Historical landscape in south-eastern Europe, bordered by the Black Sea in the south, the Pruth River in the west and the Dnister River in the east. A viticulture is established in this area by archaeological findings such as amphorae and grape seeds already more than 5,000 years ago. The Greek historian Herodotus (482-425 BC) visited the Greek settlements at the mouth of the two rivers Dnepr and Dnestr around 450 BC and reported that wine was drunk everywhere there. Later, the Romans also promoted viticulture. The term "Bessarabia" (Romanian Basarabia) has nothing to do with Arabia, but derives from the Wallachian princely dynasty Basarab, which ruled there for about 150 years in the 13th and 14th centuries. From the end of the 15th century, the area came under Ottoman rule for more than 300 years, which led to the decline of viticulture due to the associated ban on alcohol.
The name Bessarabia, however, was not used until 1812, when the Principality of Moldova ceded control of the area to Russia. After a chequered history with several border changes, the area became an eastern province of Romania after the First World War in 1918, but the USSR never accepted this. Finally, in 1940, Bessarabia was occupied by the Red Army and incorporated into the USSR as the Moldavian SSR. After the collapse of the USSR in 1991, the Moldavian SSR was divided into the present-day state of Moldova and the Transnistrian Moldavian Republic, which is located east of the Dniester and is not recognised under international law, but whose territory never belonged to Bessarabia. Today, the former Bessarabian territory largely coincides with the part of Moldova lying west of the Dnister, only the south (Budzhak), as well as the extreme north around Hotin belong to Ukraine.
Picture on the left: CC BY-SA 2.0, link
Picture right: CC BY-SA 3.0, Link
