BESSARABIA,
a government in the S.W. of European Russia, on
the borders of Austria and the Danubian
principalities, with an area, since the cessions
of the Paris peace in 1856, of 14,677 English
square miles. Till the last Eastern war Bessarabia
occupied the whole space between the Dniester and
the Prut from the Austrian frontier to the Black
Sea. The northern portion of Bessarabia is
mountainous, the southern flat and low,—the
limit between the two being marked by the
so-called upper Trajan wall, an artificial
elevation executed, according to some, in the end
of the 2d century A.d., under Trajan, but,
according to others, in the 3d century, under
Probus. This wall extends from the confluence of
the Botna with the Dniester to the Prut. In
northern or mountainous Bessarabia two systems of
elevations may be distinguished. The first is an
immediate offshoot of the Carpathians, and
occupies the whole of Khoteen, or the
north-western district of the government. It
rises about 450 feet above the valley of the Dniester,
and consists of strata of Paleozoic formation,
sandstones, schist, and limestone. The second
system is especially extended in the very middle
of Bessarabia, and may be called the
Yassa-Orgievian range. It consists of limestone
of secondary formation, and its highest point is Mount
Meguro, about 20 miles S. of Bielitz, between
Bikhmat and Poltava. The low portion of Bessarabia
from the Trajan wall, with a length of 133 miles
and a breadth of 33, and is well known as the
Budjak steppes. The surface is perfectly level ;
and the soil, except in the region along the
shore, consists of a thick bed of loam. The
province is washed on its eastern parts by the
Black Sea only for the distance of 20 miles to
the south of the estuary of the Dniester. Its
only seaport is that of Akerman, situated on the
estuary of the Dniester. This river divides Bessarabia
from Kherson and Podolia for a distance of almost
600 miles. The shores of the Dniester aro in
general high and steep, and numerous bars
obstruct its channel, particularly at Yampol and
Bakat On the Bessarabian bank are situated the
towns Khoteen, Cosoka, and Bender; and thirteen
natural harbors for ships are counted along this
side of the river. Among the principal
tributaries are the Reuth, the Ikel, the Buik,
and Botna. Another important stream is the Prut,
of which the left shore skirts the province for a
distance of more than 140 miles. The navigation
on the Prut is not important; its course is
impeded by bars and falls. The only important
lakes in the government lie along the coast of
the Black Sea in the Akerman district. Marshes
extend along the Reuth and its tributaries, and
there are also some along the Botna; they offer
no great obstacles, however, to free
communication. Bessarabia np to 1856 possessed
great quantities of sedimental salt; but after
the cessions of the Block Sea coast and the salt
lakes, the quantity obtained, which formerly
exceeded 60,000 tons, almost came to nothing. The
climate of Bessarabia is temperate. The medium
annual temperature of Keesheneff, 230 feet above
the sea-level, is 50 Fahr. the temperature of the
warmest month, about 73°; of the coldest, about
20°. In the valley of the Dniester the climate
is in general much healthier than in that of the
Prut; the climate of the north-west is mach
colder, and spring commences there ten days
later.
In all
the upper part there are forests, consisting
principally of beech, oak, and korb, besides
small quantities of birch. The chief forest
region lies along the heights of the Orgieff and
Yassa districts about the Megura Mountains, and
extends thence east to the Dniesterand south-west
to Keesheneff. The Khoteen hills are almost all
covered with timber. The three northern
districts, Khoteen, Bielitz, and Soroka, are
especially suited for agriculture, and may be
regarded as the granary of Bessarabia. The two
intermediate districts of Orgieff and Keesheneff,
though possessing a sufficiently fertile soil,
ore pre-eminently woodland; while the two
southern, Bender and Akerman, although also
fertile, have a steppe-like character, and are
better adapted to the rearing of cattle.
Bessarabia,
in keeping with its position near the Danube,
played an important historic, part in ancient
times, especially in the beginning of our era,
when it served as a key to the eastern approaches
of the Byzantine Empire. And thus, from
immemorial times, nations were ceaselessly
alternating with nations within its border. The
original inhabitants were the Cymri, succeeded by
the Scythians. Herodotus, who had been in the
Greek colonies of the Black Sea, relates that
near the mouth of the Dniester (????s) there
lilted the Tyritians, possessing on the estuary
of that river the town of Tyras (Oxeia or,
according to Pliny, Ophiusa). In the 2d century
after Christ Bessarabia was occupied by the Getae
and offshoots from the Bastroni, and in 106 A.d.,
the Getae were conquered by Trajan. After this
subjugation of the land by the Romans, the
present Bessarabia went along with Walachia, Moldavia,
and Transylvania,
to compose Dacia. In the 3d century appeared the
Goths, recently converted to Christianity. In the
5th century Bessarabia was overrun by the Huns;
after the Huns, in the end of the 5th century,
arrived the Avars and the Bulgarians; and last of
all came tool Slavonians (Lutichi and
Tevertzi), who built themselves the town of Bidgorod.
In the 7th century appeared the race of the Bessi
from whom the country acquired its present name.
In the 9th century arrived the Ugrians; in the
10th the Pecnenegs; in the 11th the Kumans, the
Uses, and the Polovtliaiu; and m the 18th the
Mongolians, under the leadership of Batía. In
this last century, also, the Genoese founded
their colonies on the shores of the Dniester. In
1367 Bessarabia formed a part of Moldavia. In
1603 the south era portion of the country, or
Budjak, foil under tho power of the Turks ; and
in 1560 there settled in that district 30,000
NogaitzUns, who had devastated northern Bessarabia,
then inhabited by Romanians. These Nogaitzians
acquired the name of the Bielgorod horde. Russian
armies occupied Bcssarahia during all the Turkish
wars in the 18th century, and again in 1806-12,
when it was united to Russia by the Bukharest
treaty. By the Paris convention of 1896, Russia
ceded the districts of Ismael and the greater pan
of the Cagul to Turkey, and these now form a part
of Roumania. At present the government is divided
into seven districts, those of Keesheneff,
Akerman, Bender, Orgieff, Soroka, Khoteen, and
Yassa, Bender and Akerman are subdivided into
five cantons, each of the others into four. In
I860 the population numbered 988,481, and had a
very varied ethnographical character. The
principal portion consisted of Moldavians,
descendants of the ancient Daciana. The Russnayks
or Galicians and Raeyani (that is, those who have
inhabited the rayas provinces of the Turkish
empire), amounted to 130,000, mostly found in the
districts of Khoteen, Soroka, Yassa, and Orgieff.
Malo. Russians (or Little Russians) began to
nettle in the country in the 17th century, and
now number 70,000. The Bulgarians began their
immigration from the Turkish provinces in
1806-12, afterward» in 1830-34, and finally
after 1856; they number 60,000. These colonies
are administratively divided into three circles
:—the Upper Budjak, consisting of 19, the Lower
Budjak of 19, and the Ismael of 5. The Germans
began to settle in Bessarabia in ?4. Their
colonies, to the number of 25, are situated n the
Akerman district, along the River Cogalnika. The
Jews, who number 70,000, live partly in the
cities Keesheneff, Khoteen, be., but are also
settled in 16 agricultural colonies. The Gypsies,
or Zigan, amount to 10,000. They live a wandering
life ; but in the Akerman district two villages,
Pharaonofo and Kaera, are permanently inhabited
by them. A considerable number of Armenians and
Greeks hare also settled in the country daring
the present century.
Encyclopedia Britannica New York
Henry G. Allex And Company Publishers 1880.