Past and Present Population Development in the Republic of Moldova

The Republic of Moldova — the second smallest country among the republics of the former USSR — is situated in the south of Eastern Europe, between Romania and Ukraine. Located in the area surrounded by deltas of Nistru, Prut and Danube rivers, it has experienced frequent changes in borders and territory size. Moldova was part of the Russian Empire until 1918, then it declared independence and united with Romania. The newly formed Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics refused to recognise this unification and in 1924 established Moldavian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (MASSR) by partitioning the ethnically mixed part of Ukraine located by the Nistru river, although the share of Moldovan population in this region was only 30% (O’Loughlin et al., 1998). During the Second World War, in August 1940, the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic was established in its present borders. Later, the territory was annexed by Romania and then again by the USSR at the end of the Second World War. During the post-war period an intense Russification of Moldavan society took place. Russian language was introduced into everyday life and the Cyrillic alphabet replaced traditional Latin alphabet in Moldavan language, which is similar to Romanian language.