Bessarabia

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Bessarabia (Basarabia in Romanian language, Бесарабія in Ukrainian language, Бессарабия in Russian language, Бесарабия in Bulgarian language, Besarabya in Turkish language) is a historical term for the geographic entity in Eastern Europe bounded by the Dniester River on the East and the Prut River on the West. This was the name by which Imperial Russia designated the eastern part of the principality of Moldavia ceded by the Ottoman Empire to Russia in the aftermath of the Russo-Turkish War, 1806-1812. The remaining Moldavia united with Wallachia in 1859 in what would become the Kingdom of Romania. In 1918, slightly before at the end of World War I, Bessarabia declared its independence from Russia and after three months united with the Kingdom of Romania. After the Soviet occupation of Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina in 1940 at the beginning of World War II (see Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact), and (after changing hands in 1941) again in 1944, Bessarabia was annexed to the USSR, where its core part was reorganised as the Moldavian SSR, to which parts of the previous Moldavian ASSR were added. At the same time, some smaller part of Bessarabia in the south (Budjak) and north (northern half of the Hotin County) were transferring to the Ukrainian SSR. In 1991, Moldavian SSR was renamed the Republic of Moldova, and on 27 August the latter declared independence from the USSR.

Geography in grey and Romanian Moldova in brown.

In the administrative system of the Russian Empire Bessarabia was a region of Eastern Europe comprising most of current-day Moldova and additional districts that are now in Ukraine. It was bounded by the Dniester river to the north and east, the Prut to the west and the lower Danube river and the Black Sea to the south. It had approximately 17,600 sq mi (45,600 km²). The area has mostly hilly plains with flat steppes, it is very fertile for agriculture, and it also has some lignite deposits and stone quarries. People living in the area grow sugar beets, sunflowers, wheat, maize, tobacco, wine grapes and fruits. They also raise sheep and cattle. Currently, the main industry in the region is agricultural processing.

The region's main cities are Chişinău (Russian name Kishinev), the capital of Moldova, Izmail, Bilhorod-Dnistrovs'kyi (historically called Cetatea Albă and Akkerman). Other towns of administrative or historical importance include: Hotin, Lipcani, Briceni, Soroca, Bălţi, Orhei, Ungheni, Tighina (historical name Bender), Cahul, Reni and Kilia, Ukraine (historical name Chilia).

History The name Bessarabia (Basarabia in Romanian language) derives from the Wallachian Basarab dynasty, who once ruled over the southern part of the area. The name originally applied only to the southern part of the territory, which corresponds in size to the modern day Budjak. The Turks were the first to call it "Ottoman Bessarabia", which they began doing when they gained control of the area in 1484.

From the 15th century to the 20th century centuries, the region passed in part or whole under the control of: Moldavia, the Ottoman Empire (only the Budjak region), Russia, Romania, the Soviet Union, Ukraine and Moldova.

Ancient times The territory of Bessarabia has been inhabited by people for thousands of years. The Indo-European invasion occurred around the year 2000 BC. The original inhabitants were Cimmerians, and after them came Scythians. The people who settled in this area would later become the Dacians, Getae and Thyrsagetae, these being Thracians tribes. In the 7th century BC, Ancient Greece settlers established colonies in the region, mostly along the Black Sea coast and traded with the locals. Also, Celts settled in the southern parts of Bessarabia, their main city being Aliobrix.

The first state that included the whole of Bessarabia was the Dacian kingdom of Burebista, a contemporary of Julius Caesar, in the 1st century BC. After his death, the state was divided into smaller pieces and was only unified in the Dacian kingdom of Decebalus in the 1st century. Although this kingdom was defeated by the Roman Empire in 106, Bessarabia was never part of the empire and the Free Dacians resisted the Roman conquerors. The Romans built defensive earthen walls in Southern Bessarabia to defend the Scythia Minor province against invasions.

The Roman Empire romanized parts of Dacia (via colonization and cultural influence) and some of the local tribes adopted the Latin and customs. According to the theory of the Daco-Roman continuity the Latin culture and the Romance language (Romanian language) would later spread to encompass the cultural area of the ancient Dacians, including the region of Bessarabia. Some historians deny this and the continuity of Latin-speaking people north of the Danube. For more, see Origin of Romanians.

In 270, the Roman authorities began to withdraw their forces from Dacia, due to the invading Goths and Carps. The Goths, a Germanic tribe, poured into the Roman Empire through the southern part of Bessarabia (Budjak), which due to its geographic position and characteristics (mainly steppe), was swept by various nomadic tribes. From the 5th century it was overrun in turn by the Huns, the Eurasian Avars, and the Bulgars. The influence of the Roman Empire (Eastern Roman Empire) did not die out until 567.

