1.1 The Strip of Land Bessarabia

Bessarabia (Basarabia in Rumanian; Bessarabija in Russian/Ukrainian) is a historical landscape of Southeastern Europe. The southern third of Bessarabia (containing the Black Sea shoreline) today is part of the Ukraine; the northern two-thirds are the main region of the territory of Moldavia.
The river Pruth and the lower segment of the Danube in the west as well as the river Dnjestr in the east border Bessarabia; it reaches the Black Sea in the South and the northern border is defined by the Carpathian mountain range. The area contains 45,000 square kilometers.

Image 1: Die Lage Bessarabiens in Europa

The name Bessarabia, so the common consensus has it, derives from the Moldavian noble family of Bassarab, which ruled there during the 14th and 15th centuries. (See below, Bessarabian History) Originally, only the southern third of the territory was called Terra Bassarabum (Latin). The Tartars, the former dominant residents of the region, called the area by its shape of a triangle between the Dnjestr and the Black Sea a triangle (“Budschak”). The triangle forms when one connects the villages of Bender (Tighina), Akkerman (Bilhorod-Dnistrovd’kyy) and Ismail (Izmayil) with a line, each.
The Budschak was the actual settlement area for the German colonists.
The Russians introduced the name for the entire region of Bessarabia, meaning the northern part as well, not just the Budschak in the Peace Agreement between Russia and Turkey of 1812. (See below, History of Bessarabia) Russia wanted to justify the severance from Moldavia and imply against historical evidence that a Bessarabian country had always been in existence. Bessarabia was the official name for a portion of the Tsarist Empire between 1812 and 1918 and the name of a Rumanian province between 1918 and 1940. Today it no longer exists as an independent political unit.

Image 2: Bessarabien

In the south the land is hilly and mostly without trees and rises about 100 meters above sea level in the center. In the northern part, in the foothills of the Carpathian Mountains, there is an alpine and wooded region, rising to an elevation of about 500 meters.

The largest rivers are the bordering waters of Dnjestr and Pruth; the main rivers of the interior are Kogälnik and Japuch. They and some smaller rivers flow south-southeast with a minimum of a decline. Some of them form Limans, or salt lakes in their so-called Haff-Lakes, for instance at the Dnjestr and the Kogälnik, before they flow into the Black Sea. In the summer most rivers, aside from Pruth and Dnjestr dry up considerably.

Although the country is close to the ocean, the climate is predominantly continental with dry and hot summers and ice cold and often storm-ridden winters. The south has a steppe land climate with little precipitation (350 mm) and moderate moisture in the north (600 mm).

At times the frost lasts from October until March. But in spite of the frequent drought and the immense summer heat, the harvests are plentiful if there is enough rainfall.
In the statistical description of Bessarabia and the so-called Budschak ¹⁾) we read:
The climate of Bessarabia is not consistent because of the openness of the steppes, there are often tremendous transitions. Rarely is there any wind blowing. (Note: Because of man made interferences with nature, the climate today, as of 2007, is much mellower.

Broad areas of south and central Bessarabia are fruitful farmland, belonging to the Ukrainian Black Soil District. There are also less productive areas. This land and the human labor of the there settled German and Bulgarian farmers since 1814 were the foundation for the development of the country. There are no minerals evident in the Budschak.

Originally the steppe lands were without forestation, trees and shrubs were almost entirely non-existent. Only dry steppe grasses grew in the steppes and a strange plant called Burian. Only colonization brought changes.

⇒ S. Ziff. 4.1. Landwirtschaft)

Fauna and flora did not differ much from the flora and fauna of central Europe. The only remarkable animals to mention would be the so-called Trappgeese, (Giant Trapps) and steppe chickens (dwarf Trapps), as well as a rodent called Zieselmouse, more of that one later.

