"Tighina" redirects here. For the village in Vâlcea County, Romania, seeVoicești. For the former administrative subdivisions of Romania and Moldova, seeTighina County.
First mentioned in 1408 asTyagyanyakyacha (Old East Slavic:Тягянякяча) in a document inOld Slavonic (the term hasCuman origins[3]), the town was known in the Middle Ages asTighina inRomanian fromMoldavian sources and later asBender inOttoman sources. The fortress and the city were calledBender for most of the time they were arayah of the Ottomans (1538–1812), and during most of the time they belonged to theRussian Empire (1828–1917). They were known asTighina (Тигина,[tiˈɡina]) in thePrincipality 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 ofBessarabia. During the Soviet period the city was known in theMoldavian SSR asBender inRomanian, writtenБендер with theMoldovan Cyrillic alphabet, asBendery (Бендéры) inRussian andBendery (Бенде́ри) inUkrainian. Today the city is officially namedBender, but bothBender andTighina are in use.[4]
The remnants of fortress walls with theDniester River in the background
The town was first mentioned as an important customs post in a commerce grant issued by theMoldavianvoivodeAlexander the Good to the merchants ofLviv on October 8, 1408. The name "Tighina" is found in documents from the second half of the 15th century.Genoese merchants used to call the townTeghenaccio.[5] The town was the main Moldavian customs point on the commercial road linking the country to theCrimean Khanate.[6] During his reign of Moldavia,Stephen III had a small woodenfort built in the town to defend the settlement from Tatar raids.[7]
In 1538, theOttoman sultanSuleiman the Magnificent conquered the town from Moldavia, and renamed itBender. Its fortifications were developed into a full fortress under the same name under the supervision of the Turkish architect KojiMimar 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 PrinceJohn III the Terrible led a siege on the fortress, as didMichael the Brave in 1595 and 1600. About the same time the fortress was attacked byZaporozhian Cossacks.
In the 18th century, the fort's area was expanded and modernized by the prince of MoldaviaAntioh Cantemir, who carried out these works under Ottoman supervision.
During the second half of the 18th century, the fortress fell three times to the Russians during theRusso-Turkish Wars (in 1770, 1789, and in 1806 without a fight).
Along with Bessarabia, the city wasannexed to the Russian Empire in 1812,[10] and remained part of the RussianGovernorate of Bessarabia until 1917. Many Ukrainians, Russians and Jews settled in or around Bender, and the town quickly became predominantlyRussian-speaking. By 1897, speakers ofRomanian made up only around 7% of Bender's population, while 33.4% were Jews.[11]
Tighina was part of theMoldavian Democratic Republic in 1917–1918, and after 1918, following theUnion of Bessarabia with Romania, the city belonged to theKingdom of Romania, where it was the seat ofTighina County. In 1918, it was shortly controlled by theOdesa Soviet Republic which was driven out by the Romanian army. The local population was critical of Romanian authorities; pro-Soviet separatism remained popular.[12] On Easter Day, 1919, the bridge over the Dniester River was blown up by theFrench Army in order to block theBolsheviks from coming to the city.[1] In the same year, there wasa pro-Soviet uprising in Bender, attempting to attach the city to the newly foundedSoviet Union. Several hundred communist workers and Red Army members from Bessarabia, headed byGrigoriy Borisov [ro], seized control in Bender on 27 May. However, the uprising was crushed on the same day by the Romanian army.
Market in Tighina in 1938
Romania launched a policy ofRomanianization 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%.[13]
Along with Bessarabia, the city wasoccupied 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 (under which atreaty regarding the occupation of Transnistria was signed a month later), and again by the USSR in August 1944. Most of the city's Jews were killed during theHolocaust, although Bender continued to have a significant Jewish community until most emigrated after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. The Jews were deported to Transnistria by the Romanian authorities in 1941, where most of them died.[14]
In 1940–1941 and from 1944 to 1991 it was one of the four "republican cities", not subordinated to a district, of theMoldavian Soviet Socialist Republic, one of the 15 republics of the Soviet Union. Since 1991, the city has been disputed between the Republic of Moldova andTransnistria. Due to the city's key strategic location on the right bank of theDniester river, 10 km (6 mi) from left-bankTiraspol, Bender saw the heaviest fighting of the 1992War of Transnistria during theBattle of Bender. Since then, it is controlled by Transnistrian authorities, although it has been formally in thedemilitarized zone established at the end of the conflict.
Moldovan authorities control the commune ofVarnița, a suburb on the fringe of the city to the north. Transnistrian authorities control the suburban communes ofProteagailovca, which borders the city to the west andGîsca, which borders the city to the south-west. They also controlChițcani andCremenciug, further to the south-east, while Moldovans are in control ofCopanca, further to the south-east.
In 1920, the population of Bender was approximately 26,000. At that time, one third of the population wasJewish. One third of the population was Romanian.Germans, Russians, andBulgarians were also mixed into the population during that time.[1]
At the2004 Census, the city had a population of 100,169, of which the city itself 97,027, and the commune ofProteagailovca, 3,142.[27]
Note:1 Since the independence of Moldova, there has beenongoing 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"
FC Tighina is the city's professional football club, formerly playing in the top Moldovan football league, theDivizia Națională, before being relegated.
Veaceslav Semionov (born 1956), Moldavian football manager and former footballer. Since November 2014 he is the head coach of Moldavian football clubFC Dacia Chișinău
^Transnistria'spolitical status is disputed. It considers itself to be an independent state, but this is not recognised by anyUN member state. TheMoldovan government and the international community consider Transnistria a part of Moldova's territory.
^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
^Słownik geograficzny Królestwa Polskiego i innych krajów słowiańskich, Tom I (in Polish). Warszawa. 1880. p. 132.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
^See Radu Ioanid, The Holocaust in Romania: The Destruction of the Jews and Gypsies Under the Antonescu Regime (Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 2000), p. 129, 131-132, 199, 201.
1 InTransnistria.2 Controlled by the Transnistrian authorities.3 Also a municipality.4 The seat ofDubăsari District is the commune ofCocieri (not a city).
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