Republic of Moldova

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Republica Moldova Republic of Moldova
Flag Coat of arms
Anthem: Limba noastră   Our Language
Location of  Moldova  (orange) on the European continent  (white)
Capital (and largest city)		Chişinău 47°0′N, 28°55′E
Official languages		Moldovan¹
Recognised regional languages		Gagauz, Russian and Ukrainian
Demonym		Moldovan, Moldavian
Government		Parliamentary republic
-	President	Vladimir Voronin
-	Prime Minister	Zinaida Greceanîi (PCRM)
Consolidation
-	Moldavian Principality	1356
-	Autonomous Bessarabian Oblast	April 29, 1818
-	Moldavian Democratic Republic	December 16, 1917
-	Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic	August 2, 1940
-	Independence from the Soviet Union	August 27, 1991 (Declared) December 25, 1991 (Finalized)
Area
-	Total	33,846 km² (139th) 13,067 sq mi
-	Water (%)	1.4
Population
-	2008 estimate	4,128,047 (121st2)
-	2004 census	3,383,3323
-	Density	121,9/km² (87st) 316/sq mi
GDP (PPP)		2007 estimate
-	Total	$9,367 billion (141st)
-	Per capita	$2,962 (135th)
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)
Internet TLD		.md
Calling code		+373
1	Used as formal official name; literary form shared with Romanian.
2	Ranking based on 2005 UN figure including Transnistria.
3	2004 census data from the National Bureau of Statistics. Figure does not include Transnistria and Bender.

Moldova, officially the Republic of Moldova (Republica Moldova) is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, located between Romania to the west and Ukraine to the north, east and south.

In the Middle Ages, most of the present territory of Moldova was part of the Principality of Moldavia, and in 1812 it became part of the Russian Empire, under the name of Bessarabia. Upon the dissolution of the Russian Empire in 1917-1918, Bessarabia joined Romania. In 1940, Bessarabia was occupied by the Soviet Union, and after changing hands in 1941 and 1944 during World War II, it was split between the Ukrainian SSR and the newly-created Moldavian SSR. Moldova declared its independence from the USSR on August 27, 1991. Despite signing international obligations to withdraw, Russian military forces have remained on Moldovan territory; since 1993 they have been stationed in the breakaway territory of Transnistria against the will of the Moldovan Government.

The country is a parliamentary democracy with a president as its head of state and a prime minister as its head of government. Moldova is a member state of the United Nations, WTO, OSCE, GUAM, CIS, BSEC and other international organizations. Moldova currently aspires to join the European Union and is implementing its first three-year Action Plan within the framework of the European Neighborhood Policy (ENP) of the EU.

