Moldova

Republic of Moldova Republica Moldova
Flag Coat of arms
Anthem: Limba noastră   Our Language
Location of Moldova (green) on the European continent (green + dark grey)
Capital (and largest city)		Chişinău 47°0′N 28°55′E / 47°N 28.917°E / 47; 28.917
Official language(s)		Moldovan (Romanian)1
Recognised regional languages		Gagauz, Russian and Ukrainian
Demonym		Moldovan, Moldavian
Government		Parliamentary republic
-	Acting President	Mihai Ghimpu
-	Prime Minister	Vlad Filat
-	Speaker of the Parliament	none
Consolidation
-	Declaration of Sovereignty	June 23, 1990
-	Declaration of Independence (from the Soviet Union)	August 27, 19912
Area
-	Total	33,846 km2 (139th) 13,067 sq mi
-	Water (%)	1.4
Population
-	January 1, 2009[1] estimate	3,567,500 (does not include territories under Transnistrian control) (129th3)
-	2004 census	3,383,3324
-	Density	121,9/km2 (87th) 316/sq mi
GDP (PPP)		2009 estimate
-	Total	$10.141 billion[2]
-	Per capita	$2,842[2]
GDP (nominal)		2009 estimate
-	Total	$5.403 billion[2]
-	Per capita	$1,514[2]
Gini (2007)		37.1 (medium)
HDI (2007)		▲ 0.708 (medium) (111th)
Currency		Moldovan leu (MDL)
Time zone		EET (UTC+2)
-	Summer (DST)	EEST (UTC+3)
Drives on the		right
ISO 3166 code		MD
Internet TLD		.md
Calling code		373
1	"Moldovan" used as formal official name; in fact Romanian.[3]
2	Proclaimed. Finalized along with the dissolution of the USSR in December 1991.
3	Ranking based on 2009 UN figure
4	2004 census data from the National Bureau of Statistics.[4] Figure does not include Transnistria and Bender.

Moldova /mɒlˈdoʊvə/ (help·info), officially the Republic of Moldova (Moldovan/Romanian: Republica Moldova) is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, located between Romania to the west and Ukraine to the north, east and south. It declared itself an independent state with the same boundaries as the preceding Moldovan SSR in 1991, as part of the dissolution of the Soviet Union. A strip of Moldova's internationally recognized territory on the east bank of the river Dniester has been under the de facto control of the breakaway government of Transnistria since 1990.

The country is a parliamentary republic and democracy with a president as head of state and a prime minister as head of government. Moldova is a member state of the United Nations, Council of Europe, WTO, OSCE, GUAM, CIS, BSEC and other international organizations. Moldova currently aspires to join the European Union,^[5] and has implemented the first three-year Action Plan within the framework of the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP).^[6]

Contents 1 Etymology 2 History 2.1 20th century 2.2 Independence 3 Government and politics 3.1 Foreign relations 3.2 Military 4 Administrative divisions 5 Geography 6 Economy 6.1 Energy 6.2 Economic reforms 6.3 Wine industry 6.4 Agriculture 6.5 Tourism 6.6 Transport 6.7 Telecommunications 7 Demographics 7.1 Cultural and ethnic composition 7.2 Languages 7.3 Religion 7.4 Education 7.5 Crime 7.6 Health 7.7 Emigration 8 Culture 8.1 Popular media 8.2 Food and beverage 8.3 Music 8.4 Holidays 8.5 Sport 8.6 Architecture 9 See also 10 Notes 11 External links

[edit] Etymology

The name "Moldova" is derived from the Moldova River; the valley of this river was a political center when the Principality of Moldavia was founded in 1359.^[7] The origin of the name of the river is still not completely clarified. There is an account (a legend) of prince Dragoş naming the river after hunting an aurochs: After the chase, his exhausted hound Molda drowned in the river. The dog's name would have been given to the river, and extended to the Principality, according to Dimitrie Cantemir and Grigore Ureche.^[8]

[edit] History

During the Neolithic stone age era Moldova's territory was the center of the vast Cucuteni-Trypillian culture that stretched east beyond the Dniester River in Ukraine, and west up to and beyond the Carpathian Mountains in Romania. The inhabitants of this civilization, which lasted roughly from 5500 to 2750 BC, practiced agriculture, raised livestock, hunted, and made intricately designed pottery.^[9] Another remarkable feature of this society was the enormous settlements that were built, some of which numbered up to 15,000 inhabitants.

In Antiquity Moldova's territory was inhabited by Dacian tribes. Between the I and VII centuries AD, the south was intermittently under the Roman, then Byzantine Empires. Due to its strategic location on a route between Asia and Europe, the territory of modern Moldova was invaded many times in late antiquity and early Middle Ages, including by Goths, Huns, Avars, Bulgarians, Magyars, Pechenegs, Cumans, Mongols and Tatars.

The Principality of Moldavia, established in 1359, was bounded by the Carpathian mountains in the west, Dniester river in the east, and Danube and Black Sea in the south. Its territory comprised the present-day territory of the Republic of Moldova, the eastern eight of the 41 counties of Romania, and the Chernivtsi oblast and Budjak region of Ukraine. Like the present-day republic, it was known to the locals as Moldova. Moldavia suffered repeated invasions by Turks, and Crimean Tatars. In 1538, the principality became a tributary to the Ottoman Empire, but it retained internal and partial external autonomy.^[10]

In accordance with the Treaty of Bucharest of 1812 and despite numerous protests by Moldavian nobles on behalf of their autonomous status, the Ottoman Empire (of which Moldavia was a vassal) ceded to the Russian Empire the eastern half of the territory of the Principality of Moldavia along with Khotyn and old Bessarabia (modern Budjak).

