Moldova’s Stormy Past

The land between the Dniester and the Prut​—known for centuries as Bessarabia and Moldavia—​lay on a main land route into Europe. In the first millennium B.C.E., the region was part of Scythia. Later it came marginally under the control of the Roman Empire. Its stormy history also includes invasion by waves of other peoples, such as Goths, Huns, and Avars. In the 13th and 14th centuries, Moldavia was vassal to the Tatars, and in the 16th century, it became part of the Ottoman Empire. In the 1812 Treaty of Bucharest, the Turks ceded control of Bessarabia and half of Moldavia to Russia, at which time the name Bessarabia was applied to the whole region.

In 1918, Bessarabia became part of greater Romania. However, it reverted to Russia temporarily in 1940 and again in 1944. Under the Soviet Union, the territory was known as the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic (SSR). Finally, with the collapse of Soviet Communism, the Moldavian SSR severed ties with Moscow, becoming the independent Republic of Moldova on August 27, 1991.a Chisinau, previously Kishinev, is the capital city.

In the 1960’s, Moldova saw rapid growth in population, but this has slowed down and steadied since 1970. The present figure stands at about 4.3 million people. Many Moldovans are employed in the country’s primary industry, wine growing, which produces about 3 percent of the world’s wines. Moldovan wines are particularly popular in Russia and Eastern Europe. (See the box on page 71.) But an even greater vineyard has enriched Moldova, one that produces the finest fruitage of all​—sweet praise to Jehovah.