Portal:Moldova

Moldova
Moldova
	Flag Coat of arms
Location	Eastern Europe

The Moldova Portal

Moldova, officially the Republic of Moldova, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, on the northeastern corner of the Balkans. The country spans a total of 33,483 km² (12,928 sq mi) and has a population of approximately 2.42 million as of January 2024. Moldova is bordered by Romania to the west and Ukraine to the north, east, and south. The unrecognised breakaway state of Transnistria lies across the Dniester river on the country's eastern border with Ukraine. Moldova is a unitary parliamentary representative democratic republic with its capital in Chișinău, the country's largest city and main cultural and commercial centre.

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. In February 1918, it 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 so-called Moldavian autonomous republic 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).

On 27 August 1991, as the dissolution of the Soviet Union was underway, the Moldavian SSR declared independence and took the name Moldova. However, the strip of Moldovan territory on the east bank of the Dniester has been under the de facto control of the breakaway government of Transnistria since 1990. The constitution of Moldova was adopted in 1994, and the country became a parliamentary republic with a president as head of state and a prime minister as head of government. Under the presidency of Maia Sandu, elected in 2020 on a pro-Western and anti-corruption ticket, Moldova has pursued membership of the European Union, and was granted candidate status in June 2022. Accession talks to the EU began on 13 December 2023. Sandu has also suggested an end to Moldova's constitutional commitment to military neutrality in favour of a closer alliance with NATO and strongly condemned Russia's invasion of neighbouring Ukraine. (Full article...)

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Moldovan or Moldavian (Latin alphabet: limba moldovenească, Moldovan Cyrillic alphabet: лимба молдовеняскэ) is one of the two local names for the Romanian language in Moldova. Moldovan was declared the official language of Moldova in Article 13 of the constitution adopted in 1994, while the 1991 Declaration of Independence of Moldova used the name Romanian. In 2003, the Moldovan parliament adopted a law defining Moldovan and Romanian as glottonyms for the same language. In 2013, the Constitutional Court of Moldova interpreted that Article 13 of the constitution is superseded by the Declaration of Independence, thus giving official status to the name Romanian. The breakaway region of Transnistria continues to recognize "Moldavian" as one of its official languages, alongside Russian and Ukrainian. Ukraine also continued until recently to make a distinction between Moldovan and Romanian, with one village declaring its language to be Romanian and another declaring it to be Moldovan, though Ukrainian officials have announced an intention to remove the legal status of Moldovan. On 16 November 2023, the Ministry of Education and Science of the Ukrainian government stated that it has initiated steps to abolish the Moldovan language and to replace it with Romanian. On 13 January 2024, Ukrainian newspaper Dumska reported that the Ukrainian Ministry of Education and Science had announced all 16 schools in Odesa Oblast teaching "Moldovan" had dropped the term in favor of Romanian. On 16 March 2023, the Moldovan Parliament approved a law on referring to the national language as Romanian in all legislative texts and the constitution. On 22 March, the president of Moldova, Maia Sandu, promulgated the law.

The language of the Moldovans had for centuries been interchangeably identified by both terms, but during the time of the Soviet Union, Moldovan, or as it was called at the time, Moldavian, was the only term officially recognized. Its resolution declared Moldavian a distinct Romance language from Romanian. (Full article...)

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Image 1Chișinău Independence Day Parade, 2016
Image 2Presidential Palace, Chișinău
Image 3A view of Otaci, which is located on the southwestern bank of the Dniester River, which at that point forms the northeastern border of Moldova, July 2006. Here Otaci is seen from the Ukrainian town of Mohyliv-Podilskyi. The tower block in the foreground collapsed in 2019.
Image 4Chișinău Independence Day Parade, 2016
Image 5A satellite view of Moldova, 2003
Image 6European Bison in Pădurea Domnească
Image 7SunStroke Project during the 2017 Eurovision Song Contest in Kyiv
Image 8A map of Moldova, 2001
Image 9The Mileștii Mici winery has the world's largest wine cellars by bottle count, with over 1.5 million bottles of wine.^[1]
Image 10A view of Chişinău in winter, 2006
Image 11Modernist campus of the Alecu Russo State University of Bălți
Image 12Orhei National Park, the only national park in the country
Image 13Chișinău Independence Day Parade, 2016
Image 14Moldovan ballet dancer Alina Nanu
Image 15Flag of Gagauzia
Image 16A soldier from Moldova pulls security while conducting a company situational training exercise during exercise Combined Resolve III at the Joint Multinational Readiness Center in Hohenfels, Germany, Oct. 26, 2014
Image 17A view of Soroca Fort, a historic fort in the modern-day city of Soroca, Moldova

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Did you know...

