Re: [tied] Moldova Confusion

From: Piotr Gasiorowski
Message: 3545
Date: 2000-09-03

 
----- Original Message -----
From: Mark Odegard
To: cybalist@egroups.com
Sent: Sunday, September 03, 2000 8:52 PM
Subject: Re: [tied] Moldova Confusion


Mark wonders: I wonder what they call that chunk of Ukraine between the Dneister [Mark, it may be spelt Dniester, Dn(i)estr or Dnister" but not "Dneister"!] and the Danube. Considering the fact we have the term 'Trans-Dneisterian Republic' for that former part of Moldova east of the Dneister, would it be 'Cis-Dneisterian Ruthenia?'
 
This coastal strip is known as Southern Ukrainian Bessarabia. Can you see the town of Bilhorod-upon-Dniester on your map? It's ancient Tyras, a Milesian colony established in the 6th c. BC on the Dniester Lagoon. Bilhorod translates its old  Romanian name Citate (Cetatea) Alba 'White Stronghold'. When the Turks seized it in the 15th century, they translated the same name as Akerman, and the town bore that name until very recently. In the 19th century the Polish poet Adam Mickiewicz (my university is named after him) made a trip there and encapsulated his impressions in a beautiful sonnet entitled The Steppes of Akerman -- this is my private name for southern Bessarabia.
 
Piotr