In Moldova.

Soroca Fortress, Moldova.

The current version of the fortress was built in the 16th century, and replaced an older wooden fortress. The interior of the fortress is a perfect circle with five surrounding bastions. It has stood up to assaults from, among others, the Ottomans and the Russians. Today its image is on the 20 lei note.

Tiraspol, Moldova/Transnistria.

I’ve been obsessed with the place for years, and decided to make a blog about it a few days ago, for any of your followers who are interested. :)  It’s still in the beginning stages now, but expect much more.  

http://fuckyeahtransnistria.tumblr.com/

Thanks, absolutely love your blog. :)

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Submitted by sunnydriveinsarajevo. How cool! I am, obviously, really interested in Transnistria, too. It’s sort of this ignored conflict, no one in the international community cares about it, but Moldova is the poorest country in Europe, and it’s hard to see how that will ever change until this situation is resolved. It’s definitely worth learning more about. — FYEE

Pictures of the Transnistrian side of the Transnistria War.

Not exactly a staple of most history classes outside of Moldova, the Transnistria War broke out in 1992. In the late 1980s, newly relaxed Soviet policies toward its constituent republics allowed the Moldovan government to make changes that appealed to the ethnic Moldovan (ie, ethnically Romanian) majority, like making Romanian the official language. There was talk of unifying the nation with Romania. The significant Russian minority in Moldova didn’t like it - and in September 1990, the primarily Russian area east of the Dniester/Nistru River declared independence from Moldova. (They didn’t declare independence from the USSR - they wanted to be a new republic within the country as a whole.) Moscow, however, did not recognize the territory. Almost immediately, small scale fighting between Moldovan police and the rebels in Transnistria broke out.

In August 1991 with the USSR falling apart, Moldova declared its independence and began to field an army to fight the separatists. Full scale war didn’t break out until March of 1992, when independent Moldova (with borders including the disputed Transnistria region) received recognition from the United Nations. Russia and Ukraine aided the Transnistrians; Romania aided the Moldovans.

The war itself was short - a cease-fire was signed in July of 1992. But very little progress has been made in the interim. Transnistria continues to maintain that it is an independent state, but the only other states that recognize it are also unrecognized former Soviet territories. Until it can be resolved, the standoff has a negative impact on the political and economic power of Moldova. Don’t hold your breath, though. The government in Chisinau doesn’t have the political strength to reunify the country, and Moldova is not exactly a high priority for the regional powers that do.

BTW, the writing on the tank in the top picture declares death to the Romanian occupiers, and the graffiti artist in the middle right is depicting what he thinks Moldova does for Romania.

(Source: Wikipedia)

Reading the paper in Chisinau.

Repairing a watch in Tiraspol, Moldova/Transnistria.

The archivist notes:

This is my grandmother Nina in December of 1936 when she took up dancing in the House of Artistic Upbringing of Children in Tiraspol, then the capital of Moldova. Things had just gotten better after the devastating hunger of 1932-1933 (she was hospitalized with typhus). Note the ‘valenki’ (seamless felt boots) under the costume of a young Caucasian rider. She makes a cute boy!  

A smith in Edineț, Moldova, sometime in the 1980s.

This song is pretty old, but I like it. And the video is really great.

Zdob și Zdub is a Moldovan band. Buna Dimineata means “good morning” in Romanian.