MOLDOVA, FLAG OF

vertically striped blue-yellow-red national flag with a central coat of arms featuring an eagle. The flag has a width-to-length ratio of 1 to 2. Moldova declared independence during World War I. At various times in prior centuries it had been a part of Moldavia, Russia, the Ottoman Empire, and Romania, and its symbols are derived from historical and cultural links with Moldavia and Romania. Its flag of December 1917 was the traditional Romanian tricolour of blue, yellow, and red in horizontal format. In the centre was the head of an aurochs, an extinct European ox. This flag flew only briefly because Moldova was incorporated into Romania in April 1918. The Soviet Union acquired Moldova in 1940, and, after German and Romanian occupation through 1944, the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic was reestablished. Its distinctive flag, adopted in 1952, added a green horizontal stripe through the centre of the Soviet Red Banner. Green was said to stand for the viticulture and other agricultural activities of the area. By 1989 agitation against communist rule was strong in Moldova, and the blue-yellow-red Romanian tricolour became a popular symbol. It officially replaced the communist flag in May 1990. The new coat of arms of Moldova, based on traditional designs, was added on November 3 of that year: On the breast of an eagle is a shield with an aurochs's head surrounded by a crescent, star, and flower. A traditional emblem of the Romanian territory of Walachia, the eagle holds a sceptre and olive branch in its talons and a cross in its beak. The red, blue, and gold colours of the shield reflect the national tricolour. The flag remained official following the independence of Moldova in 1991. Whitney Smith History Bessarabiathe name often given to the region of historic Moldavia between the Dniester and Prut rivershas a long and stormy history. Part of Scythia in the 1st millennium BC, Bessarabia later came marginally under the control of the Roman Empire as part of Dacia. Lying on one of the principal land routes into Europe, it was invaded by successive waves of barbarians, and the area had many masters. Gradually, under varying influences, the Vlach (or Romanian) nationality developed. Part of the area came under the rule of Kievan Rus between the 10th and 12th centuries AD and later passed to the Galician princes. From 1241 to the 14th century Moldavia was vassal to the Tatars. Old Moldavia The Genoese, founding fortified commercial outposts on the Dniester in the 14th century, paved the way for contact with Western culture, but Bessarabia's development depended on the rise of the principalities of Moldavia and Walachia, which soon expanded to include the territory. The southern area, which originally fell into the Walachian sphere, probably took its name from the Basarab dynasty. The whole province became part of Moldavia in the 15th century but was soon exposed to the Turkish onslaught; the key points of Cetatea Alba and Chilia (modern Bilhorod-Dnistrovsky and Kiliya, Ukraine, respectively) were captured in 1484, and this conquest was ratified by treaty (in 1503 and 1513). The southern part of Bessarabia was again detached and organized by the Turks into two sanjaks (districts) of the Ottoman Empire. Beginning with Peter I the Great, Russia drove toward the Danube delta. The Russians occupied Moldavia five times between 1711 and 1812 and finally secured Turkey's cession of Bessarabiaapproximately half of historic Moldaviain the Treaty of Bucharest (1812). The economy During the communist era a diversified industry was established in Moldova, agriculture was modernized, and transport and the building industry were overhauled. Following independence, the government began the gradual transformation from a command (centrally planned) to a market economy, establishing a program to privatize many state enterprises primarily through distribution of ownership vouchers to the public. Moldovan industrial and agricultural products, including grapes and wine, are exported to numerous foreign countries. Agriculture There was no large-scale private farming during the Soviet period, but collective farmers did have small plots for their own use. Private land ownership, consisting primarily of smallholdings, was initiated in 1990. The amount of privately owned land grew slowly, but the rate increased after the advent of a government program of large-scale privatization in 1995. Conversely, collective farms (engaged mainly in cultivation of grain crops and mixed farming) and state farms (usually specializing in the cultivation and processing of a particular crop) began to diminish in importance. Agriculture has been highly mechanized, almost all agricultural jobs being performed by machines. All collective and state farms are provided with electricity, and chemical pesticides and mineral fertilizers are widely used. Since 1940 the area used for vegetables, orchards, berries, and vineyards has undergone significant expansion. Viticulture, fruit and vegetable growing, and other specialized farming activities are particularly important, constituting about one-fourth of the commodity output of arable farming. Grapes are Moldova's