History of Moldova

"Ilya Rabinovich began photographing the museums of Chişinău to reclaim a personal identity, lost when he migrated from Moldova to Israel at the age of eight. Rabinovich’s personal quest eventually led to this collaboratively authored book project that questions the moral role of museums in creating national identities. The book
is built around 65 striking color photographs, taken in seven different museums, accompanied by detailed captions that lead the reader on a virtual tour of the exhibits.Four separately authored chapters precede the photographs to introduce the project and photographer, and another two essays conclude the volume. One of these concluding essays contextualizes the exhibits with regard to Moldova’s recent political history; the second questions the general capacity of museums to adapt newer, more inclusive, modes of representation. In design, the book is an appealing souvenir that presents an attractive overview to a handful of Moldova’s museums, but it is probably best read by specialists in regional history, ethnography, and cultural studies, who are equipped to engage in an “intense reading process . . . to unravel the Moldovan identity puzzle” (17). The truly ideal audience would include those responsible for creating the exhibits. But because the book’s format creates the appealing atmosphere of a treasure hunt, it could also be used productively in courses on identity, nationalism,or east European history."

The paper conceptualizes five basic developmental paths the post-Soviet republics followed. The conceptual framework of this paper is expanded theory of real socialism in non-Marxian historical materialism, namely proposed the model of secession from socialist empire. The first developmental path was followed by societies in which an independent civil revolution took place. This path of development bifurcates into two furhter sub-variants. Namely civil revolutions in the Baltic republics (Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia) resulted in the independence and stable democracies. Civil revolution in Caucasus republics (Armenia, Gergia) were partially succesfull because civil movement in these societies were unable to build stable democracies. Countries such as Azerbaijan, Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine followed next developmental path. Its characteristic feauture is active participation of republican communist nomenclatures in seceding from the Soviet Union and gaining state independence. In this variant of development, democratization - characteristic for the first period of independence was counterbalanced by the growing autocratization of political system. This path of development was divided into two developmental variants: in one group of countries (Ukraine) the growth of autocratization caused civil resistance (Ukraine), in the rest societies of this group (Azerbaijan, Belarus, Moldova) - not. Finally the countries of Central Asia (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan) followed the fith developmental path. In these societies, independence permitted to preserve dictatorship of local communist nomenclatures.

""The Hoard of Medieval Coins from the Village Stizhok. In the spring of 2011, a clay pot was found in a field nearby the village Stizhok (Shumsk district, Ternopil’ region,Ukraine). The pot contained about 2500 silver coins struck in the Golden Horde, Crimean Khanate, Caffa, Principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia, and Lithuania. The significant part of oriental coins bears the Tartar, Moldavian and Lithuanian countermarks. Most likely, the treasure was hidden during the Tartar military expansion atthe end of 15th and beginning of 16th centuries.

Keywords. Numismatics, medieval numismatics, coin hoard, Genoese colonies in Crimea,  Genoese history, Poland, Ukraine, Golden Horde, Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Moldova, Romania, Wallachia, Asprokastron, 15th century, Vladislav II, Svidrigailo.""

""The Hoard of Medieval Coins from the Village Stizhok. In the spring of 2011, a clay pot was found in a field nearby the village Stizhok (Shumsk district, Ternopil’ region,Ukraine). The pot contained about 2500 silver coins struck in the Golden Horde, Crimean Khanate, Caffa, Principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia, and Lithuania. The significant part of oriental coins bears the Tartar, Moldavian and Lithuanian countermarks. Most likely, the treasure was hidden during the Tartar military expansion atthe end of 15th and beginning of 16th centuries.

Keywords. Numismatics, medieval numismatics, coin hoard, Genoese colonies in Crimea,  Genoese history, Poland, Ukraine, Golden Horde, Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Moldova, Romania, Wallachia, Asprokastron, 15th century, Svidrigailo, Vladislav II. Нумизматика, средневековая нумизматика, клады монет, генуэзские колонии в Крыму, Аспрокастрон, надчеканы на монетах Золотой Орды и Крымского Ханства, денежное обращение 15-го века, каталог монет с надчеканами, Каффа, Молдавия, Мунтения, Владислав II, Свидригайла.""

""Le tracé de la frontière qui sépare actuellement Roumanie et Ukraine remonte à la décision par les soviétiques d’annexer en 1940 Bucovine du Nord et Bessarabie. Aux lendemains de l’effondrement de l’Union soviétique les dirigeants roumains tenteront de faire valoir leurs droits sur des territoires dont ils se considéraient spoliés. La question des minorités demeure au centre du débat même si, semble-t-il, le véritable enjeu des régulières négociations roumano-ukrainiennes est en fait l’Ile des Serpents, banc de sable inhabité au large du delta du Danube, situé au voisinage direct d’importantes ressources pétrolières.

The frontier which currently divides Romania and Ukraine is due to the soviet decision to annex in 1940 North Bukovina and Bassarabia. After the fall of the Soviet Union, the romanians leaders tried to assert their rights to these lands, from which they had been despoiled. The question of the minorities was still at the centre of the debate, even if the real stake in the regular romanian-ukrainian negotiations seems actually to have been the “Snakes’ Island”, an unoccupied sandbank off the Danube Delta, which is close to territories of important oil resources.""

"The invention of long-range weapons has played an important role in the evolution of the human culture. The evolution of the bow in particular has held a central position in this process. In studying the Moldavian military system it appears that the bow and arrow is of particular interest for many reasons. It is by far the most frequently represented weapon in the archaeological record and unlike other weapons it tends to occur in datable contexts on excavated sites. This situation is largely accidental because being easy to manufacture and cheap made them easily replaceable if broken or lost, but the fortunate result is that a more comprehensive and reliable archaeological study is possible for the bow and arrow than for any other medieval weapon. Taking into consideration the great importance of archers in the medieval Moldavian tactics and strategy as explained in written records and archaeological finds allow us to state that there is no other period in which the weapon was of comparable military importance.
The purpose of this study is to observe the decisive role that the bow and arrow held in the fourteenth and fifteenth century Moldavian military system. We aim to unearth the main characteristics of the use of medieval military archery at the east of the Carpathian Mountains through the help of archaeology, historical information and last but not least iconography.
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The article presents the Getic horizon on the settlement near Tarasova, a pit-house and a storage pit. Constructive features of the pit-house and the analysis of artifacts makes it possible to say that Tarasova settlement belongs to the Getic culture of the Southern part of the Middle Dniester. The artifact that could clarify the chronology is the element of Scythian bridle from pit-house, which could be dated by 450—400 BC.