentă, Chișinău, 2001.
Istoricitatea istoriografiei. Observații asupra scrisului istoric basarabean, Chișinău, 2004.
Bibliografia istorică a Basarabiei și Transnistriei, Chișinău, 2005.
