Otaci

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Otaci (formerly Ataki, Russian Атаки) is a town (population 8,400) on the right bank of the Dniester River, which at that point forms the northeastern border of Moldova.

It is first attested in the 15th century; as part of Bessarabia, it was transferred from the Ottoman Empire to the Russian Empire following the Russo-Turkish War, 1806-1812, and by the 1890s it had become a poor, heavily Jewish village. In April 1918, during the last stages of World War I, it became part of Romania. In 1940, as a consequence of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, the Red Army entered Bessarabia and incorporated into the USSR. In 1991 Moldova became independent, and in 1994 Otaci achieved the status of oraş (city).