Bender, Moldova

Tighina or Bender (Russian: Бендеры; Moldovan Cyrillic: Тигина) is a city in the buffer zone established at the end of the War of Transnistria. While the Joint Control Commission has overriding powers, Transnistria has de facto controls the city.

Population

According to the 2004 Census in Transnistria, the city has a population of 97,027 [1].

Administration

Aleksander Ivanovich Posudnevsky is the city's mayor.

History

File:Tighina.Fortress.jpg

The fortress of Tighina

A monument in Tighina including an Infantry fighting vehicle

The Tighina Fortress was first mentioned as an important customs post in a commerce grant issued by Moldavian voivod Alexandru cel Bun to merchants from Lviv on October 8 1408. The document is written in Old Slavonic, and the place is named Тягянакача [Tyagyanacacha]. The name Tighina is found in documents from the second half of the 15th century.

In 1538, the Ottoman sultan Suleiman the Magnificent conquered the fortress, and renamed it Bender.

In the 18th century, the fort's area was expanded and modernized by the prince of Moldavia Antioh Cantemir, who carried out these works under the Ottoman supervision.

In 1713, the fortress was the site of a skirmish (kalabalik) between Charles XII of Sweden, who had taken refuge there with Cossacks leader Ivan Stepanovich Mazepa after the Battle of Poltava, and Turks who wished to take him hostage and exploit the political difficulties of central Europe.

During the second half of the 18th century, Tighina fell three times to the Russians during the Russo-Turkish Wars.

Along with Bessarabia, the city was annexed to Russia in 1812 and remained in the Russian gubernia of Bessarabia until 1917.

As a part of Bessarabia, Tighina belonged to the Moldavian Democratic Republic (1917-1918), and Romania (1918-1940, 1941-1944).

Along with Bessarabia, the city was occupied by the Soviet Union on June 28, 1940. In the course of World War II, it was retaken by Romania in July 1941, and again by USSR in August 1944.

In 1940-41, and 1941-1991 it was one of the four "republican cities" of the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic, one of the 15 republics of the Soviet Union, and since 1991 the independent Republic of Moldova.

During the War of Transnistria (1992), because of the city's key strategic location on the right bank of Dniester river, 10 km from left-bank Tiraspol, it was the biggest of the three battlefields of that war.

Since 1992, Tighina is formally in the demilitarized zone established at the end of the conflict, but is de facto controlled by Transnistria. Moldovan autorities control the village of Varniţa, which fringes the city to the north.

Famous natives

Famous people born in the city include:

• Two Ottoman Grand Viziers known as Benderli Pasha
• Lev Simonovich Berg, Jewish Soviet zoologist and geographer
• Tamara Buciuceanu, Romanian actress
• Mikhail Grigoryevich Chernyayev, Russian general
• Emil Constantinescu, former Romanian President
• Iuliu Filippovitch Edlis, dramatist, writer
• Evgenii Konstantinovitch Fiodorov, Russian geophysicist
• Jerzy Neyman, Polish statistician
• Anna Pavlovna Tanskaia, singer

External links

• City portal
• Map of the city
• Bender travel information

46°50′N 29°29′E