Chisinau is the capital of the Republic of Moldova, a small agricultural country
situated in the Southern part of the European Plain that borders on the North,
East and South with the Ukraine and in the West with Romania. The Prut and Nistru
Rivers define the border between Romania and Moldova.
The climate in Moldova is temperate. The average annual temperature is 8-10°C
with a long and warm summer and a short and mild winter.
Formerly ruled by Romania, Moldova became part of the Soviet Union at the close
of World War II and then gained independence from the USSR in 1991. One of the
poorest nations in Europe, Moldova became the first former Soviet state to elect
a Communist as its president in 2001.
Chisinau is a city of 800,000 people surrounded by rural agricultural lands.
Although times have changed and Lenin has been replaced by Stefan cel Mare (Stefan
the Great), the Romanian prince and national hero, Chisinau remains a small,
provincial Soviet-style city.
The city centre is full of Soviet-style governmental architecture, although
scattered amongst them are a few impressive neo-classical buildings.
Established in the 15th century, Moldova has a long history of foreign domination.
It fell under Turkish sovereignty in the 16th century, and part of the north
became part of the Austrian Empire in the 18th century. From 1812 to 1856, Russians
occupied the eastern portion of Moldova, which they named Bessarabia. After
Bessarabia was returned to Moldova in 1856, Moldova and Walachia united to form
the Kingdom of Romania in 1859.
In 1878, Russian forces annexed Bessarabia, which remained part of the Russian
Empire until 1917. In March 1918 the Bessarabian legislature voted in favour
of unification with Romania, and at the Paris Peace Conference in 1920 the union
was officially recognized by various western countries.
In 1939, Bessarabia was granted to the USSR in the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact.
Apart from a brief interlude during WWII when Romanian forces occupied the territory,
it remained part of the USSR until the collapse of Communism in 1991, when an
independent Moldovan republic was established.
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