Chisinau

Chişinău (kē'shənou`), formerly Kishinev (kĭsh`ənĕf'), city (1996 est. pop. 735,229), capital of Moldova, on the Byk River, a tributary of the Dniester. Major industries include food and tobacco processing, the assembly of consumer and electrical goods, and the manufacture of building materials, machinery, plastics, rubber, and textiles. Founded in the early 15th cent. as a monastery town, Chişinău was taken in the 16th cent. by the Turks and in 1812 by the Russians, who made it the center of Bessarabia. Romania held the city from 1918 to 1940, when it was seized by the USSR. The Jewish population, which formerly constituted about 40% of the total, was largely exterminated in World War II. Chişinău's educational and cultural facilities include a university (1945) and the Academy of Sciences of Moldova.

Bibliography

See E. H. Judge, Easter in Kishinev: Anatomy of a Pogrom (1992).

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Chisinau

 formerly (1812–1918, 1940–91) Kishinev

City (pop., 1999: 655,000), capital of Moldova. It lies on a tributary of the Dniester River. Ruled by Moldavia in the 15th century and taken by the Ottoman Turks in the 16th century, it was ceded to Russia in 1812. From 1918 the city was controlled by Romania; it was ceded back to the Soviet Union in 1940 and became the capital of the newly formed Moldavian S.S.R. The city is a commercial centre and the site of a university.