References

1. (Romanian)Situaţia demografică în Republica Moldova pentru anul 2007 Demographyc situation in the Republic od Moldova as for January 1, 2008 and 2004 census of Transnistrian region
2. (Romanian)National Bureau of Statistics of Moldova
3. The 1999 OCSE Istanbul Summit Decisions on Moldova and Georgia: Prospects for Implementation at Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars
4. Statement by H.E. Mr. Andrei Stratan at the General Debate of the Sixty Second Session of the UN General Assembly, New-York, 1 October 2007: "I would like to reiterate on this occasion the position of the Republic of Moldova according to which the withdrawal of the Russian troops that remain on the Moldovan territory against its will, in conformity with the obligations assumed by the Russian Federation in 1999 in Istanbul, would create the necessary premises for ratifying and applying the Adapted CFE Treaty."
5. "Moldova will prove that it can and has chances to become EU member," Moldpress News Agency, June 19, 2007
6. "Moldova-EU Action Plan Approved by European Commission", moldova.org, December 14, 2004, retrieved July 2, 2007
7. • Following the Peace concluded in Bucharest, in 1812, a part of this territory was asigned to Czarist Russia
   • Selection of encyclopedias in Russian language on the Treaty of Bucharest
   • again "transferred/passed over to the Russian Empire
   • (2002) History of the Republic of Moldova: from most ancient times till our days - Association of Moldavian scientists "Milescu-Spataru" - Second reviewed and added edition. Elan Poligraf, 95-360. ISBN 9975-9719-5-4. 
   • (2002) Stati V.:History of Moldavia. Tipografia Centrală, 218-220. ISBN 9975-9504-1-8.  both use the phrasing According to the Article 4, Porta ceded to Russia the eastern part of the Moldavian Principality - the territory between Prut and Danube
   • Article 4 of the Treaty
   • what Britannica Encyclopedia concessions of Mahmud II , History of Moldova, History of Ottoman Empire, History of Russo-Turkish wars
   • what Columbia Encyclopedia sixth edition 2008
   • Batiushkov, P. Bessarabiia: Istoricheskoe opisanie (Saint Petersburg 1892)
   • Berg, L. Bessarabiia (Petrograd 1918)
   • Dembo, V. Nikoly ne zabuty: Kryvavyi litopys Besarabiï. Z ofitsiinykh dokumentiv (Kharkiv 1923)
   • Berg, L. Naselenie Bessarabii, etnograficheskii sostav i chislennost' (Petrograd 1925)
   • Babel, A. La Bessarabie (Paris 1926)
   • Uhlig, C. Die bessarabische Frage: Eine geopolitische Betrachtung (Breslau 1926)
   • Iorga, N. La vérité sur le passé et le présent de la Bessarabie (Bucharest 1931)
   • Nistor, I. La Bessarabie et la Bucovine (Bucharest 1937)
   • Mokhov, N. Ocherki istorii moldavsko-russko-ukrainskikh sviazei (s drevneishikh vremen do nachala XIX veka) (Kishinev 1961)
   • Istoriia Moldavskoi SSR, 1–2 (Kishinev 1965–8)
   • Smishko, P. Borot'ba trudiashchykh ukraintsiv prydunais'kykh zemel' za vozz'iednannia z URSR (1917–1940) (Lviv 1969)
   • Zelenchuk, V. Nasalenie Moldavii (Demograficheskie protsesy i etnicheshii sostav) (Kishinev 1973)
   • Jewsbury, G.F. The Russian Annexation of Bessarabia 1774–1828: A Study of Imperial Expansion (Boulder, Col, 1976)
   • Khotinskoe vosstanie (Sbornik dokumentov i materialov) (Kishinev 1976)
   • Moldavskaia SSR v Velikoi Otechestvennoi voine Sovetskogo Soiuza, 2 (Kishinev 1976)
   • Meurs, W. van. The Bessarabian Question in Communist Historiography: Nationalist and Communist Politics and History-Writing (New York 1994)
8. Bessarabia by Charles Upson Clark, 1927, chapter 8: "The first Russian census after the annexation (1816) revealed a province almost solidly Romanian-of a population of about half a million, 921/2% Moldavian and Ukrainian, 11/2% Lipovans (Russian heterodox), 41/2% Jews, 1.6% other races."
9. Marcel Mitrasca, Moldova: A Romanian Province Under Russian Rule, Algora, 2002, ISBN 1892941864, pg. 25
10. Bessarabia by Charles Upson Clark, 1927, chapter 8: "Today, the Bulgarians form one of the most solid elements in Southern Bessarabia, numbering (with the Gagaoutzi, Turkish-speaking Christians also from the Dobrudja) nearly 150,000. Colonization brought in numerous Great Russian peasants, and the Russian bureaucracy imported Russian office-holders and professional men; according to the Romanian estimate of 1920, the Great Russians were about 75,000 in number (2.9% ), and the Lipovans and Cossacks 59,000 (2.2% ) ; the Little Russians (Ukrainians) came to 254,000 (9.6%). That, plus about 10,000 Poles, brings the total number of Slavs to 545,000 in a population of 2,631,000, or about one-fifth"
11. Ion Nistor, Istoria Bassarabiei, Cernauti, 1921
12. (German) Flavius Solomon, Die Republik Moldau und ihre Minderheiten (Länderlexikon), in Ethnodoc-Datenbank für Minderheitenforschung in Südostosteuropa, p. 52
13. Bessarabia by Charles Upson Clark, 1927, chapter 7
14. Bessarabia by Charles Upson Clark, 1927, chapter 10: "Naturally, this system resulted not in acquisition of Russian by the Moldavians, but in their almost complete illiteracy in any language."]
15. (Romanian)prm.md:"Sfatul Tarii ... proclaimed the Moldavian Democratic Republic"
16. Charles Upson Clark (1927). "24:The Decay of Russian Setiment", Bessarabia: Russia and Romania on the Black Sea - View Across Dniester From Hotin Castle. New York: Dodd, Mead & Company. 
17. Pelivan (Chronology)
18. Cazacu (Moldova, pp. 240-245).