most important industrial crop, with the largest vineyards found in the southern and central regions. Most orchards are situated in northern and southeastern Moldova. Sunflower seeds, another significant crop, are grown throughout the republic, though the southeastern regions have the largest plantations. Sugar beets, a relatively new crop in Moldova, are cultivated in the north. Moldova also is a major tobacco grower. Vegetables are grown mainly in the southeast. The chief grain crops are winter wheat and corn (maize). Wheat is used for the republic's own needs, and corn is exported as a seed crop. Most of the grain is grown in the north. Dairying and cattle breeding also are important, as is pig farming. The sturdy Karakul and tsigay breeds constitute a large proportion of the sheep, the raising of which is particularly important in southern Moldova. The land Relief Moldova lies to the east of the great arc of the Carpathian Mountains. It is underlain mostly by deep sedimentary rocks covering the southwestern portion of the ancient structural block known as the Russian, or East European, Platform. Harder crystalline rocks outcrop only in the north. Its surface is a hilly plain, with an average elevation of 482 feet (147 metres), cut by a deep network of river valleys, ravines, and gullies. The uplands of the centre of the republic, the Codri Hills, lie at an average elevation of about 1,1501,300 feet, and the highest point, Mount Balanesti, in the west, reaches 1,407 feet (429 metres). These uplands are interlaced by deep, flat valleys, ravines, and landslide-scoured depressions separated by sharp ridges. Steep, forest-clad slopes account for much of the terrain. The Dniester (Moldovan: Nistru) uplands, their eastern slopes forming the high right bank of the Dniester River, border the central uplands on the east and northeast. The northern landscape of Moldova is characterized by the level plain of the Balti steppe (500 to 650 feet in elevation) and also by uplands averaging twice this height, culminating in Vysokaya Hill (1,053 feet). The northern uplands include the strikingly eroded Medobory-Toltry limestone ridges, which border the Prut River. In the south, the extensive Bugeac Plain is broken by numerous ravines and gullies, while, in the east, left-bank Moldova includes spurs of the Volyn-Podolsk Upland cut into by tributaries of the Dniester. Drainage Moldova has a well-developed network of about 3,000 rivers and streams, all draining south to the Black Sea, but only 246 of these exceed 6 miles (10 kilometres) in length and only 8 exceed 60 miles. The Dniester, the rapidly flowing main artery, is navigable almost throughout the republic; the river becomes swollen by spring snowmelt from the Carpathians and by heavy summer rains. It does not freeze over during warmer winters. The other, smaller, main artery, the Prut, is a tributary of the Danube River, which it joins at the extreme southern tip of the country. The Ialpug, Coglnic, and other small southern rivers drain largely into the Danubian estuary in nearby Ukraine. Underground water, extensively used for the republic's water supply, includes about 2,200 natural springs. The terrain favours construction of reservoirs. The people Ethnic composition The Moldovans, who ethnically are kindred to the Romanians, are the indigenous people of the republic and represent about two-thirds of the population. Their numbers are greater in the centre and north of the republic than in the south, and they account for about four-fifths of all rural inhabitants. As recent newcomers to the cities, they represent only one-third of all urban inhabitants. Most of the Ukrainians and Russianseach group constituting about one-eighth of the populationcame to Moldova after World War II and settled mainly in the cities. Nearly all of the remainder of the population consists of Gagauz, Bulgarians, and Jews. The Gagauz, a mainly rural Turkic and Christian people, have lived in the Bugeac Plain region of southern Bessarabia since the late 18th century. Bulgarians also are mainly rural and inhabit the southern districts, where they settled at the end of the 18th century. Jews, by contrast, are overwhelmingly urban. They began to enter Bessarabia in substantial numbers after 1800, but their numbers have been greatly reduced by war and emigration. Each ethnic community has preserved its respective language, but urbanization has brought significant changes. Members of all communities who have been drawn to the cities, especially Moldovans, often have accepted Russian as a second language. Few, however, have abandoned their native language, and bilingualism has become the norm. Language During the Soviet period the Moldavian language (as it was then called) was written in the Cyrillic alphabet. Soviet scholars, mainly for political reasons, insisted that this language was an independent Romance language that was distinct from Romanian. In fact the differences between the two languages are of little significance and are confined to phonetics and vocabulary. In 1989 the script of the Moldovan language was changed to Roman; thereupon began a heated debate over whether the language should be called Romanian or Moldovan.