The new Russian province was called "Oblast of Moldavia and Bessarabia", and initially enjoyed a large degree of autonomy. After 1828 this autonomy was progressively restricted and in 1871 the Oblast was transformed into the Bessarabia Governorate, in a process of state-imposed assimilation. As part of this process, the Tsarist administration in Bessarabia gradually removed the Romanian language from official and religious use.^[11] The western part of Moldavia (which is not a part of present-day Moldova) remained an autonomous principality, and in 1859, united with Wallachia to form the Kingdom of Romania.

The Treaty of Paris (1856) saw three counties of Bessarabia—Cahul, Bolgrad and Ismail—returned to Moldavia, but the Treaty of Berlin (1878) saw the Kingdom of Romania returning them to the Russian Empire. Over the 19th century, the Russian authorities encouraged colonization of the south of the region by Ukrainians, Lipovans, Cossacks, Bulgarians,^[12] Germans,^[13] Gagauzes, and allowed the settlement of more Jews, to replace the large Nogai Tatar population expelled in the 1770s and 1780s, during Russo-Turkish Wars;^[14] the proportion of the Moldovan population decreased from around 86% in 1816^[15] to around 52% in 1905.^[16]

[edit] 20th century

World War I brought in a rise in political and cultural (ethnic) awareness among the locals, as 300,000 Bessarabians were drafted into the Russian Army formed in 1917; within bigger units several "Moldavian Soldiers' Committees" were formed. Following the Russian Revolution of 1917, a Bessarabian parliament, Sfatul Ţării, which was elected in October–November 1917 and opened on December 3 [O.S. November 21] 1917, proclaimed the Moldavian Democratic Republic (December 15 [O.S. December 2] 1917) within a federal Russian state, and formed a government (December 21 [O.S. December 8] 1917).

Bessarabia proclaimed independence from Russia (February 6 [O.S. January 24] 1918), and, on April 9 [O.S. March 27] 1918, in presence of the Romanian army that had occupied the region in early January, Sfatul Ţării decided with 86 votes for, 3 against and 36 abstaining, to unite with the Kingdom of Romania, conditional upon the fulfillment of the agrarian reform, autonomy, and respect for universal human rights.^[17] A part of the interim Parliament agreed to drop these conditions after Bukovina and Transylvania also joined the Kingdom of Romania, although historians note that they lacked the quorum to do so.^{[18][19][20][21][22]}

This union was recognized by the Principal Allied Powers in the 1920 Treaty of Paris, which however failed to be ratified by all its signatories.^[23][24] Some major powers, such as the United States and the newly communist Russia did not recognize the Romanian rule over Bessarabia, the latter considering it an occupation of Soviet territory.^[25] In May 1919, the Bessarabian Soviet Socialist Republic was proclaimed as a government in exile. After the failure of the Tatarbunary Uprising in 1924, the Moldavian ASSR was formed.

In August 1939, the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact and its secret additional protocol were signed, by which Nazi Germany recognized Bessarabia as being within the Soviet sphere of influence, which led the latter to actively revive its claim to the region.^[26] On June 28, 1940, the Soviet Union, with the acknowledgement of the Nazi Germany, issued an ultimatum to Romania requesting the cession of Bessarabia and northern Bukovina, with which Romania complied the following day. Soon after, the Moldavian SSR was established,^[26] comprising about 70% of Bessarabia, and 50% of the now-disbanded Moldavian ASSR.

By participating in the 1941 Axis invasion of the Soviet Union, Romania seized the territories of Bessarabia and northern Bukovina, as well as Transnistria, where Romanian forces, working with the Germans, deported or exterminated ca. 300,000 Jews, including 147,000 from Bessarabia and Bukovina (of the latter, approximately 90,000 perished).^[27] The Soviet Army re-captured the region in February–August 1944, and re-established the Moldavian SSR. Around 150,000 Moldovan soldiers perished during WWII, including ca. 50,000 in the Romanian Army (including POWs), and ca. 100,000 in the Soviet Army.

During the Stalinist period (1940–1941, 1944–1953), deportations of locals to the northern Urals, to Siberia, and northern Kazakhstan occurred regularly, with the largest ones on 12–13 June 1941, and 5–6 July 1949, accounting from MSSR alone for 18,392^[28] and 35,796 deportees respectively.^[29] Other forms of Soviet persecution of the population included 32,433 political arrests, followed by Gulag or (in 8,360 cases) execution, collectivization.

In 1946, as a result of a severe drought combined with excessive delivery quota obligations and requisitions imposed by the Soviet government, the southwestern part of the USSR suffered from a major famine.^[30] In 1946-1947, at least 216,000 deaths and about 350,000 cases of dystrophy were accounted by historians in the Moldavian SSR alone.^[29] Similar events occurred in 1930s in the Moldavian ASSR.^[29] In 1944-53, there were several anti-Soviet resistance groups in Moldova; however the NKVD and later MGB managed to eventually arrest, execute or deport their members.^[29]

The postwar period saw a wide scale migration of Russians, Ukrainians, and other ethnic groups into the new Soviet republic, especially into urbanized areas, partly to compensate the demographic loss caused by the emigration of 1940 and 1944.^[31] The Soviet government conducted a campaign to promote a Moldovan ethnic identity, different from that of the Romanians, based on a theory developed during the existence of the Moldavian ASSR. Official Soviet policy asserted that the language spoken by Moldovans was distinct from the Romanian language (see Moldovenism). To distinguish the two, during the Soviet period, Moldovan was written in the Cyrillic alphabet, in contrast with Romanian, which since 1860 was written in the Latin alphabet.

