Tiraspol

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Tiraspol (ti.'ras.pol; Russian and Ukrainian: Тирáсполь; Moldavian Cyrillic: Тираспол) is a city in Eastern Europe, the capital and administrative center of the de facto independent Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic, and the second largest city in Moldova (as internationally recognized). The city is located on the eastern bank of the Dniester River. The city has many different light industries. Among them are the production of furniture and electrical goods.

Tiraspol was founded by the Russian general Alexander Suvorov in 1792. The city celebrates its anniversary every year on October 14.

Name

The toponym consists of two words: Tiras — the ancient Greek name for the Dniester River, and polis, i.e., a city.

Monuments

The statue of Alexander Suvorov was erected in the central square in 1979 in commemoration of his 250th anniversary. In front of the Transnistrian Government building there is a statue of Lenin. On the opposite side of the central square, a monument plaza features a Soviet T-34 tank, commemorating the Soviet victory in World War II, an eternal flame to those who fell defending and recapturing the city in 1941, resp. 1944, and several monuments dedicated to more recent conflicts, including the Soviet war in Afghanistan and the War of Transnistria.

Demographics

In 1989 the city had a population of about 190,000 people. 41% were Russians, 32% Ukrainians and 18% were Moldavians. As result of the political and economic situation that followed the proclamation of the independent (unrecognized) Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic, as well as large Jewish emigration 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 158,069.

History

Tyras, or Tiras, a colony of Miletus, probably founded about 600 BC, situated some 10 m. from the mouth of the Tiras 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.

During the Middle Ages, the area around Tiraspol was a buffer zone between the Tatars and the Moldavians, inhabited by both ethnicities.

The Russian Empire conquered its way to the Dniester river from Turks and in 1792, the Russian army built some fortifications to guard the western border near a Moldavian village named Sucleia. The name was given after the Latin name of the Dniester river ("Tyras") on which it was built.

On 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.

The Moldavian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic was created in Ukraine in 1924, with Balta as its capital. The republic had Romanian, Ukrainian and Russian as its official languages. Its capital was moved in 1929 to Tiraspol, which remained the capital of the Moldavian ASSR until 1940.

In 1940, following the secret provisions of the Hitler-Stalin Pact, the USSR forces Romania to cede Bessarabia and integrates Tiraspol, until then part of Ukrainian SSR, into the newly-formed Moldavian SSR.

On August 7, 1941, the city was taken by Romanian troops. During the occupation, Tiraspol was under Romanian administration. During that period almost all its Jewish population perished. This same year (before the occupation), the newspaper “Dnestrovskaya pravda” was founded by the Tiraspol City Council of popular deputies. This is the oldest periodical publication in the region.

On April 12, 1944, the city was retaken by the Red Army and became again part of Moldavian SSR.

On 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 momentum, the local governments banded together to resist pressure from the Moldovan government.

On September 2, 1990, Tiraspol was proclaimed the capital of the new Pridnestrovian Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic. The new republic was not officially recognized by Soviet authorities, however it received support from some important Soviet leaders, like Anatoly Lukianov. After the dissolution of Soviet Union, the territory east of the Dniester river declared independence as Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic, with Tiraspol as its capital. However, this is not internationally recognized.

On July 1, 2005, the Lucian Blaga Lyceum, a high school with Romanian as its language of instruction, was registered as a Transnistrian 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 Moldavian language in the Latin script, which according to the official PMR view is considered as Romanian. Moldavian, written in the Cyrillic script, is one of the three official languages in the PMR. Romanian, however, is not. Some economic measures and counter-measures were taken on both banks of the Dniester.

On July 6, 2006, an explosion, believed to be caused by a bomb, killed at least eight people in a minibus.

On August 13 2006, a grenade explosion in a trolleybus kills two, injures ten.

Jewish history

• 1847: Jewish population in Tiraspol amounted to 1,406.
• 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.
• 1926: There were 6,398 Jews (29.1%) in the town.
• 1959: The only synagogue was closed by the authorities. The Jewish population was estimated at about 1,500.
• 1960s and 70s: The Jewish population was believed to be in tens of thousands, out of above 100,000 general population. Yiddish could occasionally be heard on the streets of the city.
• 2007 Jewish population of Tiraspol is 2,200.

Anti-Semitism in Tiraspol

• 14-15 April 2001 the Synagogue of Tiraspol suffered a pipe bomb attack. The building was damaged, but the guard was not hurt.
• 13-30 March 2004 over 70 tombstones in the Jewish cemetery of Tiraspol were vandalized Local community leaders said the authorities refused to help clean up the anti-Semitic graffiti painted over the tombstones
• 4 May 2004, vandals threw a Molotov cocktail in an attempt to set fire to a Synagogue in Tiraspol The attack failed when passers-by extinguished the fire.

Twin cities

• Trondheim, Norway

References

External links

Non-Transnistrian links

• Current weather at Tiraspol from Yahoo
• Article about travelling to Tiraspol at Lonely Planet
• Tiraspol on Google Maps
• Tiraspol telephone directory
• Yellow pages of Tiraspol

Transnistrian links

• VisitPMR.com (government-registered (ICDISS funded) travel information website)
• Tiraspol.info (in Russian)
• Tiras.md (in Russian)
• Photo gallery of Tiraspol. Past and present. (in Russian)

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Last updated on Friday March 07, 2008 at 08:47:48 PST (GMT -0800)
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