19. Cristina Petrescu, "Contrasting/Conflicting Identities:Bessarabians, Romanians, Moldovans" in Nation-Building and Contested Identities, Polirom, 2001, pg. 156
20. Malbone W. Graham (October 1944). "The Legal Status of the Bukovina and Bessarabia" (– ^{Scholar search}). The American Journal of International Law 38 (4). Retrieved on 2007-12-08. 
21. Ioan Bulei (March. 1998). "Roma, 1924-1927". Magazin Istoric (3). Retrieved on 2008-02-26. 
22. Wayne S Vucinich, Bessarabia In: Collier's Encyclopedia (Crowell Collier and MacMillan Inc., 1967) vol. 4, p. 103
23. Cristina Petrescu, "Contrasting/Conflicting Identities:Bessarabians, Romanians, Moldovans" in Nation-Building and Contested Identities, Polirom, 2001, pg. 159
24. Charles King, The Moldovans: Romania, Russia, and the politics of culture, Hoover Institution Press, Stanford University, 2000. ISBN 0-8179-9792-X. p. 23
25. Cristina Petrescu, "Contrasting/Conflicting Identities:Bessarabians, Romanians, Moldovans" in Nation-Building and Contested Identities, Polirom, 2001, pg. 159
26. Olson, James (1994). An Ethnohistorical Dictionary of the Russian and Soviet Empires, 483. 
27. Goma, Paul (2006). Săptămâna Roşie, 23. 
28. Nagy-Talavera, Nicolas M. (1970). Green Shirts and Others: a History of Fascism in Hungary and Romania, 305. 
29. Paul Goma (2006). Săptămâna Roşie, 206. 
30. Tismăneanu Report, pages 585
31. (Romanian) Tismăneanu Report, pages 584 and 587
32. (Romanian) Comisia Prezidenţială pentru Analiza Dictaturii Comuniste din România: Raport Final / ed.: Vladimir Tismăneanu, Dorin Dobrincu, Cristian Vasile, Bucureşti: Humanitas, 2007, 879 pp., ISBN 978-973-50-1836-8 (Tismăneanu Report)
33. Pal Kolsto, National Integration and Violent Conflict in Post-Soviet Societies: The Cases of Estonia and Moldova, Rowman & Littlefield, 2002, ISBN 0742518884, pg. 202
34. Legea cu privire la functionarea limbilor vorbite pe teritoriul RSS Moldovenesti Nr.3465-XI din 01.09.89 Vestile nr.9/217, 1989 (Law regarding the usage of languages spoken on the territory of the Republic of Moldova): "Moldavian SSR supports the desire of the Moldovans that live across the borders of the Republic, and considering the existing linguistical Moldo-Romanian identity - of the Romanians that live on the territory of the USSR, of doing their studies and satisfying their cultural needs in their maternal language."
35. http://www.jamestown.org/edm/article.php?article_id=2368523 Jamestown: "MOLDOVAN PRESIDENT WANTS OUT OF RUSSIA'S ORBIT"
36. Moldpres:"Voronin highlighted, that we will strive for becoming an EU member"
37. Itar-Tass
38. Moldova-EU Action Plan Approved by European Commission, http://www.azi.md, 14 December 2004, retrieved 2 July 2007
39. EU/MOLDOVA ACTION PLAN
40. Parliament of the Republic of Moldova. The Constitution of the Republic of Moldova 2000. Retrieved 11-14, 2007
41. Parliament of the Republic of Moldova. Parliamentary Factions Retrieved 11-14, 2007
42. Bilateral agreement of cooperation between the Republic of Moldova and the International Parliament for Safety and Peace of the States, new Society of the Nations.
43. World Gazetteer. Moldova: largest cities 2004. Retrieved 11-14, 2007
44. Pridnestrovie.net 2004 Census 2004. Retrieved 11-14, 2007
45. (German) GRÜN und lebenswert: Eine Rangliste der besten (und schlechtesten) Länder
46. CIA - The World Factbook - Moldova 6 September 2007
47. 2007 evaluation
48. (Romanian) Official results of 2004 Moldovan census
49. (Latin) Descriptio Moldaviae at Latin Wikisource
50. Article 13, line 1 - of Constitution of Republic of Moldova
51. The law regarding approval of the National Political Conception of the Republic of Moldova stipulates that "The conception is rooted in the historically established truth and confirmed by the common literary treasure: Moldovan nation and Romanian nation use a common literary form "which is based on the live spring of the popular talk from Moldova" - a reality which impregnates the national Moldovan language with a specific peculiar pronunciation, a certain well known and appreciated charm. Having the common origin; common basic lexical vocabulary, the national Moldovan language and national Romanian language keep each their lingvonim/glotonim as the identification sign of each nation: Moldovan and Romanian. Moldovan language, having status of the state language, is used in all spheres of political, economic, social and cultural life. One of the priorities of the national politics of the Republic of Moldova is insurance of existence of the Moldovan language. Russian language, which in accordance with the valid legislation has status of the interethnic communication, is also used in different fields of life of the society and of the state. Russian-Moldovan bilingualism is characteristic for Moldova. It is necessary, in present conditions, to create real possibilities to make sure the Russian-Moldovan bilingualism becomes the reality. On the territory of the Autonomous Territorial Unit Gagauzia (Gagauz-Yeri), the status of official language is awarded to Gagauz, Moldovan and Russian languages. In eastern districts of the Republic of Moldova function Moldovan, Ukrainian and Russian languages.
52. (Romanian) "Concepţia politicii naţionale a Republicii Moldova" Moldovan Parliament
53. Declaraţia de independenţa a Republicii Moldova, Moldova Suverană (Moldovan)
54. A Field Guide to the Main Languages of Europe - Spot that language and how to tell them apart, on the website of the European Commission

