Of The Immemorial Leafs

Antiquity and early middle ages

In Antiquity Moldova's territory was inhabited by Dacian tribes. Between the 1st and 7th centuries AD, the south was intermittently under the Roman then Byzantine Empires. Due to its strategic location on a route between Asia and Europe, Moldova faced several invasions, including those by the Bastarns, Sarmatians, Goths, Huns, Avars, Magyars, Kievan Rus�, Pechenegs, Cumans, and the Mongols.

19th century

In 1812, according to the Treaty of Bucharest� between the Ottoman, whose vassal Moldova was, and the Russian Empires, the former ceded the eastern half of the territory of the Principality of Moldova, along Khotyn and old Bessarabia (modernBudjak), despite numerous protest by Moldavians. At first, the Russians used the name "Oblasti" of Moldavia and Bessarabia", allowing a large degree of autonomy, but later (in 1828) suspended the self-administration and called it Guberniya of Bassarabia, or simply Bassarabia, starting a process of Rusiffication. The western part of Moldova (which is not a part of present-day Moldova) remained an autonomous principality, and in 1859, united with Wallachia to form theKingdom of Romania. In 1856, the Treaty of Paris saw three counties of Bessarabia, Cahul, Bolgrad and Ismail, returned to Moldavia, but in 1878, the Treaty of Berlin saw the Kingdom of Romania returning them to the Russian Empire.

The Tsarist policy in Bessarabia was in part aimed at denationalization of the Romanian element by forbidding after the 1860s education and religious mass in Romanian. However, the effect was an extremely low literacy rate rather than a denationalization.

Independence Proclamation

In the new political conditions created after 1985 by the glasnost policy introduced by Mikhail Gorbachev, in 1986, to support perestroika (restructuring), a Democratic Movement of Moldova(Romanian: Mişcarea Democratică din Moldova) was formed, which in 1989 became known as the pro-nationalist Popular Front of Moldova (FPM; Romanian: Frontul Popular din Moldova). Along with the other peripheral Soviet republics, from 1988 onwards, Moldova started to move towards independence. On August 27, 1989, the FPM organized a mass demonstration in Chişinău, that became known as the Great National Assembly, which pressured the authorities of the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic to adopt on August 31, 1989 a language law that proclaimed the Moldavian language written in the Latin script to be the state language of the MSSR. Its identity with the Romanian language was also established.

The Green Kingdom

The largest part of the country lies between two rivers, the Dniester and the Prut. Moldova's rich soil and temperate continental climate (with warm summers and mild winters) have made the country one of the most productive agricultural regions since ancient times, and a major supplier of agricultural products in southeastern Europe. The country is very close to the Black Sea. While the northern part of the country is hilly, elevations never exceed 430 meters (1,411 ft)�the highest point being the Bălăneşti Hill. Moldova's hills are part of the Moldavian Plateau, which geologically originate from the Carpathian Mountains.

Bewitching wine

Moldova is famous for its wines. For many years viticulture and winemaking in Moldova were the general occupation of the population. Evidence of this is present in historical memorials and documents, folklore, and the Romanian spoken language.The country has a well established wine industry. It has a vineyard area of 147,000 hectares (360,000 acres), of which 102,500 ha (253,000 acres) are used for commercial production. Most of the country's wine production is made for export. Many families have their own recipes and strands of grapes that have been passed down through the generations.