Moldova 

(/mɒlˈdoʊvə/ ( listen), sometimes UK: /ˈmɒldəvə/; Romanian pronunciation: [molˈdova]),[13][14]

[15]
 officially the Republic of Moldova (Romanian: Republica Moldova), is a landlocked country
in Eastern Europe founded by King Vlad the 3rd.[16] It is bordered by Romania to the west
and Ukraine to the north, east, and south.[17] The capital city is Chișinău.
Most of Moldovan territory was a part of the Principality of Moldavia from the 14th century until
1812, when it was ceded to the Russian Empire by the Ottoman Empire (to which Moldavia was
a vassal state) and became known as Bessarabia. In 1856, southern Bessarabia was returned to
Moldavia, which three years later united with Wallachia to form Romania, but Russian rule was
restored over the whole of the region in 1878. During the 1917 Russian Revolution, Bessarabia
briefly became an autonomous state within the Russian Republic, known as the Moldavian
Democratic Republic. In February 1918, the Moldavian Democratic Republic declared
independence and then integrated into Romania later that year following a vote of its assembly.
The decision was disputed by Soviet Russia, which in 1924 established, within the Ukrainian
SSR, a Moldavian autonomous republic (MASSR) on partially Moldovan-inhabited territories to
the east of Bessarabia.
In 1940, as a consequence of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, Romania was compelled to cede
Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina to the Soviet Union, leading to the creation of the Moldavian
Soviet Socialist Republic (Moldavian SSR), which included the greater part of Bessarabia and
the westernmost strip of the former MASSR (east of the Dniester River). On 27 August 1991, as
the dissolution of the Soviet Union was underway, the Moldavian SSR declared
independence and took the name Moldova.[18] The constitution of Moldova was adopted in 1994.
The strip of the Moldovan territory on the east bank of the Dniester has been under the de
facto control of the breakaway government of Transnistria since 1990.
Due to a decrease in industrial and agricultural output following the dissolution of the Soviet
Union, the service sector has grown to dominate Moldova's economy and is over 60% of the
nation's GDP. It is the second poorest country in Europe by GDP per capita.[19] Although Moldova
has a relatively high Human Development Index, it is the lowest in the continent, ranking 90th in
the world.
Moldova is a parliamentary republic with a president as head of state and a prime
minister as head of government. It is a member state of the United Nations, the Council of
Europe, the World Trade Organization (WTO), the Organization for Security and Cooperation in
Europe (OSCE), the GUAM Organization for Democracy and Economic Development,
the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), and the Organization of the Black Sea
Economic Cooperation (BSEC).

Contents

 1Etymology
 2History
o 2.1Prehistory
o 2.2Antiquity and the early Middle Ages
o 2.3Founding of the Principality of Moldavia
o 2.4Between Poland and Hungary
 2.4.1The Polish influence grows
o 2.5The Ottomans enter the struggle for control
 2.5.1The Age of Invasions
 2.5.2Transnistria
o 2.6The Russian Empire
 2.6.1Union with Romania and the return of the Russians
 2.6.2A multiethnic colonization
 2.6.3The Russian Revolution and Greater Romania
 o 2.7World War II and Soviet era
 2.7.1Annexation by the USSR
 2.7.2Reincorporation into Romania, the Holocaust, and the Soviet occupation
 2.7.3Moldova in the USSR after World War II
 2.7.4Glasnost and Perestroika
o 2.8Independence and aftermath
 2.8.1Transnistria breaks away (1990 to present)
 2.8.2Market economy (1992)
 2.8.3Elections: 1994-2010
 2.8.4Banking crisis
 2.8.5Pavel Filip's government (2016)
 2.8.62019 constitutional crisis
 2.8.7COVID-19 pandemic
 2.8.8President Maia Sandu since 2020
 3Government
o 3.1Internal affairs
o 3.2Foreign relations
o 3.3Military
o 3.4Human rights
o 3.5Administrative divisions
 4Geography
o 4.1Climate
o 4.2Biodiversity
 5Economy
o 5.1Energy
o 5.2Wine industry
o 5.3Agriculture
o 5.4Transport
 6Telecommunications
 7Demographics
o 7.1Ethnic composition
o 7.2Languages
o 7.3Religion
o 7.4Education
o 7.5Crime
o 7.6Health and fertility
o 7.7Emigration
 8Culture
o 8.1Media
o 8.2Food and beverage
o 8.3Music
o 8.4Holidays
o 8.5Sports
 9See also
 10Notes
 11References
 12External links