After the death of Stalin, political persecutions changed in character from mass to individual. In the 1970s and 1980s, the Moldavian SSR received substantial allocations from the budget of the USSR to develop industrial and scientific facilities as well as housing. In 1971, the Council of Ministers of the USSR adopted a decision "About the measures for further development of the city of Kishinev" (modern Chişinău), that allotted more than one billion Soviet rubles from the USSR budget for building projects,^[32] subsequent decisions also directed substantial funding and brought qualified specialists from other parts of the USSR to develop Moldova's industry. All independent organizations were severely reprimanded, with the National Patriotic Front leaders being sentenced in 1972 to long prison terms. The Commission for the Study of the Communist Dictatorship in Moldova is assessing the activity of the communist totalitarian regime.

In the 1980s, political conditions created by the glasnost and perestroika, a Democratic Movement of Moldova was formed, which in 1989 became known as the nationalist Popular Front of Moldova (FPM).^[33][34] Along with several other Soviet republics, from 1988 onwards, Moldova started to move towards independence. On August 27, 1989, the FPM organized a mass demonstration in Chişinău, that became known as the Grand National Assembly, which pressured the authorities of the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic to adopt a language law on August 31, 1989 that proclaimed the Moldovan language written in the Latin script to be the state language of the MSSR. Its identity with the Romanian language was also established.^[33][35]

[edit] Independence

The first democratic elections for the local parliament were held in February and March 1990. Mircea Snegur was elected as Speaker of the Parliament, and Mircea Druc as Prime Minister. On June 23, 1990, the Parliament adopted the Declaration of Sovereignty of the "Soviet Socialist Republic Moldova", which, among other things, stipulated the supremacy of Moldovan laws over those of the Soviet Union.^[33] After the failure of the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, on August 27, 1991, Moldova declared its independence.

On December 21 of the same year Moldova, along with most of the other Soviet republics, signed the constitutive act that formed the post-Soviet Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). Moldova received official recognition on December 25. On December 26, 1991 the Soviet Union ceased to exist. Declaring itself a neutral state, it did not join the military branch of the CIS. Three months later, on March 2, 1992, the country gained formal recognition as an independent state at the United Nations. In 1994, Moldova became a member of NATO's Partnership for Peace program and also a member of the Council of Europe on June 29, 1995.^[33]

In the region east of the Dniester river, Transnistria, which includes a large proportion of predominantly russophone East Slavs of Ukrainian (28%) and Russian (26%) descent (altogether 54% as of 1989), while Moldovans (40%) have been the largest ethnic group, and where the headquarters and many units of the Soviet 14th Guards Army were stationed, an independent Pridnestrovian Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic was proclaimed on August 16, 1990, with its capital in Tiraspol.^[33] The motives behind this move were fear of the rise of nationalism in Moldova and the country's expected reunification with Romania upon secession from the USSR. In the winter of 1991-1992 clashes occurred between Transnistrian forces, supported by elements of the 14th Army, and the Moldovan police. Between March 2 and July 26, 1992, the conflict escalated into a military engagement.

On January 2, 1992, Moldova introduced a market economy, liberalizing prices, which resulted in huge inflation. From 1992 to 2001, the young country suffered a serious economic crisis, leaving most of the population below the poverty line. In 1993, a national currency, the Moldovan leu, was introduced to replace the temporary cupon. The economy of Moldova began to change in 2001; and until 2008 the country has seen a steady annual growth of between 5% and 10%. The early 2000s also saw a considerable growth of emigration of Moldovans looking for work (mostly illegally) in Russia (especially Moscow region), Italy, Portugal, Spain, Greece, Cyprus, Turkey, and other countries; remittances from Moldovans abroad account for almost 38% of Moldova's GDP, the second-highest percentage in the world.^[36]

The 1994 parliamentary elections saw the Democratic Agrarian Party of Moldova gain a majority of the seats, setting a turning point in Moldovan politics. With the nationalist Popular Front now a parliamentary minority, new measures aiming to moderate the ethnic tensions in the country could be adopted. Plans for a union with Romania were abandoned,^[33] and the new Constitution gave autonomy to the breakaway Transnistria and Gagauzia. On December 23, 1994, the Parliament of Moldova adopted a "Law on the Special Legal Status of Gagauzia", and in 1995 the latter was constituted.

After winning the 1996 presidential elections, on January 15, 1997, Petru Lucinschi, the former First Secretary of the Moldavian Communist Party in 1989-91, became the country's second president (1997–2001), succeeding Mircea Snegur (1991–1996). In 2000, the Constitution was amended, transforming Moldova into a parliamentary republic, with the president being chosen through indirect election rather than direct popular vote.

