Tiraspol
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Tiraspol (Romanian pronunciation: /ti.'ras.pol/) is the capital and administrative centre of the self-proclaimed independent Republic of Transnistria, and the second largest city in the Republic of Moldova (as internationally recognized). The city is located at , on the eastern bank of the Dniestr River.
Tiraspol is known for being one of the few remaining cities that is still largely unchanged from when it was part of the Soviet Union. Two statues of Lenin still stand.
The city has many different light industries. Among them are the production of furniture and electrical goods.
In 1989 the city had a population of about 190,000 people. 41% were Russians, 32% Ukrainians and 18% were Moldovans (in 1919 42% 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 the 2004 Census in Transnistria puts its current population at 159,163.
Timeline
- Tyras, a colony of Miletus, probably founded about 600 BC, situated some 10 m. from the mouth of the Tyras River (Dniester). Of no great importance in early times, in the 2nd century BC it fell under the dominion of native kings whose names appear on its coins, and it was destroyed by the Getae about 50 BC. In AD 56 it seems to have been restored by the Romans and henceforth formed part of the province of Lower Moesia. There exists a series of its coins with heads of emperors from Domitian to Alexander Severus. Soon after the time of the latter it was destroyed by the Goths. Its government was in the hands of five archons, a senate, a popular assembly and a registrar. The types of its coins suggest a trade in wheat, wine and fish. The few inscriptions are also mostly concerned with trade. Its remains are scanty, as its site has been covered by the great medieval fortress of Monocastro or Akkerman.
- 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 from Turks, 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 customs region. It began operations with 14 employees. They inspected shipments of bread, paper, oil, wine, sugar, fruits and other goods.
- 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.
- 1926: There were 6,398 Jews (29.1%) in the town.
- 1940: Following the secret provisions of the Hitler-Stalin Pact, the USSR invades north-eastern Romania and Tiraspol, until then part of Ukrainian SSR, is integrated in the newly-formed Moldavian SSR.
- 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 Council 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.
- 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 Transnistrian 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.
- July 1, 2005: The Lyceum "Lucian Blaga", a high school with Romanian as language of instruction, was registered as Transdniestrian non-governmental establishment. The registration of six Romanian language schools was subject of negotiations since 2000. The tension increased in the summer of 2004, when the Transnistrian authorities forcibly closed the schools that used the Romanian language in the Latin script. Some economical measures and counter-measures were taken on both shores of Nistru.
- July 6, 2006: An explosion, believed to be caused by a bomb, killed at least eight people in a minibus. [(BBC)]
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to:
[media]
- [Tiraspol on Google Maps]
- [Tiraspol telephone directory]
- [Current weather at Tiraspol]
- [Yellow pages of Tiraspol]
- [Tiraspol section on VisitPMR.com] (travel information website)
- [Tiraspol map]
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