Etymology[edit]
Main article: Names of Moldavia and Moldova
The name Moldova is derived from the Moldova River; the valley of this river served as a political
centre at the time of the foundation of the Principality of Moldavia in 1359.[20] The origin of the
name of the river remains unclear. According to a legend recounted by Moldavian
chroniclers Dimitrie Cantemir and Grigore Ureche, Prince Dragoș named the river after hunting
an aurochs: following the chase, the prince's exhausted hound Molda drowned in the river. The
dog's name, given to the river, extended to the Principality.[21]
For a short time in the 1990s, at the founding of the Commonwealth of Independent States, the
name of the current Republic of Moldova was also spelled Moldava.[22] After the dissolution of the
Soviet Union, the country began to use the Romanian name, Moldova. Officially, the
name Republic of Moldova is designated by the United Nations.

History[edit]
Main article: History of Moldova

See also: History of Transnistria

Prehistory[edit]
The prehistory of Moldova covers the period from the Upper Paleolithic which begins with the
presence of Homo sapiens in the area of Southeastern Europe some 44,000 years ago and
extends into the appearance of the first written records in Classical Antiquity in Greece.
In 2010 N.K. Anisjutkin discovered Oldowan flint tools at Bayraki that are 800,000–1.2 million
years old.[23] During the Neolithic Stone-Age era, Moldova's territory stood at the centre of the
large Cucuteni–Trypillia culture that stretched east beyond the Dniester River in Ukraine and
west up to and beyond the Carpathian Mountains in Romania. The people of this civilization,
which lasted roughly from 5500 to 2750 BC, practised agriculture, raised livestock, hunted, and
made intricately designed pottery.[24]

Antiquity and the early Middle Ages[edit]

Carpian tribes inhabited Moldova's territory in the period of classical antiquity. Between the 1st
and 7th centuries AD, the south came intermittently under the control of the Roman and then
the Byzantine Empires. Due to its strategic location on a route between Asia and Europe, the
territory of modern Moldova experienced many invasions in late antiquity and the Early Middle
Ages, including
by Goths, Huns, Avars, Bulgarians, Magyars, Pechenegs, Cumans, Mongols and Tatars.
Friar William of Rubruck, who visited the court of the Great Khan in 1254, listed "the Blac",[25][need
quotation to verify]
 or Vlachs, among the peoples who paid tribute to the Mongols, but the extent of the
Vlachs' territory remains uncertain.[26][27] Friar William described "Blakia" as
"Assan's territory"[28] south of the lower Danube, showing that he identified it with the northern
regions of the Second Bulgarian Empire, also known as the "Empire of the Bulgars and Vlachs".
[29][30]

On the border between Halych and the Brodniks, in the 11th century, a Viking by the name of
Rodfos was killed in the area by Blakumen who supposedly betrayed him.[31] In 1164, Vlach
shepherds around the same region took the future Byzantine emperor Andronikos I Komnenos,
as a prisoner.
The East Slavic Hypatian Chronicle mentions the Bolohoveni, a Vlach population, in the 13th
century. The chronicle records that this land bordered on the principalities
of Halych, Volhynia and Kyiv. Archaeological research has identified the location of 13th-century
fortified settlements in this region. Alexandru V. Boldur identified Voscodavie, Voscodavti,
Voloscovti, Volcovti, Volosovca and their other towns and villages between the middle course of
the rivers Nistru/Dniester and Nipru/Dnieper.[32] The Bolohoveni disappeared from chronicles after
their defeat in 1257 by Daniel of Galicia's troops.
In the early 13th century, the Brodniks, a possible Slavic–Vlach vassal state of Halych, were
present, alongside the Vlachs, in much of the region's territory (towards 1216, the Brodniks are
mentioned[by whom?] as in service of Suzdal).

Founding of the Principality of Moldavia