Bessarabia

Bessarabia (bĕsərā`bēə), historic region, c.17,600 sq mi (45,600 sq km), largely in Moldova and Ukraine. It is bounded by the Dniester River on the north and east, the Prut on the west, and the Danube and the Black Sea on the south. Consisting mainly of a hilly plain with flat steppes, it is an extremely fertile agricultural area, especially for wine grapes, fruits, corn, wheat, tobacco, sugar beets, and sunflowers. Dairy cattle and sheep raising are also important. Agricultural processing is the chief industry. There are some stone quarries and lignite deposits. Bessarabia's leading cities are Chişinău and Tiraspol in Moldova and Izmayil and Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyy in Ukraine. The population consists of Moldovans (about two thirds), Ukrainians, Russians, Jews, and Bulgarians. As the gateway from Russia into the Danube valley, Bessarabia has been an invasion route from Asia to Europe. Greek colonies were planted on the Black Sea coast of Bessarabia as early as the 7th cent. B.C. The region was later part of Roman Dacia, but after the 4th cent. A.D. it was subject to incursions by Goths, Huns, Avars, and Magyars. Slavs first settled in Bessarabia in the 7th cent. in the midst of these incursions. From the 9th to the 11th cent., the area was part of Kievan Rus, and in the 12th cent. it belonged to the duchy of Halych-Volhynia. Cumans and later Mongols overran Bessarabia; after the latter withdrew it was included (1367) in the newly established principality of Moldavia. The region probably derives its name from the Walachian princely family of Bassarab, which once ruled S Bessarabia. In 1513 the Turks and their vassals, the khans of the Crimean Tatars, conquered Bessarabia. After the Russo-Turkish wars, the region was ceded to Russia by the Treaty of Bucharest (1812). The Crimean War resulted (1856) in Russia's cession of S Bessarabia to Moldavia; but the Congress of Berlin (1878) returned the district to Russia. After the Bolshevik Revolution (1917) the anti-Soviet national council of Bessarabia proclaimed the region an autonomous republic; however, in 1918, Bessarabia renounced all ties with Soviet Russia and declared itself an independent Moldovan republic, later voting for union with Romania. Although the Treaty of Paris (1920) recognized the union, Russia never accepted it. In 1940 Romania was forced to cede Bessarabia to the USSR; the Romanian peace treaty of 1947 confirmed Bessarabia as part of the USSR. The larger part of the region was merged with the Moldavian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic to form the Moldavian SSR (now Moldova); the southern and northern sections, with a predominantly Ukrainian-speaking population, were incorporated into Ukraine.

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Bessarabia

Region, eastern Europe. It is bounded by the Prut and Dniester rivers, the Black Sea, and the Danube River delta. Greek colonies were founded on its Black Sea coast in the 7th century BC, and it was probably part of Dacia in the 2nd century AD. It became part of Moldavia in the 15th century; the Turks later annexed the southern portion into the Ottoman empire. The remainder fell to them in the 16th century when Moldavia submitted to the Turks; Bessarabia remained under Turkish control until the 19th century. Russia acquired it and half of Moldavia in 1812 and retained control until World War I. A nationalist movement developed, and after the Russian Revolution of 1917 Bessarabia declared its independence and voted to unite with Romania. The Soviet Union never recognized Romania's right to the province and in 1940 demanded that it cede Bessarabia; when Romania complied, the U.S.S.R. set up the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic (see Moldova), and incorporated the northern region into the Ukrainian S.S.R. Bessarabia remained divided after Ukraine and Moldavia declared independence in 1991.

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Bessarabia

a region in E Europe, mostly in Moldova and Ukraine: long disputed by the Turks and Russians; a province of Romania from 1918 until 1940. Area: about 44 300 sq. km (17 100 sq. miles)

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Bessarabia 

part of the territory of the USSR located between the Dnestr, Prut, and lower reaches of the Danube. Until the early 19th century, only Budzhak—the southern part of the interfluve of the Prut and the Dnestr—was called Bessarabia. During the tenth and 11th centuries, Bessarabia was part of Kievan Rus’; during the 12th and 13th centuries, part of the principality of Galicia-Volhynia; and from the mid-14th century, part of the Moldavian feudal state. At the start of the 16th century, Bessarabia, along with Moldavia, fell under the power of sultanate Turkey. As a result of the Russo-Turkish war of 1806–12, Bessarabia became part of Russia by the Treaty of Bucharest of 1812. By the Treaty of Paris of 1856, Russia lost the southern part of Bessarabia, which passed to Rumania. It was returned once more to Russia by a decision of the Berlin Congress of 1878. In January 1918, boyar Rumania occupied Bessarabia. In February 1918 a protocol liquidating the Russo-Rumanian conflict was signed, and from March 5 to March 9 an agreement was concluded between the RSFSR and Rumania on the evacuation of Bessarabia by Rumania. According to the protocol, Rumania was obliged to withdraw its forces from Bessarabia over a two-month period. However, exploiting the complicated situation of Soviet Russia (the invasion of the Ukraine by Austro-German forces and the temporary retreat by Soviet troops), the Rumanian government violated the agreement and annexed Bessarabia. The population of Bessarabia struggled stubbornly against the occupiers (Khotin Uprising of 1919 and Tatarbunary Uprising of 1924). The Soviet government never recognized Rumania’s seizure of Bessarabia; on June 26, 1940, it addressed a note to the Rumanian government proposing that it return Bessarabia and also the northern part of Bukovina, most of the population of which was tied to the Ukrainian SSR by a community of historical fate, language, and national composition. On June 28, 1940, Bessarabia was returned to the USSR as a result of the peaceful resolution of the Soviet-Rumanian conflict. In accordance with the law adopted by the seventh session of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on Aug. 2,1940, the Moldavian SSR, of which Bessarabia became a part, was formed. The districts of Izmail, Akkerman, and Khotin were joined to the Ukrainian SSR.

REFERENCE

Istoriia Moldavskoi SSR, vols. 1–2. Kishinev, 1965–68.

F. A. GREKUL