Bender, Moldova

Bender[4] ([benˈder]; or Tighina (Romanian) de facto official name Bendery (Russian: Бендеры, [bʲɪnˈdɛrɨ]); also known by other alternative names) is a city within the internationally recognized borders of Moldova under de facto control of the unrecognized Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic (Transnistria) (PMR) since 1992. It is located on the western bank of the river Dniester in the Romanian historical region of Bessarabia.

"Tighina" redirects here. For the village in Vâlcea County, Romania, see Voicești. For the former administrative subdivisions of Romania and Moldova, see Tighina County.

Bender Bendery, Tighina[1]
Views of Bender
Flag Coat of arms
Municipality of Bender (in red)
Bender Location of Bender within Transnistria and within Moldova Show map of Transnistria Bender Bender (Moldova) Show map of Moldova
Coordinates: 46°50′N 29°29′E
Country	Moldova (de jure)
Country	Transnistria (de facto)[2]
Founded	1408
Government
• Head of the State Administration of Bendery	Nikolai Gliga[3]
Area
• Total	97.29 km^2 (37.56 sq mi)
Elevation	15 m (49 ft)
Population  (2015)
• Total	91,000
Time zone	UTC+2 (EET)
Climate	Cfb
Website	bendery-ga.org

Together with its suburb Proteagailovca, the city forms a municipality, which is separate from Transnistria (as an administrative unit of Moldova) according to Moldovan law. Bender is located in the buffer zone established at the end of the 1992 War of Transnistria. While the Joint Control Commission has overriding powers in the city, Transnistria has de facto administrative control.

The fortress of Tighina was one of the important historic fortresses of the Principality of Moldova.

It is also the home town of former president of Romania, Prof. Dr. Emil Constantinescu.

Name

First mentioned in 1408 as Tyagyanyakyacha (Тягянякяча) in a document in Old Slavonic (the term has Cuman origins[5]), the town was known in the Middle Ages as Tighina in Romanian from Moldavian sources and later as Bender in Ottoman sources. The fortress and the city were called Bender for most of the time they were a rayah of the Ottomans (1538–1812), and during most of the time they belonged to the Russian Empire (1828–1917). They were known as Tighina (Тигина, [tiˈɡina]) in the Principality of Moldavia, in the early part of the Russian Empire period (1812–1828), and during the time the city belonged to Romania (1918–1940; 1941–1944).

The fortress of Bender on a Moldovan stamp

The city is part of the historical region of Bessarabia and of Bessarabia Governorate within the Russian Empire. During the Soviet period the city was known in the Moldavian SSR as Bender in Romanian, written Бендер with the Cyrillic alphabet, as Bendery (Бендéры) in Russian and Bendery (Бенде́ри) in Ukrainian. Today the city is officially named Bender, but both Bender and Tighina are in use.[6]

History

The remnants of fortress walls with the Dniester River in the background.

The town was first mentioned as an important customs post in a commerce grant issued by the Moldavian voivode Alexander the Good to the merchants of Lviv on October 8, 1408. The name "Tighina" is found in documents from the second half of the 15th century. The town was the main Moldavian customs point on the commercial road linking the country to Tatar Crimea.[7] During his reign of Moldavia, Stephen III had a small wooden fort built in the town to defend the settlement from Tatar raids.[8]

In 1538, the Ottoman sultan Suleiman the Magnificent conquered the town from Moldavia, and renamed it Bender. Its fortifications were developed into a full fortress under the same name under the supervision of the Turkish architect Koji Mimar Sinan. The Ottomans used it to keep the pressure on Moldavia. At the end of the 16th century several unsuccessful attempts to retake the fortress were made: in the summer of 1574 Prince John III the Terrible led a siege on the fortress, as did Michael the Brave in 1595 and 1600. About the same time the fortress was attacked by Zaporozhian Cossacks.

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 1713, the fortress, the town, and the neighboring village Varnița were the site of skirmishes (kalabalik) between Charles XII of Sweden, who had taken refuge there with the Cossack Hetman Ivan Mazepa after his defeat in the Battle of Poltava, and Turks who wished to enforce the departure of the Swedish king.[9]

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 in 1806 without a fight).