Winning 49.9% of the vote, the Party of Communists of the Republic of Moldova (reinstituted in 1993 after being outlawed in 1991), gained 71 of the 101 MPs, and on April 4, 2001, elected Vladimir Voronin as the country's third president (re-elected in 2005). The country became the first post-Soviet state where a non-reformed Communist Party returned to power.^[33] New governments were formed by Vasile Tarlev (April 19, 2001 – March 31, 2008), and Zinaida Greceanîi (March 31, 2008 – September 14, 2009). In 2001–2003 relations between Moldova and Russia improved, but then temporarily deteriorated in 2003–2006, in the wake of the failure of the Kozak memorandum, culminating in the 2006 wine exports crisis.

In the April 2009 parliamentary elections, the Communist Party won 49.48% of the votes, followed by the Liberal Party with 13.14% of the votes, the Liberal Democratic Party with 12.43%, and the Alliance "Moldova Noastră" with 9.77%. The controversial results of this election sparked a civil unrest^[37][38]

In August 2009, four Moldovan parties – Liberal Democratic Party, Liberal Party, Democratic Party, and Our Moldova Alliance – agreed to create a governing coalition that pushed the Communist party into opposition. On August 28, 2009, this coalition has chosen a new parliament speaker (Mihai Ghimpu) in a vote that was boycotted by Communist legislators. Vladimir Voronin, who was President of Moldova since 2001, eventually resigned on September 11, 2009, but the Parliament failed to elect a new president. The acting president Mihai Ghimpu instituted the Commission for constitutional reform in Moldova to adopt a new version of the Constitution of Moldova. After the constitutional referendum aimed to approve the reform failed in September 2010,^[39] the parliament was dissolved again and a new parliamentary election was scheduled for 28 November 2010.^[40]

Elections in Moldova since 1917  v • d • e
Election	Parties and parliamentary seats	President of Parliament	Prime minister	President
1917	See Sfatul Ţării and Moldavian Democratic Republic	Ion Inculeţ	Erhan, Ciugureanu, Cazacu	Ion Inculeţ
1940-1984	Communist Party 100%	Brovko, Codiţă, Iliaşenco, Călin, Mocanu, Ciobanu, Snegur	Konstantinov, Coval, Rudi, Diordiţă, Pascari, Grossu, Ustian, Călin	-
1990	Popular Front, Communist Party	Snegur, Moşanu	Druc, Muravschi, Andrei Sangheli	Mircea Snegur
1994	PDAM 56, BePSMUE 28, BTI 11, BeAFPCD 9	Lucinschi, Moţpan	Sangheli, Ciubuc	Snegur, Lucinschi
1998	PCRM 40, BECD 26, PMDM 24, PFD 11	Dumitru Diacov	Ciubuc, Sturza, Braghiş	Petru Lucinschi
2001	PCRM 70, Braghiş Alliance 19, PPCD 11	Eugenia Ostapciuc	Vasile Tarlev	Vladimir Voronin
2005	PCRM 56, BEMD 34 (AMN 22, PDM 8, PSL 4), PPCD 11	Marian Lupu	Vasile Tarlev, Zinaida Greceanîi	Vladimir Voronin
2009 (April)	PCRM 60, PL 15, PLDM 15, AMN 11	Călin, Voronin	Zinaida Greceanîi	Vladimir Voronin
2009 (July)	PCRM 48, AIE 53 (PLDM 18, PL 15, PDM 13, AMN 7)	Mihai Ghimpu	Greceanîi, Pîrlog, Filat	Voronin, Ghimpu

[edit] Government and politics

Moldova

This article is part of the series: Politics and government of Moldova

Constitution Constitution Human rights Parliament Parliament Speaker Mihai Ghimpu Judiciary Constitutional Court Supreme Court Executive Acting President Mihai Ghimpu Prime Minister Vlad Filat Cabinet Divisions Administrative division Elections Elections Political parties Foreign policy Foreign relations Moldova and the EU

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Moldova is a unitary parliamentary representative democratic republic. The 1994 Constitution of Moldova sets the framework for the government of the country. A parliamentary majority of at least two thirds is required to amend the Constitution of Moldova, which cannot be revised in time of war or national emergency. Amendments to the Constitution affecting the state's sovereignty, independence, or unity can only be made after a majority of voters support the proposal in a referendum. Furthermore, no revision can be made to limit the fundamental rights of people enumerated in the Constitution.^[41]

The country's central legislative body is the unicameral Moldovan Parliament (Parlament), which has 101 seats, and whose members are elected by popular vote on party lists every four years.

The head of state is the President of Moldova, who is elected by Moldovan Parliament, requiring the support of three fifths of the deputies (at least 61 votes). The president of Moldova has been elected by the parliament since 2001, a change designed to decrease executive authority in favor of the legislature. The president appoints a prime minister who functions as the head of government, and who in turn assembles a cabinet, both subject to parliamentary approval.

The Constitution also establishes an independent Constitutional Court, composed of six judges (two appointed by the President, two by Parliament, and two by the Supreme Council of Magistrature), serving six-year terms, during which they are irremovable and not subordinate to any power. The Court is invested with the power of judicial review over all acts of the parliament, over presidential decrees, and over international treaties, signed by the country.^[41]

Political forces	Seats	Moldovan Parliament seats after July 2009 polls (PCRM 48, PLDM 18, PL 15, PDM 13, AMN 7)  v • d • e
Alliance for European Integration	53
Party of Communists	48

[edit] Foreign relations

After achieving independence from the Soviet Union, Moldova established relations with other European countries. A course for European Union integration and neutrality define the country's foreign policy guidelines. In 1995 the country became the first post-Soviet state admitted to the Council of Europe. In addition to its participation in NATO's Partnership for Peace program, Moldova is also a member state of the United Nations, the OSCE, the North Atlantic Cooperation Council, the World Trade Organization, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the Francophonie and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

In 2005, Moldova and the EU established an action plan that sought to improve the collaboration between the two neighboring structures.

