River in the Pridnestrovie Respublica

Transnistria (Shown in red) and still Soviet...
derives its name from the river Nistru, the river that was for centuries the eastern border of the Principality of Moldavia. In the Middle Age formally from this river to the east stretched the Great Duchy of Lithuania. Many Romanians lived even farther east in Transnistria (Land over Nistru). Transnistria was an arid underpopulated region that began to be colonized in the Middle Age (after 1500) by Moldavians that crossed the Nistru in search of free land and by some Tartars, its borders not being delimited as for an entity apart of something. Only one Moldavian prince, Duca Vodă, ruled in the Middle Age over the region implied along Ukraine (the Ukrainian residence being at Nemirova - Niemirow), but no separate administrative unit is known for Transnistria until the later days, foremost due to its being underpopulated. The Russian Empire did not reach the river Nistru until 1792, when marshal Suvorov pushed back the Ottoman Empire (check our history section if interested in the Romanian Principalities as vassals to the Ottomans). The town of Tiraspol was settled in the very year 1792 over a Tartarian settlement called Hagi-Bei to become an important Transnistrian center in the 20th century - the name chosen then, Tiraspol, has a very funny and peculiar history for which I am afraid there is not enough room here. In 1812 already the Russian border moved farther, half of the Moldavian Principality being incorporated to the Empire as the gubernia of Basarabia (Romanian name, yet used abusevily in the case).

Old picture of the river Nistru

The new border stood there, along the river Prut now, until 1918 when the eastern Moldavians, organized as a Republic, joined the Romanian Kingdom. Well, I guess that is when the Romanians inside the Country began to refer to the Romanians left out in the east as Transnistrians living in Transnistria. That is also when the imaginary boundaries of Transnistria were somehow settled, river Nistru at west and river Bug at east. This is where Romanians mainly lived, although Romanian toponyms and settlements are known farther east. Between the two rivers flowing from north to south in the Black Sea Stalin formed in 1924 a somehow large Autonomous Moldavian Republic as part of Ukraine, using Romanian as language and the Latin alphabet (although between 1932 and 1938 only, Cyrillic afterwards). We could easily deduct that despite large colonizations of Ukrainians, Germans and other nationalities and despite the fact that Moldavia as a principality never stretched over Nistru, the Romanians there were still the most numerous. This less expected Soviet act raised natural suspicions inside the Kingdom. A rather strange and naive attitude at the time we speak belonged to Nicolae Iorga, the greatest Romanian historian, himself a Moldavian. His optimistic opinion was that the Soviet Union did the right thing making to the entire world clear that Romanian demands at the peace treaties had not at all gone as far as they could have. The entire period between the world wars the Soviets used their decoy autonomous state as a territorial base for political moves aimed at "reuniting" Moldavia (inside the Soviet Union, of course).

During the second world war Romania administrated Transnistria between Nistru and Bug dividing it into counties ("județe", just like in the Kingdom, namely Ananiev, Balta, Berezovca, Dubăsari, Golta, Jugastru, Movilău, Oceacov, Odesa, Ovidiopol, Rîbnița, Tulcin and Tiraspol), but did not incorporate the province. As Romania lost the War in the East (known as the Holy War against Bolshevism - please confront with our History section), a piece of Moldavia larger than ever before was lost to the Soviets (avatar of the Russian Empires before), Transnistria as well. That's when the Soviet Republic the condition of which the nowadays Republic of Moldova inherited was created. The middle part of the properly called part of Moldavia ripped by the Russians, along a small part of the Moldavian Autonomous Republic that dismembered - inside Transnistria - were joined into the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic.

In 1991 the Republic of Moldova (named as stated) proclaimed its independence on the territory drawn at the end of the War, as shown above. The independence was followed by regaining most Romanian national values lost for about fifty years during the Soviet rule: national colors (red, yellow and blue), the national currency (leu and bani), the Romanian tongue, the national literature and for a while even the national anthem "Wake up, Romanian".