About Moldova

Moldova, Republic of Moldova, is a republic in South-Eastern Europe. Chisinau (formerly Kishinev) is the capital and largest city of Moldavia. Moldova is landlocked. The Prut River separates it from Romania in the west. In the north and east, the Dniester River forms its approximate boundary with Ukraine, on which it also borders in the south; in the east there is a narrow strip of Moldovan terrritory between the Dniester and the Ukraine border (Trans-Dniester Region).

Mostly a hilly plain, Moldova occupies all but the southernmost and northernmost sections of former Bessarabia. Its proximity to the Black Sea gives it a mild climate. Moldova was often subject to invasion and warfare. It is historically part of a greater Moldavia, the main part of which was an independent principality in the 14th cent. and came under Ottoman Turkish rule in the 16th cent. Moldova's fertile soil supports wheat, corn, barley, tobacco, sugar beets, soybeans, and sunflowers, as well as extensive fruit orchards, vineyards, and walnut groves. Production of essences such as rose oil and lavender is also important. Beef and dairy cattle are raised, and beekeeping and silkworm breeding are widespread.

Kishinev - Capital City of Moldova

Chisinau, formerly Kishinev, city (population 735,229), capital of Moldova, on the Byk River, a tributary of the Dniester. Founded in the early 15th cent. as a monastery town, Chisinau was seized 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 taken by the USSR. The Jewish population, which constituted about half of the Kishinev prewar population, was largely exterminated in World War II.