After the War of Transnistria, Moldova had sought a peaceful resolution to the conflict in the Transnistria region by working with Romania, Ukraine, and Russia, calling for international mediation, and cooperating with the OSCE and UN fact-finding and observer missions. The foreign minister of Moldova, Andrei Stratan, had repeatedly stated that the Russian troops stationed in the breakaway region are there against the will of the Moldovan Government and called on them to leave "completely and unconditionally."^[42]

In September 2010, the European Parliament approved an grant of €90 million to Moldova.^[43] The money will supplement $570 million in IMF loans,^[44] World Bank and other bilateral support already granted to Moldova. In April 2010, Romania offered to Moldova development aid worth of €100 million while the number of scholarships for Moldovan students will double to 5,000^[45] According to a lending agreement signed in February 2010, Poland will provide US15 million and will support Moldova in its European integration efforts.^[46]

[edit] Military

The Moldovan armed forces consist of the Ground Forces and Air and Air Defense Forces. Moldova has accepted all relevant arms control obligations of the former Soviet Union. On October 30, 1992, Moldova ratified the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe, which establishes comprehensive limits on key categories of conventional military equipment and provides for the destruction of weapons in excess of those limits. The country acceded to the provisions of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in October 1994 in Washington, DC. It does not have nuclear, biological, or chemical weapons. Moldova joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation's Partnership for Peace on March 16, 1994.

Moldova is committed to a number of international and regional control of arms regulations such as the UN Firearms Protocol, Stability Pact Regional Implementation Plan, the UN Programme of Action (PoA) and the OSCE Documents on Stockpiles of Conventional Ammunition.

[edit] Administrative divisions

Moldova is divided into thirty-two districts (raioane, singular raion), three municipalities and two autonomous regions (Gagauzia and Transnistria).^[47] The final status of Transnistria is disputed, as the central government does not control that territory. The cities of Comrat and Tiraspol, the administrative seats of the two autonomous territories also have municipality status.

	Municipalities		Autonomous regions
	Chişinău, Bălţi, and Bender		autonomous territorial unit Gagauzia territorial unit Transnistria
	Districts
	Anenii Noi Basarabeasca Briceni Cahul Cantemir Călăraşi Căuşeni Cimişlia	Criuleni Donduşeni Drochia Dubăsari Edineţ Făleşti Floreşti Glodeni	Hînceşti Ialoveni Leova Nisporeni Ocniţa Orhei Rezina Rîşcani	Sîngerei Soroca Străşeni Şoldăneşti Ştefan Vodă Taraclia Teleneşti Ungheni

Moldova has 65 cities (towns), including the five with municipality status, and 917 communes. Some other 699 villages are too small to have a separate administration, and are administratively part of either cities (40 of them) or communes (659). This makes for a total of 1,681 localities of Moldova, all but two of which are inhabited.

Largest cities in Moldova
Chişinău Tiraspol Bender	#	City	Urban	Metro	#	City	Urban	Metro	Bălţi Rîbniţa Cahul
	1	Chişinău1	630,221 (2005)	808,673 (2009)	11	Comrat3 (Gagauzia)	23,327 (2004)	23,327 (2004)
	2	Tiraspol2 (Transnistria)	159,163 (2004)	159,163 (2004)	12	Ceadîr-Lunga3 (Gagauzia)	19,401 (2004)	19,401 (2004)
	3	Bălţi1 (Bălţi municipality)	122,778 (2005)	127,561 (2004)	13	Străşeni3	18,320 (2004)	19,090 (2004)
	4	Bender2 (Bender municipality)	97,027 (2004)	100,000 (2004)	14	Căuşeni3	17,757 (2004)	17,757 (2004)
	5	Rîbniţa2 (Transnistria)	53,648 (2004)	53,648 (2004)	15	Drochia3	16,606 (2004)	16,606 (2004)
	6	Cahul3	39,488 (2009)	39,488 (2004)	16	Edineţ3	15,624 (2004)	17,292 (2004)
	7	Ungheni3	32,530 (2004)	32,530 (2004)	17	Vulcăneşti (Gagauzia)	15,462 (2004)	15,729 (2004)
	8	Soroca3	28,362 (2004)	28,362 (2004)	18	Durleşti (Chişinău municipality)	15,394 (2004)	15,394 (2004)
	9	Orhei3	25,641 (2004)	25,641 (2004)	19	Hînceşti	15,281 (2004)	15,281 (2004)
	10	Dubăsari3 (Transnistria)	23,650 (2004)	23,650 (2004)	20	Ialoveni	15,041 (2004)	15,041 (2004)
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

[edit] Geography

The largest part of the nation lies between two rivers, the Dniester and the Prut. The western border of Moldova is formed by the Prut river, which joins the Danube before flowing into the Black Sea. Moldova has access to the Danube for only about 480 m (1,575 ft), and Giurgiuleşti is the only Moldovan port on the Danube. In the east, the Dniester is the main river, flowing through the country from north to south, receiving the waters of Răut, Bâc, Ichel, Botna. Ialpug flows into one of the Danube limans, while Cogâlnic into the Black Sea chain of limans.

