Tiraspol is the second largest city in Moldova and the capital of the self-proclaimed Transnistrian Republic.
After the Russian Empire conquered it's way to the Nistru river an reached it in 1792, the Russian army built a fortification on an old Tatarian town called Hagi-bei to guard the Western border. The name was probably given after the Latin name of the river on which it was built. By 1812, Russia already conquered the Eastern half of Moldova and colonizating Russian and Ukrainian ethnics in and around Tiraspol.
Following the World War I, Romania gained Bessarabia, but Stalin created in 1924 a Moldavian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic with the capital at Tiraspol (between 1929 and 1940), republic which had Romanian language as official language and officialized the Latin script.
As a result of the Russian occupation of Romania during World War II, to this Sovietic Republic (renamed Moldavian SSR) was added part of Bessarabia and was the beginning of the Romanian denationalization (including deportation to Siberia of Romanian ethnics living in the city) and the massive colonization of Russian ethnics.
The Soviet Union handled with care the developement of Moldova, which was transphormed in a large farm, the industry being kept to the minimum. Tiraspol is perhaps the only exception, being the most developed industrial city in Moldova.
After the 1991 independence of Moldova, Russian ethnics from Tiraspol declared their independence and Tiraspol became the capital of the secsesionist country that is not internationally recognized.
By ethnicity:
History
In the middle ages, the area around Tiraspol was usually a buffer zone between the Tartars and the Moldovans, inhabited by both etnicities.Population
Population of 184,000 in 1990.