People of Bessarabia have always been part of other very different national groups. Since the beginning of the 19th century Moldavians ²⁾, Rumanians, Ukrainians, Greater Russians, Gypsies, Bulgarians, Tartars, Gagauses, Germans, Jews and others lived there.
According to statistics of 1936 there was a population of 1,862,000 but only 2.8 percent were of the German minority. Together with Bulgarians, Ukrainians and Greater Russians, they populated the south. The Germans had a presence of 16.3 percent in the Akkermann district. Today (as of 2004) Bessarabia has 4,322,800 people and 62.5 percent are Moldavian, 17.5 percent Ukrainian and 9 percent Russian, almost no Germans are there anymore.

In the course of its checkered history, Bessarabia belonged to a variety of very different forms of state:

• The Pre-Russian time: The Scythes were the earliest settlers of the Bessarabian region, roughly in the 6th century BC. Other nomad tribes followed and then, still before Christ, Greeks and Phoenicians, who established colonies on the shores of the Black Sea. From the first century BC onward, Bessarabia belonged to the Empire of Dazia. A little later, it was annexed to the Roman Empire.

The Romans secured their part of the land by building the Trajan Wall. Between the 2nd the 11th century many migratory people could be found, among them the Goths, the Huns, the Awares and the Madjars criss-crossed Bessarabia. After the Mongolian attack of 1241 the south belonged to the Khnat of the Golden Horde for a short time, as well.

• In the Middle Ages several Moldavian noblemen, among them Negru Voda Bassarab and Ladislas Bassarab, dominated the land for roughly 150 years. Then Bessarabia became part of the Osman Empire and belonged to its influence until the end of the 18th century. During this time the Turks always had to fend off Russian and Rumanian claims of the region. Finally the Russian Tsars conquered it in several wars.
  
• The Russian Time: Troops of the Russian Tsar Alexander I, (he ruled 1801-1825) conquered the land in the Third Turkish War (1806-1812). At the Peace of Bucharest of May 28, 1812, Russia became the owner of the land – after 350 years of Turkish rule there. Russia established the Gouvernement Bessarabia, the smallest one of the Russian Empire. When the Russians took over, there were only roughly 354,000 inhabitants there, many of the nomadic Tartar tribes had either left after the Russian victory or had been ousted by the Russians.
  

Kischinev (Chisinau) became the capital and is today the capital of Moldavia.
Russia began to settle the land beginning in 1812 and next to the Bulgarians and Gagauses, called German colonists to the country, as well. (See 1.2, The Russian Colonization of Bessarabia)
During the confusion of the revolution 1917-1918, the territory joined Rumania.

• The Rumanian Time: Pointing at the predominant Rumanian population, Rumania laid claim to the strip of land. According to their own version, the area, which had belonged to the Moldavian nobility from 1367 to 1511, was brought “back home” in 1918. During the Russian Revolution of 1917, Bessarabia declared its autonomy on December 2, 1917 and declared its independence on January 24, 1918, calling itself the Moldavian Democratic Republic. Only a short time later, the People’s Council representative (Sfatul Tarii) announced the annexation to Rumania. (See also 2.4.1, Rumanian Bessarabia, time between the wars, 1918-1940) The Soviet Union (UdSSR) as the heir of Russia, never accepted this severance.
• Soviet Union Times: In 1940, the Soviet Union (UdSSR) demanded the deliverance of Bessarabia from Rumania. (See 2.4.2, Soviet Bessarabia, the time till the resettlement (June-November 1940). In contrast to the time before the October Revolution of 1917, Bessarabia was not a unit, but a number of parceled divisions. North and Central Bessarabia formed the Moldavian Soviet Republic from 1940 until the break-up of the Soviet Union in 1990/1991. South Bessarabia belonged to the Ukrainian Soviet Republic. During Word War II, from 1941-1944, Bessarabia was occupied by Rumanian troops off and on, but was conquered back by the UdSSR in 1944.
• Current Times
  After the Break-Up of the Soviet Union (1990/1991) Bessarabia fell to successor states, the south to the Ukraine and the north and central portion to Moldavia.