The Age of migrations From the 3rd century until the 11th century, the region was invaded numerous times by the Goths, Huns, Eurasian Avars, Bulgars, Slavs (South, i.e. Bulgarian, and Eastern), Magyars, Pechenegs, Cumans and Mongols. The territory of Bessarabia was encompassed in dozens of ephemeral kingdoms which were disbanded when another wave of migrants arrived. Those centuries were characterized by a terrible state of insecurity and mass movement of people. The period was later known as the "Dark Ages" of Europe.

In 561, the Avars captured Bessarabia and executed the local ruler Mesamer. Following Avars, Slavs started to arrive in the region and establish settlements. Then, in 582, Onogur Bulgars settled in south-eastern Bessarabia and northern Dobruja, from which they moved to Moesia under pressure from the Khazars and formed the nascent region of Bulgaria. With the rise of the Khazars' state in the east, the invasions began to diminish and it was possible to create larger states. According to some opinions, the Southern part of Bessarabia remained under the influence of the First Bulgarian Empire until to the end of 9th century.

Between the 8th century and 10th century, the southern part of Bessarabia was inhabitated by people from Balkan-Dunabian culture Чеботаренко, Г.Ф. Материалы к археологической карте памятников VІІІ-Х вв. южной части Пруто-Днестровского междуречья//Далекое прошлое Молдавии, Кишинев, 1969, с. 224-230 (the culture of the First Bulgarian Empire). Between the 9th century and 13th century, Bessarabia is mentioned in European and Slav chronicles as part of Bolohoveni (north) and Brodnici (south) Voevodates, believed to be Vlach (Romania in the Middle Ages#Medieval states) principalities of the early Middle Ages.

The Tatar invasions of 1241 and 1290 led to a retreat of a big part of the population to the Eastern Carpathians and to Transylvania. Apparently, only one group east of the Prut river did not retreat to mountain regions at the time of the Tatar invasions. In later middle-age chronicles it is mentioned as the Tigheci "republic", situated near the modern town of Cahul in the southwest of Bessarabia, preserving its autonomy even during the later Principality of Moldavia.

The last large scale invasions were those of the Mongols and Tartars of 1241, 1290 and 1343, a small group of whom settled around the present day town of Orhei until they were pushed out in the 1390s.

Principality of Moldavia was one of the many important castles built by Moldavia in BessarabiaAfter 1343 and the defeat of Mongols, the region was included in the principality of Moldavia, which by 1392 established control over the fortresses of Cetatea Albă and Kilia, Ukraine, its eastern border becoming the river Dnister (Nistru in Romanian).

In the latter part of the 14th century, the southern part of the region was for several decades part of Wallachia. The main dynasty of Walachia was called Basarab, from which the current name of the region originated.

In the 15th century, the entire region was a part of the principality of Moldavia. Ştefan cel Mare (Stephen the Great) ruled between 1457 and 1504, a period of nearly 50 years during which he won 32 battles defending his country virtually against all his neighbours (mainly the Ottomans and the Tatars, but also the Hungarians and the Poles), while losing only two. During this period, after each victory, he raised a monastery or a church close to the battlefield honoring Christianity. Many of these battlefields and churches, as well as old fortresses are situated in Bessarabia (mainly along the Dniester river).

In 1484 , the Turks invaded and captured Kilia, Ukraine and Cetatea Albă (Akkerman in Turkish), and annexed the shoreline southern part of Bessarabia, which was then divided into two sanjaks (districts) of the Ottoman Empire. In 1538 , the Ottomans annexed more Bessarabian land in the south as far as Tighina, while the central and northern parts of Bessarabia, as part of the principality of Moldavia was formally a vassal of the Ottoman Empire.

Between 1711 and 1812, the Russian Empire occupied the region five times during wars between Ottoman Empire, Russia, and Austria. Between 1820 and 1846 , the Gagauz population migrated to the Russian Empire via the Danube, after living many oppressive years under Ottoman rule, and settled in southern Bessarabia. Turkic-speaking tribes of the Nogai Horde also inhabited the Bugeac Region of southern Bessarabia from the 16th to 18th centuries, but were totally driven out prior to 1812.