Along with Bessarabia, the city was annexed to the Russian Empire in 1812, and remained part of the Russian Governorate of Bessarabia until 1917. Many Ukrainians, Russians and Jews settled in or around Bender, and the town quickly became predominantly Russian-speaking. By 1897, speakers of Romanian and Moldovan made up only around 7% of Bender's population, while 33.4% were Jews.[10]

Tighina was part of the Moldavian Democratic Republic in 1917–1918, and after 1918, as part of Bessarabia, the city belonged to Romania, where it was the seat of Tighina County. In 1918, it was shortly controlled by the Odessa Soviet Republic which was driven out by the Romanian army. The local population was critical of Romanian authorities; pro-Soviet separatism remained popular.[11] On Easter Day, 1919, the bridge over the Dniester River was blown up by the French Army in order to block the Bolsheviks from coming to the city.[1] In the same year, there was a pro-Soviet uprising in Bender, attempting to attach the city to the newly founded Soviet Union. Several hundred communist workers and Red Army members from Bessarabia, headed by Grigori Stary, seized control in Bender on May 27. However, the uprising was crushed on the same day by the Romanian army.

Romania launched a policy of Romanianization and the use of Russian was now discouraged and in certain cases restricted. In Bender, however, Russian continued to be the city's most widely spoken language, being native to 53% of its residents in 1930. Although their share had doubled, Romanian-speakers made up only 15%.[12]

Along with Bessarabia, the city was occupied by 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 the USSR in August 1944. Most of the city's Jews were killed during the Holocaust, although Bender continued to have a significant Jewish community well until the 1990s.

From 1940–41, and 1944–1991 it was one of the four "republican cities", not subordinated to a district, of the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic, one of the 15 republics of the Soviet Union. Since 1991, the city has been disputed between the Republic of Moldova and Transnistria. Due to the city's key strategic location on the right bank of the Dniester river, 10 km (6 mi) from left-bank Tiraspol, Bender saw the heaviest fighting of the 1992 War of Transnistria. Since then, it is controlled by Transnistrian authorities, although it has been formally in the demilitarized zone established at the end of the conflict. Most of the city's remaining Jews emigrated after the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

Moldovan authorities control the commune of Varnița, a suburb fringing the city to the north. Transnistrian authorities control the suburban communes of Proteagailovca, which borders the city to the west and Gîsca, which borders the city to the south-west. They also control Chițcani and Cremenciug, further to the south-east, while Moldovans are in control of Copanca, further to the south-east.

Administration

Nikolai Gliga is the head of the state administration of Bender as of 2015.

List of Heads of the state administration of Bender

• Tom Zenovich (1995 ~ October 30, 2001[13])
• Aleksandr Posudnevsky (October 30, 2001[14] ~ January 11, 2007[15])
• Vyacheslav Kogut (January 11, 2007[16] ~ January 5, 2012)
• Aleksandr Moskalyov, acting Head of Administration (January 5, 2012[17] ~ February 9, 2012)
• Valery Kernichuk (February 9, 2012[18] ~ November 15, 2012[19])
• Yuriy Gervazyuk (January 24, 2013[20] ~ March 18, 2015)
• Lada Delibalt (March 20, 2015[21] ~ April 7, 2015[22])
• Nikolai Gliga (April 7, 2015[3] ~ )

