Nimereuca | |
|---|---|
Commune | |
  Nimereuca Location in Moldova | |
| Coordinates: 48°07′N28°32′E / 48.117°N 28.533°E Coordinates: 48°07′N28°32′E / 48.117°N 28.533°E | |
| Country |  Moldova |
| District | Soroca District |
| Population | |
| • Total | 3,054 |
| Time zone | UTC+2 (EET) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC+3 (EEST) |
Nimereuca is a commune in Soroca District, Moldova. It is composed of two villages, Cerlina and Nimereuca. [2]
Nimereuca (Russian : Немировка, romanized: Niemirovka, Ukrainian : Німереука, romanized: Nimereuka, Polish : Niemirówka) lies on the northeastern periphery of Moldova, close to its tripoint with Ukraine and the breakaway region of Transnistria. Located on a slope along the Dniester River, the village has over 200 wells. The Jewish agricultural colony of Lublin was founded in what is now Nimereuca in 1842.
The first mention of Nimereuca in historical documents dates to March 24, 1624, when boyar Miron Barnovschi-Movilă (Miron Barnowski-Mohyła) was elevated to the rank of hetman during the reign of Radu Mihnea. Nimereuca is mentioned as one of the villages that was part of Barnovschi's estate. The name Nemireuca is ascribed to a local pan (noble) named Nemirca who ruled over the area during the reign of Alexander the Good during the 15th century. The surname Nemirca (Niemirka in Polish) ultimately derives from the Slavic given name Niemir.
The census from 1772-1773 alludes to a church in the village, which records dating to 1781 list as being dedicated to the Dormition of the Mother of God. Similarly to other churches in the area, this structure was likely built of twigs, smeared with clay, and covered with reeds. A church school was established in 1862. That sacred space has been modified but still occupies the same site on the bank of the Dniester. Construction on a new stone church began in 1913. That church was closed in 1948 and transformed into a seed depot which functioned until 1985. After a major overhaul, the church has been restored to its original function.
The entire region of Bessarabia was annexed by the Russian Empire in 1812 after the end Russo-Turkish War, and with it, Nimereuca came under Russian rule. Romania regained the province a century later when the German Empire allowed Romania to annex Bessarabia in exchange for free passage of German troops toward Ukraine during World War I. Along with the county councils of Bălți and Orhei, Soroca was among the first to ask for the newly proclaimed Moldavian Democratic Republic to unify with the Kingdom of Romania. Although a Bessarabian Soviet Socialist Republic was proclaimed by the Bolsheviks as an autonomous part of Russian SFSR in 1919, it was abolished by the military forces of Poland and France in September of that year during the Polish–Soviet War.
The 1818 Statutory Law (Așezământul) of the Russian Governorate of Bessarabia mentions Jews as a separate state (social class), which was further divided into merchants, tradesmen, and land-workers. Unlike the other states in Russia, Jews were not allowed to own agricultural land, with the exception of "empty lots only from the property of the state, for cultivation and for building factories".
To encourage settlement in the newly annexed area, Tsar Nicholas I issued an ukaz (decree) which allowed Jews to settle in Bessarabia "in a higher number", exempting Jews who moved here from taxation for 2 years. At the same time, Jews from Podolia and Kherson Governorate were exempted from taxation for 5 years if they crossed the Dniester and relocated to Bessarabia. [3] The size of this migration became so large that merchant activity was not enough to sustain the Jewish population of Bessarabia, which led the Tsarist authorities to create 17 Jewish agricultural colonies. Of these, 9 were located in Soroca County where Nimereuca is located. These were Dumbrăveni, (now part of Vădeni commune), Brăciova (Bricevo, now Briceva, part of Târnova commune in Dondușeni district, Mărculești (formerly Starăuca/Starovka), Vârtojani (Vertiujeni, formerly Șteap), Căprești, (now part of Florești commune) Zguriţa, Maramonovca, Constantinovca and Lublin in what is now Nimereuca. The Jewish agricultural colony of Lublin was officially founded in 1842 on 528 dessiatines of land. By 1856, it was home to 45 Jewish families, and a decade later, that number grew to 75.
The settlement owed its name to the city of Lublin, one of Poland's most important Jewish communities and who were a vital part of that city's life until the Holocaust, during which they were relocated by Nazi Germany to the infamous Lublin Ghetto where they were ultimately murdered. Lublin in Poland was at one time referred to as "the Jewish Oxford," and the rosh yeshiva (headmaster) received the title of rector from the Polish King in 1567, with rights and privileges equal to those of the heads of Polish universities.
A wave of pogroms in the Russian Empire in 1881–1882 and in Kishinev in 1903 seem to have had little effect on these villages. Jews had become a significant part of Bessarabia’s agricultural life on the eve of the First World War, with major roles in its tobacco, wine, fruit, and dairy sectors. The Jewish Colonization Association (known as the ICA from its name in Yiddish) began to support the Bessarabian colonies in the 1890's.
By 1914, 42,000 people lived in the Jewish agricultural colonies of the south of the Russian Empire. As a result, in a short period of time a new stratum of Jewish farmers appeared in the Russian Empire, which by the middle of the nineteenth century accounted for 3% of the country's Jewish population, and in Bessarabia this figure reached 16%.