Annexation by the Russian Empire By the Treaty of Bucharest, 1812 of May 28, 1812 — concluding the Russo-Turkish War, 1806-1812 — the Ottoman Empire ceded the Eastern half of the Principality of Moldavia to the Russian Empire. That region was then called Bessarabia. Prior to this year, the name was used only for approximately its southern one quarter, which as stated before was already under direct Ottoman control ever since 1484.

In 1814 , the first German settlers arrived and mainly settled in the southern parts and Bessarabian Bulgarians became settling in the region, founding towns such as Bolhrad.

Administratively, Bessarabia became an oblast of the Russian Empire effective 1818 and a guberniya effective 1873.

By the Treaty of Adrianople that concluded the Russo-Turkish War of 1828-1829 the whole river delta of Danube was added to Bessarabian Oblast.

At the end of the Crimean War, in 1856 , by the Treaty of Paris (1856), two districts of southern Bessarabia were returned to Moldavia, the Russian Empire lost access to the Danube river.

In 1859, Moldavia and Wallachia united as the Kingdom of Romania in 1866, including the Southern part of Bessarabia.

The Romanian War of Independence was fought in 1877–1878, with the help of the Russian Empire as an ally. Although the treaty of alliance between Romania and the Russian Empire specified that the Russian Empire would respect the territorial integrity of Romania and not claim any part of Romania at the end of the war , by the Treaty of Berlin, 1878, the Southern part of Bessarabia was again annexed by Russia.

The Kishinev pogrom took place in Chişinău (Kishinev in Russian language), the capital of Bessarabia, on April 6, 1903 after articles were published in local newspapers inciting the public to act against Jews; 47 or 49 Jews were killed, 92 severely wounded and 700 houses destroyed. The anti-Semitic newspaper Бессарабец (Bessarabetz, meaning "Bessarabian"), published by Pavel Krushevan, insinuated that a Russian boy was killed by local Jews. Another newspaper, Свет (Svet, "Light"), used the ages-old blood libel against the Jews (alleging that the boy had been killed to use his blood in preparation of matzo). It was the first media propaganda inspired action against Jews in the 20th century.

After the Russian Revolution of 1905, a Romanian nationalist movement started to develop in Bessarabia. In the chaos brought by the Russian revolution of October 1917 , a National Council (Sfatul Ţării) was established in Bessarabia, with 120 members elected from Bessarabia and 10 elected from Transnistria (the left bank of the Dniester River, inhabited by ethnic Moldavians/Romanians).

On January 14, 1918, during the disorderly retreat of two Russian divisions from the Romanian front, Chişinău was sacked. The Rumcherod Committee (Central Executive Committee of Soviet (council) of Workers, Soldiers and Sailors Deputies of Rusian Romanian Front, Black Sea Fleet and Odessa Region) proclaimed itself the supreme power in Bessarabia. The Sfatul Ţării, unable to call up any armed forces, called upon the Romanian government for help. On 16 January a Romanian division cleared Chişinău, and the following day Tighina on the shore of the river Dnister. The three-day Soviet rule in Bessarabia ended.

Ten days later, on January 24, 1918, Sfatul Ţării declared Bessarabia's independence as the Moldavian Democratic Republic.

The unification of Romania and Bessarabia The county councils of Bălţi, Soroca and Orhei were the earliest to ask for unification with the Kingdom of Romania, and on April 9 March 27 1918, Sfatul Ţării voted in favour of the union, with the following conditions:

1. Sfatul Ţării would undertake an agrarian reform, which would be accepted by the Romanian Government.2. Bessarabia would remain autonomous, with its own diet, Sfatul Ţării, elected democratically3. Sfatul Ţării would vote for local budgets, control the councils of zemstvos and cities, and name the local administration4. Conscription would be done on a territorial basis5. Local laws and the form of administration could be changed only with the approval of local representatives6. The rights of minorities had to be respected7. Two Bessarabian representatives would be part of the Romanian government8. Bessarabia would send to the Romanian Parliament a number of representatives equal to the proportion of its population9. All elections must involve a direct, equal, secret, and universal vote10. Freedom of speech and of belief must be guaranteed in the constitution11. All individuals who had committed felonies for political reasons during the revolution would be amnestied.

There were 86 votes for, 3 votes against and 36 deputies abstained. The first condition for agrarian reform was debated and approved in November 1918, and following this, Sfatul Ţării voted a motion which removed all the other conditions, trusting that Romania would be a democratic country. Unfortunaly, the Romania's government rejected most of these 11 points (conditions), which would cause later much discontent in this new province of Romania, Bessarabia.

