Bessarabia

Bessarabia, a government in the south-west of Russia, on the Roumanian frontier. The area, enlarged by the restoration in 1878 of the portion ceded to Moldavia in 1856, is 17,627 sq. m.; the population in 1893 was 1,688,600, composed of Russians, Poles, Roumanians, Bulgarians, Greeks, Armenians, Jews, Germans, and Tartars, with a sprinkling of Gipsies. The Dniester flows along the whole of its northern and eastern boundaries; the Pruth separates it from Moldavia on the west; and it has the Danube on the south. In the north-west, the country is traversed by well-wooded offshoots of the Carpathian Mountains. Generally, however, Bessarabia is flat and fertile. The land is cultivated to some extent; but the breeding of cattle forms the chief business of the inhabitants. Salt, cattle, wool, and tallow are exported; leather, soap, and candles are manufactured. Bessarabia, which fell under the power of the Turks in 1503, suffered heavily in all wars with Russia, and was ceded to Russia in 1812. By the Treaty of Paris, the portions of Bessarabia lying along the Pruth and the Danube—3578 sq. m., with some 200,000 inhabitants—were assigned to Moldavia; at the Berlin Congress of 1878, this region was again transferred to Russia.