Tiraspol
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Tiraspol |
|
 |
|
 |
|
| Municipality | Tiraspol |
|---|---|
| Mayor | Viktor Kostyrko |
| Area | |
| - City | {{{area_total}}} km² |
| Population | |
| - City (2005) | 159 163 |
| Area code(s) | + 373 533 |
Tiraspol (IPA: [ti.'ras.pol]; Russian and Ukrainian: Тирасполь; Moldovan Cyrillic: Тираспол) is a city in Eastern Europe, the capital and administrative centre of the self-proclaimed independent Republic of Transnistria, and the second largest city in Moldova (as internationally recognized). The city is located on the eastern bank of the Dniestr River. The city has many different light industries. Among them are the production of furniture and electrical goods.
[edit] Name
The toponym consists of two words: Tiras — the ancient Greek name for the Dniester River, and polis, i.e., a city.
[edit] Monuments
In Tiraspol there are two statues of Lenin. One of them is situated in front of Transnistrian Government Building. Diagonal to it is a monument with a Soviet tank.
[edit] Demographics
In 1989 the city had a population of about 190,000 people. 41% were Russians, 32% Ukrainians and 18% were Moldovans. As result of the political and economic situation that followed the proclamation of the independent (unrecognized) Republic of Transnistria, the population of the city fell below its 1989 number and the 2004 Census in Transnistria puts its current population at 158,069.[1]
[edit] Timeline
- 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.[2]
- 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 some fortifications to guard the western border near a Moldavian village named Sucleia and a Tatar town called Hagi-bei. 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.
- 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.
- 1932: Latin script for Moldovan language is officialized in Moldavian ASSR.
- 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 (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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.[3]
- August 13, 2006: A grenade explosion in a trolley bus kills two, injures ten.[citation needed]
[edit] Jewish population
 |
This section is a stub. You can help by expanding it. |
 |
This section does not cite its references or sources. Please help improve this article by introducing appropriate citations. (help, get involved!) This article has been tagged since December 2006. |
- 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.
[edit] 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.[1]
- 13-30 March 2004 over 70 tombstones in the Jewish cemetery of Tiraspol were vandalized [2]Local community leaders said the authorities refused to help clean up the anti-Semitic graffiti painted over the tombstones[3]
- 4 May 2004, vandals threw a Molotov cocktail in an attempt to set fire to a Synagogue in Tiraspol[4]The attack failed when passers-by extinguished the fire.[5]
[edit] References
- ^ 2004 Census: PMR urban, multilingual, multicultural, from Pridnestrovie.net.
- ^ See E. H. Minns, Scythians and Greeks (Cambridge, 1909); V. V. Latyshev, Inscriptiones Orae Septentrionalis Ponti Euxini, vol. I.
- ^ "Trans-Dniester blast kills eight", BBC News, July 6, 2006.
[edit] External links
 |
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: |
- Article about travelling to Tiraspol at Lonely Planet
- Tiraspol on Google Maps
- Tiraspol telephone directory
- Current weather at Tiraspol
- Yellow pages of Tiraspol
- Tiraspol section and Tiraspol map from from VisitPMR.com (government-owned travel information website)
| Subdivisions of Moldova |  |
||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
|||||||||||