Climate

Climate data for Bendery
Month	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Year
Average high °C (°F)	0.5 (32.9)	1.6 (34.9)	6.3 (43.3)	14.7 (58.5)	20.9 (69.6)	24.6 (76.3)	26.5 (79.7)	26.2 (79.2)	21.8 (71.2)	15.2 (59.4)	8 (46)	3.3 (37.9)	14.1 (57.4)
Daily mean °C (°F)	−2.4 (27.7)	−1.3 (29.7)	2.9 (37.2)	10.2 (50.4)	16.1 (61.0)	19.8 (67.6)	21.6 (70.9)	21 (70)	16.7 (62.1)	10.8 (51.4)	4.8 (40.6)	0.5 (32.9)	10.1 (50.1)
Average low °C (°F)	−5.3 (22.5)	−4.1 (24.6)	−0.4 (31.3)	5.8 (42.4)	11.4 (52.5)	15.1 (59.2)	16.7 (62.1)	15.9 (60.6)	11.7 (53.1)	6.4 (43.5)	1.7 (35.1)	−2.2 (28.0)	6.1 (42.9)
Average precipitation mm (inches)	35 (1.4)	36 (1.4)	30 (1.2)	36 (1.4)	48 (1.9)	68 (2.7)	65 (2.6)	42 (1.7)	43 (1.7)	26 (1.0)	37 (1.5)	37 (1.5)	503 (20)
Source: CLIMATE-DATA.ORG [23]

People and culture

City centre

The historical military cemetery in the city.

Bender Railway Station

Bender Fortress

Horse and carriage at Bender Fortress

Soviet-era memorial with flower bed, Bender

Downtown fountain, Bender

Transnistrian crest on plinth, Bender

Demographics

In 1920, the population of Bender was approximately 26,000. At that time, one third of the population was Jewish. One third of the population was Romanian. Germans, Russians, and Bulgarians were also mixed into the population during that time.[1]

At the 2004 Census, the city had a population of 100,169, of which the city itself 97,027, and the commune of Proteagailovca, 3,142.

Ethnic composition
Ethnic group	1930 census	1959 census	1970 census	1979 census	1989 census	2004 census
						the city itself	Proteagailovca	The municipality	%
Russians	15,116	N/A	N/A	N/A	57,800	41,949	1,482	43,431	43.35%
Moldovans^1	-	N/A	N/A	N/A	41,400	24,313	756	25,069	25.03%
Romanians^1	5,464	N/A	N/A	N/A	-	61	0-5	61-66	0.06%
Ukrainians^2	-	N/A	N/A	N/A	25,100	17,348	658	18,006	17.98%
Ruthenians^2	1,349	N/A	N/A	N/A	-	-	-	-	-
Bulgarians	170	N/A	N/A	N/A	3,800	3,001	163	3,164	3.16%
Gagauzians	40	N/A	N/A	N/A	1,600	1,066	25	1,091	1.09%
Jews	8,279	N/A	N/A	N/A	-	383	2	385	0.38%
Germans	243	N/A	N/A	-	-	258	6	264	0.26%
Poles	309	N/A	N/A	N/A	-	190	0-12	190-202	0.20%
Armenians	46	N/A	N/A	N/A	-	173	0-16	173-189	0.18%
Roma	24	N/A	N/A	N/A	-	132	0-5	132-137	0.13%
Belorussians	188	N/A	N/A	N/A	-	713	19	732	0.73%
others		N/A	N/A	N/A	8,300	7,440	0-31	7,440-7,471	7.44%
non-declared	51	N/A	N/A	-						N/A
Greeks	37	N/A	N/A	-						N/A
Hungarians	24	N/A	N/A	N/A						N/A
Serbs, Croats, Slovenes	22	N/A	N/A	N/A						N/A
Czechs, Slovaks	19	N/A	N/A	N/A						N/A
Turks	2	N/A	N/A	N/A						N/A
Albanians	1	N/A	N/A	N/A						N/A
Total	31,384[24]	43,000	72,300	101,292[25]	138,000[26]	97,027[27]	3,142[27]	100,169	100%

Note: ¹ Since the independence of Moldova, there has been ongoing controversy over whether Romanians and Moldovans should be counted officially as the same ethnic group or not. At the census, every citizen could only declare one nationality. Consequently, one could not declare oneself both Moldovan and Romanian.

