Bessarabia

Bessarabia ( listen^{? /i}; Romanian Basarabia, Ukrainian Бессарабія, rarely also Басарабія, Russian Бессарабия) is a historical landscape in Southeastern Europe, bordered by the Black Sea in the south and the rivers Pruth in the west and Dniester/Dniester in the east. The former Bessarabia today largely coincides with the part of the Republic of Moldova lying west of the Dnister, only the south (Budzhak) and the extreme north (around Khotyn) belong to Ukraine. For centuries, the country was a buffer region between the great powers of Austria, Russia and the Ottoman Empire. In 1812, the Principality of Moldova ceded sovereignty to Russia. After that, the region, inhabited mainly by Romanians, was part of the Russian Empire until 1917 as the Governorate of Bessarabia. In 1918, Bessarabia was briefly independent. In the interwar period it was an eastern province of Romania, and after the Second World War it was annexed to the Soviet Union.

Name

The name "Bessarabia" (Romanian Basarabia, Gagauz Basarabiya) derives from the Wallachian princely dynasty Basarab, which ruled there in the 13th and 14th centuries, and has nothing to do with Arabia. Originally, only the southern third of the country was considered Terra Bassarabum (Latin). With the Russian takeover of 1812, Russia extended the designation "Bessarabia" to the entire area between the rivers Pruth and Dnister/Dniester.

Coat of arms

The coat of arms of Bessarabia is the aurochs surrounded by a five-pointed star on top, a rose on the left (heraldic: right) and a crescent moon on the right (heraldic: left). The representation of the coat of arms (drawing on the left) comes from a document in which the National Assembly of Bessarabia (Sfatul Țării) declared on 9 April 1918 the annexation of the territory to Romania for perpetuity.

The aurochs is the symbol of the Principality of Moldavia, to which Bessarabia belonged until its secession in 1812.

Coat of arms of Bessarabia