Moldova 

(/mɒlˈdoʊvə/ ( listen), sometimes UK: /ˈmɒldəvə/; Romanian pronunciation: [molˈdova]),[14][15]

[16]
 officially the Republic of Moldova (Romanian: Republica Moldova), is a landlocked
country in Eastern Europe.[17] It is bordered by Romania to the west and Ukraine to the north,
east, and south.[18] Additionally, the unrecognised state of Transnistria lies across the Dniester on
the country's eastern border with Ukraine. The capital and largest 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.[19] 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.[20] 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 2.5Increasing Ottoman influence
 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
 2.8.8Presidency of 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.[21] 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 (Seva) drowned in the
river. The dog's name, given to the river, extended to the Principality.[22]
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 Moldavia.[23] 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.[24] 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.[25]

Antiquity and the early Middle Ages[edit]

Carpian tribes inhabited Moldova's territory in the period of classical antiquity. Between the first
and seventh 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, Bulgars, Magyars, Pechenegs, Cumans, Mongols and Tatars.
In the 11th century, a Viking by the name of Rodfos was possibly killed in the area by
the Blakumen who betrayed him.[26] In 1164, the future Byzantine emperor Andronikos I
Komnenos, while attempting to reach the Principality of Halych, was taken prisoner by Vlachs,
possibly in the area of future Moldova.
The East Slavic Hypatian Chronicle mentions the Bolohoveni 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.
[27]
 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 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[edit]

Main article: Founding of Moldavia
The Principality of Moldavia and the modern boundaries of Moldova, Ukraine, and Romania

The Principality of Moldavia began when a Vlach voivode (military leader), Dragoș, arrived in the

region of the Moldova River. His people from Maramureș soon followed. Dragoș established
a polity as a vassal to the Kingdom of Hungary in the 1350s. The independence of
the Principality of Moldavia came when Bogdan I, another Vlach voivode from Maramureș who
had fallen out with the Hungarian king, crossed the Carpathian mountains in 1359 and took
control of Moldavia, wresting the region from Hungary. The Principality of Moldavia was bounded
by the Carpathian Mountains in the west, the Dniester River in the east, and the Danube River
and Black Sea to the south. Its territory comprised the present-day territory of the Republic of
Moldova, the eastern eight counties of Romania, and parts of the Chernivtsi
Oblast and Budjak region of present-day Ukraine. Locals referred to the principality as Moldova -
like the present-day republic and Romania's north-eastern region.

Between Poland and Hungary[edit]

Map of the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania between 1386 and 1434 showing
the Principality of Moldavia as a Polish fief.

The history of what is today Moldova has been intertwined with that of Poland for centuries. The
Polish chronicler Jan Długosz mentioned Moldavians (under the name Wallachians) as having
joined a military expedition in 1342, under King Ladislaus I, against the Margraviate of
Brandenburg.[28] The Polish state was powerful enough to counter the Hungarian Kingdom which
was consistently interested in bringing the area that would become Moldova into its political orbit.
Ties between Poland and Moldavia expanded after the founding of the Moldavian state
by Bogdan of Cuhea, a Vlach voivode from Maramureș who had fallen out with the Hungarian
king. Crossing the Carpathian mountains in 1359, the voivode took control of Moldavia and
succeeded in creating Moldavia as an independent political entity. Despite being disfavored by
the brief union of Angevin Poland and Hungary (the latter was still the country's overlord),
Bogdan's successor Lațcu, the Moldavian ruler also likely allied himself with the Poles. Lațcu
also accepted conversion to Roman Catholicism around 1370, but his gesture was to remain
without consequences.