... that The "Golden Collection" from the State Enterprise Quality Wines Industrial Complex "Mileştii Mici" was recognized by the Guinness World Records as "the biggest wine collection in the world" on the 19th of August 2005. It contains over 1,5 million bottles of different types of wine – dry wines, dessert and sparkling wines.

...that according to the legend, voivode Dragoş founded Moldova as the result of an aurochs hunt. This is the popular explanation of aurochs head depicted on the coat of arms of Moldova.

...that only five of twelve stanzas of the original poem by Alexei Mateevici are included in the national anthem of Moldova.

...that Moldavian SSR had population density 128.2 people/km² and was the most densely populated republic of the Soviet Union.

...that Christian Orthodox is the predominant religion in Moldova. 98% of believers belong to the Orthodox Church, and its traditions are tightly entwined with the culture and patrimony of the country.

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The following are images from various Moldova-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1The administrative map of Greater Romania in 1930 (from History of Moldova)
Image 2Cucuteni–Trypillian culture boundaries (from History of Moldova)
Image 3Declaration of unification of Bessarabia and Romania (from History of Moldova)
Image 4Moldova has geological and climatic conditions which are favorable for viticulture (from Moldovan wine)
Image 5Mămăligă with cheese and greaves (from Moldovan cuisine)
Image 6Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, and Maia Sandu, President of Moldova on 31 May 2023. (from History of Moldova)
Image 7Russian soldiers in Tiraspol, Transnistria. (from History of Moldova)
Image 8Romanian Literature Museum, Chișinău (from History of Moldova)
Image 9Fresco of Stephen the Great at Voroneț Monastery (from History of Moldova)
Image 10Măzărache Church in the 19th century (from History of Moldova)
Image 11Borș de burechiușe (from Moldovan cuisine)
Image 12National Enoteca at Cricova (from Moldovan wine)
Image 13Moldavia and the modern boundaries (from History of Moldova)
Image 14Maia Sandu at Batumi International Conference, on 19 July 2021. (from History of Moldova)
Image 15A popular Moldovan dish of Stuffed Cabbage Rolls (sarma), accompanied by sauerkraut and mămăligă. (from Culture of Moldova)
Image 16Tiraspol, 1941 (from History of Moldova)
Image 17Mimi Wine Castle (from Moldovan wine)
Image 18Transnistrian region of Moldova (from History of Moldova)
Image 19Tochitură (from Moldovan cuisine)
Image 20Chișinău water carrier (from History of Moldova)
Image 21Sultan Suleiman I taking control of Moldova (from History of Moldova)
Image 22Gubernya of Bessarabia, 1883 (from History of Moldova)
Image 23Meatballs (chiftele) (from Moldovan cuisine)
Image 24Wedding in the village Tașlîc, 1960s (from Culture of Moldova)
Image 25Agriculture in Moldova, 1941 (from History of Moldova)
Image 26Museum of Fine Arts, 1939 (from History of Moldova)
Image 27The Roman provinces of Dacia (purple) and Moesia Inferior (green) (from History of Moldova)
Image 28President of Moldova, Maia Sandu, with President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv, 27 June 2022. (from History of Moldova)
Image 29Moldovan Chardonnay (from Moldovan wine)
Image 30A painting of Stephen the Great and his wife Marițica Bibescu, surrounded by family (from Culture of Moldova)
Image 312009 civil unrest (from History of Moldova)
Image 32Gavriil Bănulescu-Bodoni (from History of Moldova)
Image 33Mileștii Mici – the world's largest wine cellars (from Moldovan wine)
Image 34A popular Moldovan dish of sarmale (stuffed cabbage rolls), accompanied by sauerkraut and mămăligă (from Moldovan cuisine)
Image 35The territories of the Bolohoveni according to A. V. Boldur (from History of Moldova)
Image 36Triumphal Arch (from History of Moldova)
Image 37Traditional Moldovan costumes in Chișinău (from Culture of Moldova)
Image 382002 protests (from History of Moldova)

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Largest cities

v t e Largest cities in Moldova Source: Moldovan Census (2004); Note: 1. World Gazetteer. Moldova: largest cities 2004. 2. Pridnestrovie.net 2004 Census 2004. 3. National Bureau of Statistics of Moldova
	Rank		Pop.	Rank		Pop.
Chișinău Tiraspol	1	Chișinău	644,204	11	Comrat	20,113	Bălți Bender
	2	Tiraspol	129,500	12	Strășeni	18,376
	3	Bălți	102,457	13	Durlești	17,210
	4	Bender	91,000	14	Ceadîr-Lunga	16,605
	5	Rîbnița	46,000	15	Căușeni	15,939
	6	Ungheni	30,804	16	Codru	15,934
	7	Cahul	30,018	17	Edineț	15,520
	8	Soroca	22,196	18	Drochia	13,150
	9	Orhei	21,065	19	Ialoveni	12,515
	10	Dubăsari	25,700	20	Hîncești	12,491

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