Note: ² The Ukrainian population of Bessarabia was counted in the past as "Ruthenians" in a similar way the Romanian population is counted as "Moldovan" today

Native language
Language	1930 census	2004 census
Russian	16,566	N/A
Yiddish	8,117	N/A
Romanian	4,718	N/A
Ukrainian	1,286	N/A
German	225	N/A
Polish	219	N/A
Bulgarian	78	N/A
Turkish	26	N/A
Greek	21	N/A
Hungarian	20	N/A
Romani	16	N/A
Czech, Slovak	14	N/A
Armenian	11	N/A
Serbo-Croatian, Slovene	8	N/A
Albanian	2	N/A
other	11	N/A
non-declared	46	N/A
Total	31,384[24]	100,169

Population dynamics by years: [28] [29]

Media

• Radio Chișinău 106.1 FM

Notable people

Lev Berg

Tamara Buciuceanu

• Mehmed Selim Pasha (1771 in Bender – 1831 in Damascus) nickname: "Benderli" was an Ottoman statesman and Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire 1824/28
• Lev Berg (1876 in Bender – 1950 in Leningrad) a leading Jewish Russian geographer, biologist and ichthyologist
• Boris Solotareff (1889 in Bender – 1966 in New York) was a Russian painter. His work was in the mainstream of Eastern European Expressionism, with influences of Art Deco from the time when he lived in Paris
• Jerzy Neyman (1894 in Bendery – 1981) was a Polish mathematician and statistician
• Baruch Agadati (1895 in Bendery – 1976 in Israel) was a Russian Empire-born Israeli classical ballet dancer, choreographer, painter, and film producer and director
• Sir Michael Postan FBA (1899 in Bendery – 1981 in Cambridge) a British historian
• Yosef Kushnir (born 1900 in Bender - 1983 in Israel) was an Israeli politician who served in the Knesset
• Maurice Raizman (1905 in Bendery – 1974 in Paris) was a French chess master.
• Yevgeny Fyodorov (1910 in Bendery - 1981) was a Soviet geophysicist, statesman, public figure and academician
• Zrubavel Gilad (1912 in Bender - 1988 in Israel) was a Hebrew poet, editor and translator
• Tamara Buciuceanu (born 1929 in Tighina - 2019 in Bucharest) a Romanian stage, screen and TV personality
• Ilarion Ciobanu (1931 in Ciucur, Tighina – 2008 in Bucharest) was a Romanian actor
• Emil Constantinescu (born 1939 in Tighina) a Romanian professor and politician, who served as the third President of Romania, from 1996 to 2000
• Petro Poroshenko (born 1965) is the fifth President of Ukraine. He spent his childhood and youth in Bendery where his father Oleksiy was heading a machine building plant
• Vadim Krasnoselsky (born 1970) is a Transnistrian politician who was elected President in 2016. In 1978, aged 8 he lived in Bender when his father was transferred to a local military base
• Ilie Cazac (born 1985 in Tighina) a former Moldovan tax inspector and political prisoner

Sport

• Veaceslav Semionov (born 1956 in Bender) is a Moldavian professional football manager and former footballer. Since November 2014 he is the head coach of Moldavian football club FC Dacia Chişinău
• Fedosei Ciumacenco (born 1973 in Bendery) is an Olympian Moldovan race walker, competed in the 20 kilometres distance at the Summer olympics: 1996, 2000, 2004 and 2008
• Serghei Stolearenco (born 1978 in Bender) a Moldovan former sprint freestyle swimmer, competed in the men's 50 m freestyle at the 2000 Summer Olympics
• Alexandru Melenciuc (born 1979 in Bender) is a Moldovan professional football player. He currently plays for Navbahor Namangan
• Andrei Tcaciuc (born 1982 in Bender) is a Moldavian football midfielder who plays for FC Speranța Crihana Veche
• Igor Bugaiov (born 1984 in Bendery) a footballer, who plays for FC Irtysh Pavlodar
• Alexei Casian (born 1987 in Bender) a Moldavian football midfielder who represents Lane Xang Intra F.C.
• Vadim Cemîrtan (born 1987 in Tighina) a Moldovan football striker who plays for FC Bunyodkor
• Artyom Khachaturov (born 1992 in Bender) is an Armenian-Moldovan football player who currently plays for Moldovan club FC Zimbru Chișinău

Sport

FC Dinamo Bender is the city's professional football club, formerly playing in the top Moldovan football league, the Divizia Naţională, before being relegated.

