Tighina

Tighina / Bender
Flag Seal
Location of Tighina in Moldova
Coordinates: 46°50′N 29°29′W / 46.833, -29.483
Country	Moldova
Autonomous Region	Transnistria
Founded	1408
Government
- Mayor	Vyacheslav Kogut
Area
- Total	97.29 km² (37.6 sq mi)
Population (2004)
- Total	97,027
Time zone	EET (UTC+2)

Tighina or Bender (Romanian (Moldovan): Tighina or Bender, Moldovan Cyrillic: Тигина or Бендер; Russian: Бендéры/Bendery; Ukrainian: Бендéри/Bendery) is a city controlled by the authorities of Transnistria, the breakaway region of Moldova, although geographically on the right bank of the river Dniester. Together with the village of Proteagailovca, the city forms a municipality, which Moldova considers separate from Transnistria. Tighina is located 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 administrative control over the city and both Moldova and breakaway Transnistria have small police forces in the city.

Name

Known in the middle ages as Tighina (in Romanian sources) and Bender (in Turkish sources), it was called Bender for the most part of the time the city belonged to the Ottoman (1538-1812) and Russian Empires (1812-1917), and as Tighina in the early part of the Russian Empire (1812-1828) and during the time the city belonged to Romania (1918-1940). During the Soviet period the city was known in the Moldavian SSR as Бендер (Bender) in Moldovan with cyrillic, and Бендéры (Bendery) in Russian. Following Moldova's independence in 1991, the city is officially named Bender^[1], but is more widely known as Tighina. The breakaway authorities of Transnistria (which currently have control over the city) use the names Бендер/Bender, Бендéры/Bendery, and Бендéри/Bendery, in Moldovan with cyrillic, Russian and Ukrainian, respectively.

Population

Administration

Vyacheslav Kogut is the city's current mayor.

History

The fortress of Tighina.

A monument in Tighina including an Infantry fighting vehicle.

Tighina was first mentioned as an important customs post in a commerce grant issued by the 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 town, and renamed it Bender. The Bender Fortress was built there, under the supervison of the Turkish architect Koji Mimar Sinan. 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 Ottoman supervision. In 1709, the fortress was the site of a skirmish (kalabalik) between Charles XII of Sweden, who had taken refuge there with the Cossack Hetman Ivan Mazepa after their defeat in the Battle of Poltava, and Turks who wished to take the Swedish king hostage and exploit the political difficulties of central Europe. During the second half of the 18th century, the fortress fell three times to the Russians during the Russo-Turkish Wars (in 1770, 1789, and finally in 1806 without a fight). Along with Bessarabia, the city was annexed to Russia in 1812 and remained part of 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 ceded to the Soviet Union on June 28, 1940, following an ultimatum. 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 authorities 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
• Emil Constantinescu, former President of Romania
• Iuliu Filippovitch Edlis, dramatist, writer
• Evgenii Konstantinovitch Fiodorov, Russian geophysicist
• Jerzy Neyman, Polish statistician
• Michael Postan, British economic historian
• Anna Pavlovna Tanskaia, singer
• Constantin Andronic, artist

References

External links

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

•  • e Administrative divisions of Moldova
Districts	Anenii Noi · Basarabeasca · Briceni · Cahul · Cantemir · Călăraşi · Căuşeni · Cimişlia · Criuleni · Donduşeni · Drochia · Dubăsari · Edineţ · Faleşti · Floreşti · Glodeni · Hînceşti · Ialoveni · Leova · Nisporeni · Ocniţa · Orhei · Rezina · Rîşcani · Sîngerei · Soroca · Străşeni · Şoldăneşti · Ştefan Vodă · Taraclia · Teleneşti · Ungheni
Municipalities	Chişinău · Bălţi · Tighina · Comrat1 · Tiraspol1
Autonomous regions	Găgăuzia · Transnistria2
1 Comrat and Tiraspol have municipality status but are not among the first-level subdivisions of Moldova, being part of, respectively, Găgăuzia and Transnistria. 2 The political status of Transnistria is not settled.

Coordinates: 46°50′N, 29°29′E