Tiraspol

Tiraspol is the second largest city in Moldova and the capital of the de facto independent, though internationally unrecognized Transnistrian Republic. It has a population of 203,870 (1995). Tiraspol is located at Template:Coor dm, on the eastern bank of the Dniestr River.

It is known for being one of the few remaining cities that is still largely unchanged from when it was part of the Soviet Union. Many statues of Lenin still stand. This is because Tiraspol has effectively never been ruled from Chişinău, due to Transnistria having declaring its independence at the same as Moldova.

It is possible to get to Tiraspol by bus from either Chisinau or Comrat in Gagauzia.

Tiraspol has many different light industries. Among them are furniture and electrical goods.

In 1989 the city had a population of about 190,000 people. 41% were Russians, 32% Ukrainians and 18% were Romanians. It is estimated that after a certain growth in the early 1990s, the population of the city fell below its 1989 number and World Gazeteer puts it at 162,000. The unrecognized rebel Transdnistrian authorities have forced many ethnic Romanians to flee after the Moldovan-Transnistrian conflict and the Romanian population of the city is believed to have dropped at 13%.

Timeline

• Middle ages: The area around Tiraspol was a buffer zone between the Tatars and the Moldavians, inhabited by both ethnicities.

• 1792: After the Russian Empire conquered its way to the Nistru river, the Russian army built a fortification on at old Tatarian town called Hagi-bei to guard the western border. The name was given after the Latin name of the Dniester river ("Tyras") on which it was built.

• 1812: By this year, Russia had already conquered the eastern half of Moldova (Bassarabia) and was colonizing Russian and ethnic Ukrainians in and around Tiraspol.

• June 15, 1828: The Customs house in Tiraspol was established. The purpose of its creation became suppression of smuggling. This Customs house submitted to the chief of Odessa Сustoms region. It began operations with 14 employees. They inspected shipments of bread, paper, oil, wine, sugar, fruits and other goods.

• 1847: Jewish population in Tiraspol amounted to 1,406.

• 1897: Jewish population rose to 8,668 (27% of the total population).

• 1910: Tiraspol had two Jewish private schools, one for boys and one for girls.

• After World War I: Romania gained Bessarabia

• 1924: Stalin created a Moldavian ASSR (Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic) in Ukraine, with Balta as its Capital. The republic had Romanian as its official language and officialized the Latin script.

• 1929: Tiraspol became the capital of the Moldavian ASSR (until 1940).

• 1926: There were 6,398 Jews (29.1%) in the town.

• 1941: The city fell to German invasion. During the Nazi occupation Tiraspol was under Romanian administration. During that period almost all its Jewish population perished. This same year, the newspaper “Dnestrovskaya pravda” was founded by the Tiraspol City Countil of popular deputies. This is the oldest periodical publication in the region.

• 1944: The city was retaken by Russia. As a result of the Russian occupation of Romania during World War II, Bassarabia was added to the Moldavian ASSR, which was renamed the Moldavian SSR. A policy of Romanian denationalization began, including deportation to Siberia of ethnic Romanians living in the city and increased immigration from Russia.

• The Soviet Union kept industry in Moldova to a minimum. Tiraspol is perhaps the only exception, being the most developed industrial city in Moldova.

• 1959 The only synagogue was closed by the authorities. The Jewish population was estimated at about 1,500.

• 1989: Because of the perestroika reforms in the late 1980s, the city's Russian workers have repeatedly conflicted with Moldova's Romanian-speaking majority. This year, the Gagauz of southern Moldova declared their territory an autonomous republic.

• January 27, 1990: A referendum declared that Tiraspol was an independent territory. The nearby city of Bendery also declared its independence. As the Russian-speaking independence movement gained steam, the local governments banded together to resist pressure from the Moldovian government.

• September 2, 1990: Tiraspol became the capital of the new Tras-Dniestr Republic. After the independence of Moldova, the territory east of the Dniestr river declared independence as Transnistria, with Tiraspol as its capital. However, this is not internationally recognized.

• May 6, 2004: A Molotov Cocktail was thrown at the Tiraspol's Synagogue, according to a report by AEN. The attacker also poured flammable liquid on the front door of the synagogue, right near a gas pipe. Thanks to the quick reaction of witnesses the fire was extinguished before it set off the gas. According to Boris Asarov, chairman of the Transdniester NGO "Pro Europa", the attack was masterminded by the extremist Russian nationalist organization Vityaz, headed by former MGB special forces officer Ruslan Pogorletsky. Vityaz uses a swastika-like symbol similar to the one used by the Russian neo-nazi group Russian National Unity.

External links

• Current weather at Tiraspol (http://weather.yahoo.com/forecast/MDXX0005_f.html)
• Yellow pages of Tiraspol (http://www.yellowpages.md/query_eng.asp?rgn=&town=tiraspol&street=&mode=4&imageField4.x=0&imageField4.y=0)bg:Тираспол

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