In the autumn of 1919, elections for the Romanian Constituent Assembly were held in Bessarabia; 90 deputies and 35 senators were chosen. On December 20, 1919, these men voted, along with the representatives of Romania's other regions, to ratificaty the unification acts that had been approved by Sfatul Ţării and the National Congresses in Transylvania and Bukovina.

The union was confirmed by Romania's European allies in the Treaty of Paris (1920). The United States refused to sign the Treaty on the grounds that Russia was not represented at the Conference.Wayne S Vucinich, Bessarabia In: Collier's Encyclopedia (Crowell Collier and MacMillan Inc., 1967) vol. 4, p. 103

Part of Romania

A Provisional Workers' & Peasants' Government of Bessarabia was founded on May 5, 1919, in exile at Odessa, by the Bolsheviks.

On May 11, 1919, the Bessarabian Soviet Socialist Republic was proclaimed as an autonomous part of Russian SFSR, but was abolished by the military forces of Poland and France in September 1919 (see Polish-Soviet War). After the victory of Bolshevist Russia in the Russian Civil War, the Ukrainian SSR was created in 1922 , and in 1924 , a strip of Ukrainian land on the left bank of the Dniester River was declared to be the Moldovan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic.

At the Treaty of Paris (1920), the union with Romania was officially recognized by France, the United Kingdom, Italy, and Japan. However the treaty never came into force since it wasn't ratified by Japan. The United States and Soviet Russia (and later, USSR) did not recognize the union.

World War II The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact was signed on August 23, 1939. By Article 4 of the secret Annex to the Treaty, Soviet occupation of Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina.

Using the fact that by June 22, 1940, the western Europe was overrun by Hitler's Germany, and the attention of the world was focussed on those events, on June 26, 1940, as a consequence of the terms of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, the USSR issued an ultimatum that required Romania to cede Bessarabia and northern Bukovina, and evacuate its troops and institutions in four days (otherwise war would ensue). The two provinces had an area of 51,000 km² (20,000 square miles), and were inhabited by about 3.75 million people, mostly Romanians. After weighing the possible consequences of a military clash with the Soviet Union in the summer of 1940, two days later, the Romanian administration started to retreat from the two provinces. During this retreat, from June 28 to July 3, some local Communists and Soviet sympaphazers began attacking the retreating forces and the people who also decided to retreat. Many of leaders of the attacks happened to be representatives of ethnic minorities (Jews, Ukrainians). The Romanian Army was also attacked by the Soviet Army, which entered Bessarabia before the Romanian administration finished retreating. The casualties suffered by the Romanian Army during those seven days consisted of 356 officers and 42,876 soldiers dead or disappeared. Soviet troops entered Bessarabia and northern Bukovina and incorporated them into the USSR.

On August 2, 1940, a Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic was established on most of the territory of Bessarabia, merged with parts of the former Moldavian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. Bessarabia was divided between this Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic (70% of the territory and 80% of the population) and the Ukrainian SSR (the rest). Bessarabia's northern and southern districts (nowadays Budjak and parts of the Chernivtsi oblast) were alloted to Ukrainian SSR, while some territories (4,000 sq.km) on the left (eastern) bank of the Dniester, previously part of Ukrainian SSR (nowadays Transnistria) were alloted to Moldavian SSR. Following the Soviet takeover, many Bessarabians were executed or deported to Siberia and Kazakhstan.

Between September an November 1940 , the Bessarabia Germans were offered resettlement to Germany, in accordance with the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. Fearing Soviet oppression, almost all Germans (93,000) agreed. Most of them, among them the parents of the current German President Horst Köhler, were resettled to the newly annexed Polish territories. Those who did not leave were often slaughtered while fleeing West in their wagons from the Red Army.

On June 22, 1941 the Axis Powers invasion of the Soviet Union commenced with Operation Barbarossa, accompanied in Bessarabia and northern Bukovina by Romanian troops. The Soviets employed scorched earth tactics during their forced retreat from Bessarabia, destroying the infrastructure, and transporting movable goods to Russia by railway. At the end of July, after a year of Soviet occupation, the region was once again under Romanian control.

As the military operation was still in progress, there were cases of Romanian troops "taking revenge" on Jews in Bessarabia, in the form of pogroms on civilians and murdering Jewish POWs, resulting in several thousand dead. The apparent cause for murdering Jews was created by blaming them of siding with the Soviets in June-July 1940, whom some Jews regarded as liberators, and then cunningly exploited to create an anti-Semitic atmosphere within the Romanian army. At the same time the notorious SS Einsatzgruppen, operating in the area where the German 11th army was assisting the Romanian army, committed summary executions of Jews under the pretext that they were spies, saboteurs, communists, or under no pretext whatsoever.