Links

General

• Official site
• Official governmental site
• Official web site of the Parliament
• The EU's relations with Moldova (European Commission site)
• The Ministry of Foreign Affairs
• Embassy of the Republic of Moldova in the United States of America
• Embassy of the United States of America in the Republic of Moldova
• Elections in Moldova 2005
• General Local Elections 2007
• U.S. Department of State 2005 report about Human Rights in Moldova
• Dimitrie Cantemir-Descrierea Moldovei

Profiles

• International Monetary Fund: Republic of Moldova: Statistical Appendix
• U.S. Department of State Post Reports - Moldova
• CIA - The World Factbook - Moldova
• ECMI - Information about Minority Issues in Moldova

International rankings

• Bertelsmann: Bertelsmann Transformation Index 2006, ranked 75th out of 119 countries
• Reporters without borders: Annual worldwide press freedom index (2005), ranked 74th out of 167 countries
• The Wall Street Journal: 2005 Index of Economic Freedom, ranked 77th out of 155 countries
• The Economist: The World in 2005 - Worldwide quality-of-life index, 2005, ranked 99th out of 111 countries
• Transparency International: Corruption Perceptions Index 2005, ranked 88th out of 158 countries
• United Nations Development Programme: Human Development Index 2005, ranked 116th out of 177 countries
• World Economic Forum: Global Competitiveness Report 2005-2006 - Growth Competitiveness Index Ranking, ranked 82nd out of 117 countries
• World Bank: Doing Business 2006, ranked 83rd out of 155
• World Bank: Ease of Starting a Business 2006, ranked 69th out of 155
• United Nations Conference on Trade and Development: Foreign Direct Investment Performance Index 2004, ranked 35th out of 140

Media

• Moldova In The World - online journal
• Moldpres - state owned news agency

Others

• MOLDOVA 2006 INVESTMENT CLIMATE STATEMENT
• Moldova: Young Women From Rural Areas Vulnerable To Human Trafficking
• OurNet — Moldova Internet Resources
• Web.MD — Moldova Web Directory
• General Information about Moldova

This guide is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia.