Bender

Name

First mentioned in 1408 as Tyagyanyakyacha (Old East Slavic: Тягянякяча) in a document in Old Slavonic (the term has Cuman origins), the town was known in the Middle Ages as Tighina in Romanian from Moldavian sources and later as Bender in Ottoman sources. The fortress and the city were called Bender (ultimately from Persian bandar 'port') for most of the time they were ruled by the Ottomans (1538–1812), and during most of the time they belonged to the Russian Empire (1828–1917). They were known as Tighina ([tiˈɡina]) in the Principality of Moldavia, in the early part of the Russian Empire period (1812–1828), and during the time the city belonged to Romania (1918–1940; 1941–1944).

The city is part of the historical region of Bessarabia. During the Soviet period the city was known in the Moldavian SSR as Bender in Romanian, written Бендер with the Moldovan Cyrillic alphabet, as Bendery (Бендéры) in Russian and Bendery (Бенде́ри) in Ukrainian. Today the city is officially named Bender, but both Bender and Tighina are in use.

History

The town was first mentioned as an important customs post in a commerce grant issued by the Moldavian voivode Alexander the Good to the merchants of Lviv on 8 October 1408. The name "Tighina" is found in documents from the second half of the 15th century. Genoese merchants used to call the town Teghenaccio. The town was the main Moldavian customs point on the commercial road linking the country to the Crimean Khanate. During his reign of Moldavia, Stephen III had a small wooden fort built in the town to defend the settlement from Tatar raids.

In 1538, the Ottoman sultan Suleiman the Magnificent conquered the town from Moldavia, and renamed it Bender. Its fortifications were developed into a full fortress under the same name under the supervision of the Turkish architect Koji Mimar Sinan. The Ottomans used it to keep the pressure on Moldavia. At the end of the 16th century several unsuccessful attempts to retake the fortress were made: in the summer of 1574 Prince John III the Terrible led a siege on the fortress, as did Michael the Brave in 1595 and 1600. About the same time the fortress was attacked by Zaporozhian Cossacks.

In the 18th century, the fort's area was expanded and modernized by the prince of Moldavia Antioh Cantemir, who carried out these works under Ottoman supervision.

On 5 April 1710 the Bender Constitution (more commonly known as the Constitution of Pylyp Orlyk) was accepted in Bender. It established the principle of the separation of powers in government between the legislative, executive, and judiciary branches almost 40 years before the publication of Montesquieu's Spirit of the Laws.

In 1713, the fortress, the town, and the neighboring village of Varnița were the site of skirmishes between Charles XII of Sweden, who had taken refuge there with the Cossack Hetman Ivan Mazepa after his defeat in the Battle of Poltava in 1709, and the Turks who wished to enforce the departure of the Swedish king.

During the second half of the 18th century, the fortress fell three times to the Russians during the Russo-Turkish Wars (in 1770, 1789, and in 1806 without a fight).

Administration

Nikolai Gliga is the head of the state administration of Bender as of 2015.

List of Heads of the state administration of Bender

Tom Zenovich (1995 ~ 30 October 2001)

Aleksandr Posudnevsky (30 October 2001 ~ 11 January 2007)

Vyacheslav Kogut (11 January 2007 ~ 5 January 2012)

Aleksandr Moskalyov, acting Head of Administration (5 January 2012 ~ 9 February 2012)

Valery Kernichuk (9 February 2012 ~ 15 November 2012)

Yuriy Gervazyuk (24 January 2013 ~ 18 March 2015)

Lada Delibalt (20 March 2015 ~ 7 April 2015)

Nikolai Gliga (7 April 2015 ~ )

People and culture

Demographics

In 1920, the population of Bender was approximately 26,000. At that time, one third of the population was Jewish. One third of the population was Romanian. Germans, Russians, and Bulgarians were also mixed into the population during that time.

At the 2004 Census, the city had a population of 100,169, of which the city itself 97,027, and the commune of Proteagailovca, 3,142.

Note: 1 Since the independence of Moldova, there has been ongoing controversy over whether Romanians and Moldovans should be counted officially as the same ethnic group or not. At the census, every citizen could only declare one nationality. Consequently, one could not declare oneself both Moldovan and Romanian.

Note: 2 The Ukrainian population of Bessarabia was counted in the past as "Ruthenians"

Population dynamics by years:

Media

Radio Chișinău 106.1 FM

Sport

FC Tighina is the city's professional football club, formerly playing in the top Moldovan football league, the Divizia Națională, before being relegated.

Notable people

Liubov Abravitova (born 1980), Ukrainian diplomat

Mehmed Selim Pasha (1771–1831), Ottoman statesman

Lev Berg (1876–1950), leading Jewish Russian geographer, biologist and ichthyologist

Boris Solotareff (1889–1966), Russian painter

Jerzy Neyman (1894–1981), Polish mathematician and statistician

Baruch Agadati (1895–), Russian-born Israeli classical ballet dancer, choreographer, painter, and film producer and director

Mozes Kahana (1897–1974), writer, poet, first chairman of the Moldovan Writers' Union

Sir Michael Postan FBA (1899–1981), British historian

Yosef Kushnir (1900–1983), Israeli politician who served in the Knesset

Maurice Raizman (1905–1974), French chess master

Yevgeny Fyodorov (1910–1981), Soviet geophysicist, statesman, public figure and academician

Zrubavel Gilad (1912–1988), Hebrew poet, editor and translator

Tamara Buciuceanu (1929–2019), Romanian stage, screen and TV personality

Emil Constantinescu (born 1939), Romanian professor and politician, who served as the third President of Romania, from 1996 to 2000.

Viktor Sokolov (born 1962), admiral and commander of the Russian Black Sea Fleet

Sport

Veaceslav Semionov (born 1956), Moldavian football manager and former footballer. Since November 2014 he is the head coach of Moldavian football club FC Dacia Chișinău

Fedosei Ciumacenco (born 1973), Olympian Moldovan race walker, competed in the 20 kilometres distance at the Summer Olympics: 1996, 2000, 2004 and 2008

Serghei Stolearenco (born 1978), Moldovan former sprint freestyle swimmer, competed in the men's 50 m freestyle at the 2000 Summer Olympics

Alexandru Melenciuc (born 1979), Moldovan footballer. He currently plays for Navbahor Namangan

Andrei Tcaciuc (born 1982), Moldavian football midfielder who plays for FC Speranța Crihana Veche

Igor Bugaiov (born 1984), footballer, who plays for FC Irtysh Pavlodar

Alexei Casian (born 1987), Moldavian football midfielder who represents Lane Xang Intra F.C.

Vadim Cemîrtan (born 1987), Moldovan football striker who plays for FC Bunyodkor

Artyom Khachaturov (born 1992), Armenian-Moldovan footballer who currently plays for Moldovan club FC Zimbru Chișinău

Twin towns and sister cities

Bender is twinned with:

Beira, Mozambique

Cavriago, Italy

Dubăsari, Transnistria (defacto), Moldova (dejure)

Montesilvano, Italy

Ochamchire, Abkhazia (defacto), Georgia (dejure)