The country is landlocked, even though it is very close to the Black Sea. While most of the country is hilly, elevations never exceed 430 m (1,411 ft) — the highest point being the Bălăneşti Hill. Moldova's hills are part of the Moldavian Plateau, which geologically originate from the Carpathian Mountains. Its subdivisions in Moldova include Dniester Hills (Northern Moldavian Hills and Dniester Ridge), Moldavian Plain (Middle Prut Valley and Bălţi Steppe), and Central Moldavian Plateau (Ciuluc-Soloneţ Hills, Corneşti Hills (Codri Massive; "Codri" meaning "forests"), Lower Dniester Hills, Lower Prut Valley, and Tigheci Hills). In the south, the country has a small flatland, the Bugeac Plain. The territory of Moldova east of the river Dniester is split between parts of the Podolian Plateau, and parts of the Eurasian Steppe.

The country's main cities are the capital Chişinău, in the center of the country, Tiraspol (in the eastern region of Transnistria), Bălţi (in the north) and Bender (in the south-east). Comrat is the administrative center of Gagauzia.

[edit] Economy

The economy of Moldova relies on the service sector (quasi 75%), industry and agriculture. The main economical indicators contracted dramatically following the fall of the Soviet Union.

As of 2009^[update], Moldova has been described by the European Parliament as the poorest country in Europe in terms of GDP.^[48]

[edit] Energy

Moldova must import all of its supplies of petroleum, coal, and natural gas, largely from Russia. Moldova is a partner country of the EU INOGATE energy programme, which has four key topics: enhancing energy security, convergence of member state energy markets on the basis of EU internal energy market principles, supporting sustainable energy development, and attracting investment for energy projects of common and regional interest.^[49]

[edit] Economic reforms

After the break up of the Soviet Union in 1991, energy shortages contributed to sharp production declines. As part of an ambitious economic liberalization effort, Moldova introduced a convertible currency, liberalized all prices, stopped issuing preferential credits to state enterprises, backed steady land privatization, removed export controls, and liberalized interest rates. The government entered into agreements with the World Bank and the IMF to promote growth.

Recent trends indicate that the Communist government intends to reverse some of these policies, and recollectivise land while placing more restrictions on private business. The economy returned to positive growth, of 2.1% in 2000 and 6.1% in 2001. Growth remained strong in 2007 (6%), in part because of the reforms and because of starting from a small base. The economy remains vulnerable to higher fuel prices, poor agricultural weather, and the skepticism of foreign investors.^{[citation needed]}

Following the regional financial crisis in 1998, Moldova has made significant progress towards achieving and retaining macroeconomic and financial stabilization. It has, furthermore, implemented many structural and institutional reforms that are indispensable for the efficient functioning of a market economy. These efforts have helped maintain macroeconomic and financial stability under difficult external circumstances, enabled the resumption of economic growth and contributed to establishing an environment conducive to the economy’s further growth and development in the medium term.^{[citation needed]}

Despite these efforts and recent resumption of economic growth, Moldova ranks low in terms of commonly used living standards and human development indicators in comparison with other transition economies. Although the economy experienced a constant economic growth after 2000: with 2.1%, 6.1%, 7.8% and 6.3% between 2000 and 2003 (with a forecast of 8% in 2004), one can observe that these latest developments hardly reach the level of 1994, with almost 40% of the GDP registered in 1990. Thus, during the last decade little has been done to reduce the country’s vulnerability. After a severe economic decline, social and economic challenges, energy uprooted dependencies, Moldova continues to occupy one of the last places among European countries in income per capita.^{[citation needed]}

In 2005 (according to the Human Development Report), the registered GDP per capita was US $ 2,100 PPP, which was 4.5 times lower than the world average at the time (US $ 9,543). Moreover, GDP per capita was under the average of its statistical region (US $ 9,527 PPP). In 2005, about 20.8% of the population were under the absolute poverty line and registered an income lower than US $ 2.15 (PPP) per day. Moldova is classified as medium in human development and is at the 111th spot in the list of 177 countries. The value of the Human Development Index (0.708) is below the world average. Moldova remains the poorest country in Europe in terms of official (i.e. excluding the black and grey economy) per capita which currently stands at $1,808.729^[50]

The GDP in 2007 constituted $4.104 billion.^[51] That constituted a growth of 3% from 2006.

[edit] Wine industry

Moldova is known for its wines. For many years viticulture and winemaking in Moldova were the general occupation of the population. Evidence of this is present in historical memorials and documents, folklore, and the Moldovan spoken language.

The country has a well established wine industry. It has a vineyard area of 147,000 hectares (360,000 acres), of which 102,500 ha (253,000 acres) are used for commercial production. Most of the country's wine production is made for export. Many families have their own recipes and strands of grapes that have been passed down through the generations.

[edit] Agriculture

Moldova's rich soil and temperate continental climate (with warm summers and mild winters) have made the country one of the most productive agricultural regions since ancient times, and a major supplier of agricultural products in southeastern Europe. In agriculture, the economic reform started with the land cadastre reform.

[edit] Tourism

Tourism focuses on the country's natural landscapes and its history. Wine tours are offered to tourists across the country. Vineyards/cellars include Cricova, Purcari, Ciumai, Romanesti, Cojuşna, Milestii Mici.

[edit] Transport

The main means of transportation in Moldova are railroads 1,138 km (707 mi) and a highway system (12,730 km/7,910 mi overall, including 10,937 km/6,796 mi of paved surfaces). The sole international air gateway of Moldova is the Chişinău International Airport. The Giurgiuleşti terminal on the Danube is compatible with small seagoing vessels. Shipping on the lower Prut and Nistru rivers plays only a modest role in the country's transportation system.

[edit] Telecommunications

The first million of mobile telephone users was registered in September 2005. The number of mobile telephone users in Moldova increased by 47.3 % in the first quarter of 2008 against the last year and exceeded 2.89 million.^[52]

In September 2009, Moldova was the first country in the world to launch high-definition voice services (HD voice) for mobile phones, and the first country in Europe to launch 14,4 Mbps mobile broadband at a national scale, with over 40% population coverage.^[53]

As of 2010^[update] there are around 1,295,000 Internet users in Moldova with overall Internet penetration of 35.9%.^[54]

[edit] Demographics

[edit] Cultural and ethnic composition

The last reference data is that of the 2004 Moldovan Census^[4] (areas controlled by the central government), and the 2004 Census in Transnistria (areas controlled by the breakaway authorities, including Transnistria, Bender, and four neighboring communes):

Self-identification	Moldovan census	% Core Moldova	Transnistrian census	% Transnistria + Bender	Total	%
Moldovans1	2,564,849	75.81%	177,382	31.94%	2,742,231	69.62%
Ukrainians	282,406	8.35%	160,069	28.82%	442,475	11.23%
Russians	201,218	5.95%	168,678	30.37%	369,896	9.39%
Gagauz	147,500	4.36%	4,096	0.74%	151,596	3.85%
Romanians1	73,276	2.17%	253	0.05%	73,529	1.87%
Bulgarians	65,662	1.94%	13,858	2.50%	79,520	2.02%
Romani	12,271	0.36%	507	0.09%	12,778	0.32%
Jews2	3,608	0.11%	1,259	0.23%	4,867	0.12%
Poles	2,383	0.07%	1,791	0.32%	4,174	0.11%
Others/undeclared	30,159	0.89%	27,454	4.94%	57,613	1.46%
TOTAL	3,383,332	100%	555,347	100%	3,938,679	100%

¹There is an ongoing controversy over whether Romanians and Moldovans are the same ethnic group, namely whether Moldovans' self-identification constitutes an ethnic group distinct and apart from Romanians or a subset. At the census, citizens could declare only one nationality. Consequently, one could not declare oneself both Moldovan and Romanian.

²The Jewish minority was more numerous in the past (225,637 Jews in Bessarabia in 1897, or 11.65% of the population).^[55]

[edit] Languages

The Constitution of 1994 states that the national language of the Republic of Moldova is Moldovan, and its writing is based on the Latin alphabet,.^[56] The 1991 Declaration of Independence names the official language Romanian.^[57][58] The 1989 State Language Law speaks of a Moldo-Romanian linguistic identity.

There is a political controversy over the name of the main ethnicity of the Republic of Moldova. During 2003-2009, the Communist government adopted a national political conception which states that one of the priorities of the national politics of the Republic of Moldova is the insurance of the existence of the Moldovan language.^[59][60] Scholars agree that Moldovan and Romanian are the same language, with the glottonym "Moldovan" used in certain political contexts.^[61]

Russian is provided with the status of a "language of interethnic communication" (alongside the official language), and in practice remains widely used on all levels of the society and the state. The above-mentioned national political conception also states that Russian-Moldovan bilingualism is characteristic for Moldova.^[60]

As of 2004, the country has significant Russian (6%) and Ukrainian (8.4%) populations. 50% of ethnic Ukrainians, 27% of Gagauz, 35% of Bulgarians, and 54% of smaller ethnic groups speak Russian as first language. In total, there are 541,000 people (or 16% of the population) in Moldova who use Russian as first language, including 130,000 ethnic Moldovans. By contrast, only 47,000 members of ethnic minorities use Romanian as first language.

Gagauz and Ukrainian have significant regional speaker populations and are granted official status together with Russian in Gagauzia and Transnistria respectively.

Population of Moldova	Moldovan (Romanian)	Russian	Ukrainian	Gagauz	Bulgarian	Other languages, non-declared
by native language	2,588,355 76.51%	380,796 11.26%	186,394 5.51%	137,774 4.07%	54,401 1.61%	35,612 1.04%
by language of first use	2,543,354 75.17%	540,990 15.99%	130,114 3.85%	104,890 3.10%	38,565 1.14%	25,419 0.75%

From 1996 the Republic, also being Romance-speaking, is a full member of Francophonia. Therefore the French language occupies the principal place among the foreign languages. In 2009/10 it was told taught to 52% of schoolchildren as L1 and 7% as L2. It is followed by English having 48% and 6% respectively, and German, which was taught to 3% altogether.^[62]

[edit] Religion

For the 2004 census, Eastern Orthodox Christians, who make up 93.3% of Moldova's population, were not required to declare the particular of the two main churches they belong to. The Moldovan Orthodox Church, autonomous and subordinated to the Russian Orthodox Church, and the Orthodox Church of Bessarabia, autonomous and subordinated to the Romanian Orthodox Church, both claim to be the national church of the country. 2% of the population is Protestant, 1.2% belongs to other religions, 0.9% is non-religious, 0.4% is atheist, and 2.2% did not answer the religion question at the census.