International relations

Moldovan President Igor Dodon with Transnistrian President Vadim Krasnoselsky in Bender.

See also: List of twin towns and sister cities in Moldova

Twin towns – Sister cities

Bender is twinned with:

• Beira, Mozambique
• Cavriago, Italy
• Dubăsari, Moldova
• Montesilvano, Italy
• / Ochamchire, Abkhazia, Georgia

See also

• Transfiguration Cathedral, Bender

References

1. Kaba, John (1919). Politico-economic Review of Basarabia. United States: American Relief Administration. pp. 14–15.
2. Transnistria's status is disputed. It considers itself to be an independent state, but this is not recognised by any country. The Moldovan government and all the world's other states consider Transnistria de jure a part of Moldova territory.
3. "Указ Президента ПМР №139 "О временно исполняющем обязанности главы государственной администрации города Бендеры"". Официальный сайт Президента ПМР.
4. (in Romanian) or Tighina (Romanian) Law 764-XV from December 27, 2001 on administrative-territorial organisation of the Republic of Moldova, Monitorul Oficial al Republicii Moldova, no. 16/53, December 29, 2001 (subsequent modifications taken into account)
5. History of Bender on the Official website of Republic of Moldova Archived March 12, 2010, at the Wayback Machine: "trecătoare" înseamnă în limba cumană Tighina
6. (in Romanian) "Cetatea Tighina" Archived April 15, 2008, at the Wayback Machine on Monument.md
7. Ion Nistor, Istoria Basarabiei, Cernăuți, 1923, reprint Chișinău, Cartea Moldovenească, 1991, p.76
8. "Bender fortress" Archived February 14, 2009, at the Wayback Machine on Moldova.md
9. Charles XII of Sweden first took refuge in a Moldavian house in the town, then moved to a house specially built for him in Varnița. cf. Ion Nistor, Ibidem, p.140
10. "Демоскоп Weekly - Приложение. Справочник статистических показателей". demoscope.ru. Archived from the original on April 21, 2014.
11. "Turism istoric: Tighina sub epoleti". formula-as.ro.
12. "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on July 20, 2011. Retrieved July 13, 2009.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
13. (in Russian) Olvia Press News Agency Archived March 4, 2016, at the Wayback Machine
14. (in Russian) Olvia Press News Agency Archived October 22, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
15. (in Russian) REGNUM News Agency
16. (in Russian) Official website of the Supreme Council of Transnistria
17. (in Russian) Transnistrian News Portal Pridnestrovets.RF
18. (in Russian) Official website of the President of Transnistria
19. Указ Президента ПМР №754 Archived November 2, 2013, at the Wayback Machine
20. "Указ Президента ПМР №14 "О назначении главы государственной администрации города Бендеры"". Официальный сайт Президента ПМР.
21. "Указ Президента ПМР № 120 "О временно исполняющем обязанности главы государственной администрации города Бендеры"". Официальный сайт Президента ПМР.
22. "Указ Президента ПМР №138 "О прекращении исполнения обязанностей главы государственной администрации города Бендеры"". Официальный сайт Президента ПМР.
23. "BENDER WEATHER BY MONTH // WEATHER AVERAGES". Retrieved April 7, 2020.
24. 1930 Romanian Census data for the Tighina County Archived July 20, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
25. "Moldova". citypopulation.de.
26. Marian Enache, Dorin Cimpoesu, Misiune Diplomatica in Republica Moldova (Iași: Polirom, 2000), p. 399
27. "pridnestrovie.net". Archived from the original on March 18, 2009.
28. "Moldovan towns based on a censuses of 1897—2015" (in Russian). Archived from the original on July 19, 2017.
29. "State administration of Bendery report for 2019 19.9 Mb" (in Russian).

External links

• (in Polish) Bendery (Bender) in the Geographical Dictionary of the Kingdom of Poland (1880)
• City portal