Daily Almanac for
Dec 2, 2009
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Moldova

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Facts & Figures
Map of Moldova
Map of Moldova

President: Mihai Ghimpu (acting; 2009)

Prime Minister: Zinaida Greceanii (2008)

Land area: 12,885 sq mi (33,371 sq km); total area: 13,067 sq mi (33,843 sq km)

Population (2009 est.): 4,320,748 (growth rate: 0.0%); birth rate: 11.1/1000; infant mortality rate: 13.1/1000; life expectancy: 70.8; density per sq km: 129

Capital and largest city (2003 est.): Chisinau, 772,500 (metro. area), 709,900 (city proper)

Other large cities: Tiraspol, 209,800; Beltsy, 175,400; Bendery (Tighina), 144,900

Monetary unit: Leu

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Flag of Moldova
Index
  1. Moldova Main Page
  2. Independence Leads to Political and Financial Unrest
  3. Disputed Election Leads to Unrest

Geography

Moldova (formerly Moldavia) is a landlocked republic of hilly plains lying east of the Carpathian Mountains between the Prut and Dniester (Dnestr) rivers. The country is sandwiched between Romania and Ukraine. The region is very fertile, with rich black soil (chernozem) covering three-quarters of the territory.

Government

Democratic republic.

History

Most of what is now Moldova was the independent principality of Moldavia in the 14th century. In the 16th century, it came under Ottoman Turkish rule. Russia acquired Moldavian territory in 1791, and more in 1812 when Turkey gave up the province of Bessarabia—the area between the Prut and Dniester rivers—to Russia in the Treaty of Bucharest. Turkey held the rest of Moldavia but it was passed to Romania in 1918. Russia did not recognize the cession of this territory.

In 1924, the USSR established Moldavia as an Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. As a result of the Nazi-Soviet Nonaggression Pact of 1939, Romania was forced to cede all of Bessarabia to the Soviet Union in 1940. The Soviets merged the Moldavia ASSR with the Romanian-speaking districts of Bessarabia to form the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic. During World War II, Romania joined Germany in the attack on the Soviet Union and reconquered Bessarabia. But Soviet troops retook the territory in 1944 and reestablished the Moldavian SSR.

For many years, Romania and the USSR disputed each other's territorial claims over Bessarabia. Following the aborted coup against Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev, Moldavia proclaimed its independence in Sept. 1991 and changed its name to the Romanian spelling, Moldova.

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