‘So, where do you live?’
Ben’s face sank. He looked incredulously at the jolly, rotund face that was staring back at him, waiting for an answer. Usually, you would expect such a simple, basic question to receive an equally straightforward response. However, not in Ben’s case. His living arrangements were complicated to explain and as such, he liked wherever possible to avoid the question. Nevertheless, it had been asked, so as always, out of politeness, Ben was going to answer.
‘Moldova’, straight away bracing himself to see which of the varied responses he was going to get this time.
A blank expression followed by a slight smirk was this time’s offering. ‘Oh, I was expecting you to say somewhere like Coventry!’
‘No, I’ve never ever even been to Coventry’, said Ben, glad at least that there had been no comment about never having ever heard of Moldova or further inquisitions about its location.
‘I’ve never heard of that. Where is it?’
Ben had jumped the gun with his gladness. He did at least have his stock reply prepared. ‘In Eastern Europe, sandwiched between Romania and the Ukraine’.
He hoped that this would be enough information. It usually was, most people having some sort of idea where those countries are, and the mention of Eastern Europe was thrown in to sure things up.
Ben had been attending his aunt’s church for a short visit and conversing with a plump young man at the end of the service. From Ben’s personal experience most people, except for those who are fans of the Eurovision song contest or European football, are not too hot on their knowledge of Moldova. Indeed, questions such as ‘where (or even what) is that?’ were frequently encountered. This young man obviously didn’t fall into the category of Eurovision or football lovers.
So, for the uninitiated, Moldova is a small country (relatively speaking as a population of around 3 million could by some standards be considered as medium sized), located geographically in Eastern Europe, although politically it has been torn between different empires.
Historically, it would appear that since well before Christ people lived in the area which includes modern day Moldova. There are various archaeologic signs of different peoples and cultures. However, this land is in an area which separates East from West and so there was much squabbling over the years as different groups invaded moving in one direction or the other.
The first signs of a more established settlement are from the 1350’s. At this time, a Vlach (the precursor people to the Romanians) ruler called, ‘Dragoș’ came with some of his people and took charge of the area forming the Principality of Moldavia, a territory which included what we now call Moldova but was much larger, incorporating much of the surrounding area as well.
There are various legends regarding this, one being that he was hunting an aurochs (extinct type of Bull). He pursued it as far as the Moldova river where he caught and killed it. At the spot where he dismounted from his horse, he realised this land was better that the Marumureș land where he was currently living so went back and brought back his people to take over this new territory.
A sad, but probably not too likely aspect of the story, is that his dog was called Molda. He was so exhausted from chasing the aurochs that he collapsed into the river and drowned. Hence the river being named ‘Moldova’ (‘of Molda’ as it were) and so the origin of the name Moldova.
This initial Moldova, or ‘Principality of Moldavia’, stretched from the Carpathian Mountains in the west to the Dniester river in the East and included much of what is now Eastern Romania and a little bit of today’s southern Ukraine.
As mentioned above, this was a much sought-after land as it was situated at a convenient location between East and West, not to mention contained very fertile soil. Thus, Moldavia was only able to retain its independence for less than 200 years. Indeed, Moldova’s most celebrated figure, Stephen Cel Mare (Stephen the great) is renowned for exactly that, defending the Moldovan territory against various attacks and so keeping it together as a whole.
After, Stephen the Great’s time (1457 to 1504) Moldova’s grip on independence waned and by 1538 it had become subject to the influence of the Ottoman empire. Since then it has had a long history of being ruled by various empires, subsequently being part of the Russian empire, Romania and the Soviet Union. Finally, in 1991 it declared independence again, creating what is today’s Moldova, a much smaller land than the Moldavia of Old, covering just the land between the Prut and Dniester rivers, having lost its western territory to what is now the Moldovan part of Romania and land in the south and North East to Ukraine.
Ben looked at his new acquaintance, who stood opposite him, obviously not really longing to become too immersed in the history of land that he had never even really heard of and certainly never thought about. Ben had no intention of foisting too much information upon him, although a brief history lesson couldn’t do any harm and indeed, knowledge of the past helps us understand the present and gives wisdom for the future.
So, Ben endeavoured to give a brief summary of the above-mentioned history, which was outwardly well received at the very least.
‘Ok, so I know a lot more about Moldova now than I did five minutes ago,’ was the reaction that Ben received to his brief history lesson. Indeed, one way or another this was the reaction he always received.
His discussion companion now turned to attend to other business and so Ben let him go without further ado, at least partially fulfilled that he had educated him in at least a little of what he knew about Moldova. He himself also turned the other way to look for another vict..…..er……willing student.