Moldova
Moldova (Republica Moldova) is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, located between Romania to the west and Ukraine to the north, east and south.In the Middle Ages, most of the present territory of Moldova was part of the Principality of Moldovia. In 1812, it was annexed by the Russian Empire, and became known as Bessarabia.
Between 1856 and 1878, one of the eight counties was returned to Moldavia, which in 1859 united with Wallachia to form modern Romania. Upon the dissolution of the Russian Empire in 1917, an autonomous, then independent Moldavian Democratic Republic was formed, which joined Romania in 1918. In 1940, Bessarabia was occupied by the Soviet Union and was split between the Ukrainian SSR and the newly-created Moldavian SSR. After changing hands in 1941 and 1944 during World War II, the country became again part of the Soviet Union until its declaration of independence on August 27, 1991. Moldova was admitted to the UN in March 1992. In September 1990, a breakaway government was formed in Transnistria, a strip of Moldavian SSR on the left bank of the river Dniester, and after a brief war in 1992 became de facto independent, although no UN member has recognized its independence.
Presently, the country is a parliamentary democracy with a president as the head of state and a prime minister as head of government. Moldova is a member state of the United Nations, WTO, OSCE, GUAM, CIS, BSEC and other international organizations. Moldova currently aspires to join the European Union, and is implementing a first three-year Action Plan within the framework of the European Neighborhood Policy (ENP).
Csango peopleA great deal of literature source is available to provide information about the history and past of the Csango people. In the Vatican archive, the documents of FIDE mission obviously prove the Hungarian origin of this ethnic group. Autonomous Italian, Bosnian and Polish missionaries wrote many supporting reports.
The oldest Rumanian sources report about the Hungarian inhabitants of Moldova. These sources also refer to the fact that these people had been dwelling there before the establishment of the Principality. The dwellers of several settlements, including Klezse, Forrovalva and the Hungarians of Bako, everlasting held their properties and estates: they were the so-called "partner shareholders", which meant holding a certain type of nobility or free farmer position.
The charters from the times of the firsts voivodes show, that the boyars of their councils bore Hungarian names in Bako and Roman Counties (Vornicul Miclaus, Sandor, Gyorgy, Janos had large boyarships). Several village names refer to Hungarian origin, as Tamasenii, Miclausenii, Sabaoanii (Szabofalva), Faraoani (Forrofalva), Tatros, Bako and many others.
Map of Moldova