[edit] Education

In Moldova, there are 16 state and 15^[63] private institutions of higher education, with a total of 126,100 students, including 104,300 in the state institutions, and 21,700 in the private ones. The number of students per 10,000 inhabitants in Moldova has been constantly growing since the collapse of the Soviet Union, reaching 217 in 2000-2001, and 351 in 2005-2006.

The National Library of Moldova was founded in 1832. The Moldova State University and the Academy of Sciences of Moldova, the main scientific organizations of Moldova, were established in 1946.

[edit] Crime

The CIA World Factbook lists widespread crime and underground economic activity among major crime issues in Moldova.^[64]

[edit] Health

The average birth rate is at 1.5 children per woman.^[65] Public expenditure on health was 4.2% of the GDP and private expenditure on health 3.2%.^[65] There are about 264 physicians per 100,000 people.^[65] Health expenditure was 138 US$ (PPP) per capita in 2004.^[65]

Since the break up of the Soviet Union, the country has seen a decrease in spending on health care and, as a result, the tuberculosis incidence rate in the country has grown.^[66] Because of this, Moldova is struggling with one of the highest incidence rates of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis in the world.^[67]

[edit] Emigration

Emigration is a mass phenomenon in Moldova and has a major impact on the country's demographics and economy. The Moldovan Intelligence and Security Service has estimated that 600,000 to one million Moldovan citizens (almost 25% of the population) are working abroad, most illegally.^[68]

[edit] Culture

Located geographically at the crossroads of Latin, Slavic and other cultures, Moldova has enriched its own culture adopting and maintaining some of the traditions of its neighbors and of other influence sources.

The country's cultural heritage was marked by numerous churches and monasteries build by the Moldavian ruler Stephen the Great in the 15th century, by the works of the later renaissance Metropolitans Varlaam and Dosoftei, and those of scholars such as Grigore Ureche, Miron Costin, Nicolae Milescu, Dimitrie Cantemir,^[69] Ion Neculce. In the 19th century, Moldavians from the territories of the medieval Principality of Moldavia, then split between Austria, Russia, and an Ottoman-vassal Moldavia (after 1859, Romania), made the largest contribution to the formation of the modern Romanian culture. Among these were many Bessarabians, such as Alexandru Donici, Alexandru Hâjdeu, Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu, Constantin Stamati, Constantin Stamati-Ciurea, Costache Negruzzi, Alecu Russo, Constantin Stere.

Mihai Eminescu, a late Romantic poet, and Ion Creangă, a writer, are the most influential Romanian language artists, considered national writers both in Romania and Moldova.

Ethnic Moldovans, 78.3% of the population, are Romanian-speakers and share the Romanian culture. Their culture has been also influenced (through Eastern Orthodoxy) by the Byzantine culture.

The country has also important minority ethnic communities. Gagauz, 4.4% of the population, are the only Christian Turkic people. Greeks, Armenians, Poles, Jews, Ukrainians, although not numerous, were present since as early as 17th century, and had left cultural marks. The 19th century saw the arrival of many more Ukrainians and Jews from Podolia and Galicia, as well as new communities, such as Lipovans, Bulgarians and Germans.

In the second part of the 20th century, Moldova saw a massive Soviet immigration, which brought with it many elements of the Soviet culture.

Moldovan culture was also influenced by historic minority ethnic communities, and in turn has had an influence on the culture of these groups, such as Bessarabian Germans and Bessarabian Jews.

[edit] Popular media

In October 1939, Radio Basarabia, a local station of the Romanian Radio Broadcasting Company, opened in Chişinău. Television in Moldova was introduced in April 1958, within the framework of the Soviet television. Moldovan viewers can receive through cable a large number of Russian channels, a few Romanian channels, several Russian language versions of international channels in addition to several local channels. One Russian and two local channels are aired.

[edit] Food and beverage

Moldovan cuisine consists mainly of traditional European foods, such as beef, pork, potatoes, cabbage, and a variety of cereals. Popular alcoholic beverages are divin (Moldovan brandy) and local wines.

[edit] Music

Moldova gave birth to composers Gavriil Musicescu, Ştefan Neaga and Eugen Doga whose works are recognized worldwide.

In the field of popular music, Moldova has produced the boyband O-Zone, who came to prominence in 2004, with their hit song Dragostea Din Tei." Another popular band from Moldova is ska rock band Zdob şi Zdub that represented the country in the 2005 Eurovision Song Contest. Dan Balan released Chica Bomb in 2010.

[edit] Holidays

Most retail businesses close on New Year's and Independence Day, but remain open on all other holidays.

[edit] Sport

Trânta (a type of Wrestling) is the national Sport in Moldova. Football is the main Sport in Moldova.

Rugby union is popular as well. Registered players have doubled and almost 10,000 spectators turn up at every European Nations Cup match. See Rugby union in Moldova

[edit] Architecture

The country's most prominent monument	Hâncu monastery	Noul Neamţ Monastery	Triumphal arch and Nativity Cathedral
A church in Downtown Chişinău	Capitoline Wolf and National History Museum	Academy of Sciences of Moldova	Cahul University

[edit] See also

[edit] Notes

[edit] External links

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