The political solution of the "Jewish Question (disambiguation)" was apparently seen by the Romanian dictator Marshal Ion Antonescu more in expulsion rather than extermination. That portion of the Jewish population of Bessarabia and Bukovina which did not flee before the retreat of the Soviet troops (110,000) was initially gathered into ghettos or concentration camps, and then deported during 1941-1942 in death marches into the Romanian-occupied Transnistria (WWII), which, unlike Greater Romania, was partially controlled by the SS.

After three years of relative peace, the German-Soviet front returned in 1944 to the land border on the Dniester. On August 20, 1944 the ca. 3,400,000 men strong Red Army began a major summer offensive codenamed Battle of Romania (1944) (from the Russian language names of the cities Iaşi and Chişinău). The Soviets overran Bessarabia in a two-pronged offensive within five days. In pocket battles at Chişinău and Sarata the German 6th Army of ca. 650,000, newly reformed after the Battle of Stalingrad, was obliterated. Simultaneously with the success of the Russian attack, Romania broke the military alliance with the Axis and changed sides. On August 23, 1944, Marshal Ion Antonescu was arrested by King Michael I of Romania, and later handed over to the Soviets.

Part of the Soviet Union The Soviet Union regained the region in 1944 and the Soviet military occupied Romania until 1958 and imposed a communist government in Bucharest by 1947, which was friendly and obedient towards Moscow. The Romanian communist regime did not raise the matter of Bessarabia and Bukovina (which was ceded by Romania to the Soviet Union before the war) in its diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union.

Between 1969 and 1971 , a clandestine National Patriotic Front was established by several young intellectuals in Chişinău, totaling over 100 members, vowing to fight for the establishment of a Moldavian Democratic Republic, its secession from the Soviet Union and union with Romania.

In December 1971, following an informative note from Ion Stanescu, the President of the Council of State Security of the Romanian Socialist Republic, to Yuri Andropov, the chief of KGB, three of the leaders of the National Patriotic Front, Alexandru Usatiuc-Bulgar, Gheorghe Ghimpu and Valeriu Graur, as well as a forth person, Alexandru Soltoianu, the leader of a similar clandestine movement in northern Bukovina (Bucovina), were arrested and later sentenced to long prison terms.

Rise of Independent Moldova With the weakening of the Soviet Union, in February 1988, the first non-sanctioned demonstrations were held in Chişinău. At first pro-Perestroika, they soon turned anti-government and demanded official status for the Moldavian (Romanian) language instead of the Russian language.

On August 31, 1989, following a 600,000-strong demonstration in Chişinău four days earlier, Moldavian (Romanian) became the official language of the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic. However, this was not implemented for many years.

In 1990, the first free elections were held for Parliament, with the opposition Frontul Popular (People's Front) all but winning them. A government led by Mircea Druc, one of the leaders of Frontul Popular, was formed. The Moldavian SSR becomes SSR Moldova, and later the Republic of Moldova.

The Republic of Moldova became independent in 1991; its boundaries (those established on August 2, 1940) remained unchanged.

Population The population before World War II consisted of Romanians, Ukrainians(Ruthenians), Russians, Bulgarians, Gagauz, German people, and Jews. According to the census data of the Russian Emprire, during the 19th century the ethnic Romanians decreased from 86% (1817) to 56% (1897).

Russian Census 1817, (total 482,000 inhabitants)

83,848 Romanian families (86%)
6,000 Ruthenian families (6,5%)
3,826 Jewish families (1,5%)
1,200 Lipovan families (1,5%)
640 Greek families (0,7%)
530 Armenian families (0,6%)
241 Bulgarian families (0,25%)
241 Gagauz families (0,25%)

Russian Census 1856, (total 990,000 inhabitants)

736,000 Romanians (74%)
119,000 Ukrainians (12%)
79,000 Jews (8%)
47,000 Bulgarians and Gagauz (5%)
24,000 Germans (2.4%)
11,000 Roma people (1.1%)
6,000 Russians (0.6%)

1889: 1,628,867.

Russian Census 1897, Results of the 1897 Russian Census at demoscope.ru (total 1,935,412 inhabitants). Some scholars believed that " the census enumerator generally has instructions to count everyone who understands the state language as being of that nationality, no matter what his everyday speech may be." Charles Upson Clark, Bessarabia. Russia and Roumania on the Black Sea:"These figures were based on estimates of the population of Bessarabia as consisting 70% of Moldavians, 14% Ukrainians, 12% Jews, 6% Russians, 3% Bulgarians, 3% Germans, 2% Gagautzi (Turks of Christian religion), and 1% Greeks and Armenians. This appears to be a fairly accurate guess; the official Russian figures, which the Moldavians considered as inaccurate and padded, set the Moldavian proportion considerably lower, as about one-half. Such figures are misleading in all European countries of mixed nationalities, since the census enumerator generally has instructions to count everyone who understands the state language as being of that nationality, no matter what his everyday speech may be." By language:

920,919 Moldavians and Romanians (47.6%)
379,698 Ukrainians (19.6%)
228,168 Jews (11.8%)
155,774 Russians (8%)
103,225 Bulgarians (5.3%)
60,026 Germans (3.1%)
55,790 Turks (Gagauzes) (2.9%)

Romanians Census 1930, (total 3,105,530 inhabitants){]! | Ukrainians! ]! | Gagauz! ]! | Jews! ]! | inhabitants|-| Cetatea Albă || 62,949 || 70,095 || 58,922 || 7,876 || 71,227 || 11,139 || 55,598 || 341,176|-| Ismail || 72,020 || 10,665 || 66,987 || 15,591 || 43,375 || 6,306 || 983 || 225,509|-| Cahul || 100,714 || 619 || 14,740 || 35,299 || 28,565 || 4,434 || 8,644 || 196,693|-| Tighina || 163,673 || 9,047 || 44,989 || 39,345 || 19,599 || 16,845 || 10,524 || 306,592|-| Lăpuşna || 326,455 || 2,732 || 29,770 || 37 || 712 || 50,013 || 2,823 || 419,621|-| Orhei || 242,983 || 2,469 || 10,746 || 1 || 87 || 18,999 || 154 || 279,282|-| Bălţi || 270,942 || 29,288 || 46,569 || 8 || 66 || 31,695 || 1,623 || 386,721|-| Soroca || 232,720 || 26,039 || 25,736 || 13 || 69 || 29,191 || 417 || 315,774|-| Hotin || 137,348 || 163,267 || 53,453 || 2 || 26 || 35,985 || 323 || 392,430|-| Iaşi and Fălciu (parts) || 124,500 || * || * || * || * || 5,000 || * || 132,023|-| Total || 1,735,000 || 315,000+ || 352,000 || 99,000 || 164,000 || 210,000 || 82,000 || 2,995,821|-| % || 58% || 11% || 12% || 3% || 5% || 7% || 3% || 100%|-|}Notes: (1) parts of Iaşi (Ungheni) and Fălciu counties were in Bessarabia;(2) * = data counted at others for these counties

Data of the 1939 was not completely processed before the Soviet occupation. Estimates of the total population at 3.5 million.

1970: 69% of Bessarabia's population were Romanians and 98% of them declared Moldovan language (Romanian language) as their native language.

1989: There were 88,419 Bessarabian Bulgarians according to official data from Republic of Moldova

1992: 4,305 immigrants to Israel from the Republic of Moldova constituted 7.1 percent of all the immigrants to Israel from the former U.S.S.R. in this year.

2004: There were 65,072 Bessarabian Bulgarians according to the census not including Bulgarians in Transnistria.

Economy

1911: There were 165 loan societies, 117 savings Banks, forty three professional savings and loan societies, and eight Zemstvo loan offices; all these had total assets of about 10,000,000 rubles. There were also eighty nine government savings banks, with deposits of about 9,000,000 rubles.
1918: Railway mileage was only 657 miles, the main lines converged on Russia and were broad gauge. Rolling stock and right of way were in bad shape. There were about 400 locomotives, with only about one hundred fit for use. There were 290 passenger coaches and thirty three more out for repair. Finally, out of 4530 freight cars and 187 tank cars, only 1389 and 103 were usable. The Romanians reduced the gauge to a standard 4ft 8-1/2in, so that cars could be run to the rest of Europe. Also, there were only a few inefficient bridges of boats. Romanian highway engineers decided to build ten bridges: Cuzlău, Ţuţora, Lipcani, Şerpeniţa, Ştefăneşti-Brănişte, Cahul-Oancea, Bădărăi-Moara Domnească, Sarata, Bumbala-Leova, Badragi and Fălciu (Fălciu is a locality in Romania. Its correspondent in Bessarabia is Cantemir). Of these, only four were ever finished: Cuzlău, Fălciu, Lipcani and Sărata.