Lublin's subsequent history follows that of the rest of Bessarabia, where it was under Romanian rule from 1919 until August 1940 when the USSR takes over the area. On June 22, 1941 the Axis invasion of the Soviet Union commenced with Operation Barbarossa. Between June 22 and July 26, 1941, Romanian troops with the help of Wehrmacht recovered Bessarabia as well as northern Bukovina. The Soviets employed scorched earth tactics during their forced retreat from Bessarabia, destroying the infrastructure and transporting movable goods to Russia by railway. At the end of July, after a year of Soviet rule, the region was once again under Romanian control.
There were cases of Romanian troops "taking revenge" on Jews in Bessarabia during this military operation, in the form of pogroms on civilians as well as the murder of Jewish POWs, resulting in several thousand dead. These forces justified the murder of local Jews by claiming that in 1940 some Jews welcomed the Soviet takeover as liberation. At the same time the notorious SS Einsatzgruppe D, operating in the area of the German 11th Army, committed summary executions of Jews under the pretext that they were spies, saboteurs, Communists, or under no pretext whatsoever.
Some claim that Romanian dictator Marshal Ion Antonescu preferred expulsion rather than extermination as the political solution to the "Jewish Question" in Romania. However, that portion of the Jewish population of Bessarabia and Bukovina which did not flee before the retreat of Soviet troops (147,000) was initially gathered into ghettos or Nazi concentration camps, and then deported during 1941–1942 in death marches into Romanian-occupied Transnistria, where they perished as part of the "Final Solution". [4]
After the USSR reoccupied the area in 1944, most of the Jewish community which survived emigrated to Israel.
Cerlina (Russian: Черлина, romanized: Cherlina, Ukrainian : Черлiна, romanized: Cherlina, Polish : Cierlina), the commune’s other village, is located about 7 kilometers southwest of Nimereuca following the course of the Dniester.
An outcrop dating from the Upper Proterozoic is visible at a bend in the Dniester River in Cerlina. [5]
The history of Moldova can be traced to the 1350s, when the Principality of Moldavia, the medieval precursor of modern Moldova and Romania, was founded. The principality was a vassal of the Ottoman Empire from 1538 until the 19th century. In 1812, following one of several Russian-Turkish wars, the eastern half of the principality, Bessarabia, was annexed by the Russian Empire. In 1918, Bessarabia briefly became independent as the Moldavian Democratic Republic and, following the decision of the Parliament, united with Romania. During the Second World War it was occupied by the Soviet Union which reclaimed it from Romania. It joined the Union as the Moldavian ASSR, until the dissolution of the USSR. In 1991 the country declared independence as the Republic of Moldova.
Bessarabia is a historical region in Eastern Europe, bounded by the Dniester river on the east and the Prut river on the west. About two thirds of Bessarabia lies within modern-day Moldova, with the Ukrainian Budjak region covering the southern coastal region and part of the Ukrainian Chernivtsi Oblast covering a small area in the north.
Bender or Bendery, also known as Tighina, is a city within the internationally recognized borders of Moldova under de facto control of the unrecognized Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic (Transnistria) (PMR) since 1992. It is located on the western bank of the river Dniester in the Romanian historical region of Bessarabia.
Soroca is a city and municipality in Moldova, situated on the Dniester river about 160 km north of Chișinău. It is the administrative center of the Soroca District.
Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi, historically known as Akkerman or under different names, is a city and port situated on the right bank of the Dniester Liman in Odessa Oblast of southwestern Ukraine, in the historical region of Bessarabia. Administratively, Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi is incorporated as a town of oblast significance. It also serves as the administrative center of Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi Raion, one of twenty-six districts of Odessa Oblast, though it is not a part of the district. It is a location of a big freight seaport. Population: 48,197
Lipcani is a town in Briceni District, Moldova. It is also a border crossing between Moldova and Romania.
The history of the Jews in Bessarabia, a historical region in Eastern Europe, dates back hundreds of years.
Bershad is a town in the Vinnytsia Oblast (province) of Ukraine, located in the historic region of Podolia. It is the administrative center of the predominantly-agricultural Bershad Raion (district). Population: 12,466
The Transnistria Governorate was a Romanian-administered territory between the Dniester and Southern Bug, conquered by the Axis Powers from the Soviet Union during Operation Barbarossa and occupied from 19 August 1941 to 29 January 1944. Limited in the west by the Dniester river, in the east by the Southern Bug river, and in the south by the Black Sea, it comprised the present-day region of Transnistria and territories further east, including the Black Sea port of Odessa, which became the administrative capital of Transnistria during World War II.
The history of the Jews in Moldova reaches back several centuries. Bessarabian Jews have been living in the area for some time. Today, the Jewish community living in Moldova number less than 4,000 according to one estimate while local estimates put the number at 15–20,000 Jews and their family members.
This article represents an overview on the history of Romanians in Ukraine, including those Romanians of Northern Bukovina, Zakarpattia Oblast, and Budjak in Odessa Oblast, but also those Romanophones in the territory between the Dniester River and the Southern Bug River, who traditionally have not inhabited any Romanian state, but have been an integral part of the history of modern Ukraine, and are considered natives to the area. There is an ongoing controversy whether Moldovans are part of the larger Romanian ethnic group or a separate ethnicity.
This is the history of Transnistria. See also the history of Europe.
Mohyliv-Podilskyi is a city in the Mohyliv-Podilskyi Raion of the Vinnytsia Oblast, Ukraine. Administratively, Mohyliv-Podilskyi is incorporated as a town of regional significance. It also serves as the administrative center of Mohyliv-Podilskyi Raion, one of twenty-seven districts of Vinnytsia Oblast, though it is not a part of the district. It is located in the historic region of Podolia, on the border with Bessarabia, Moldova, along the left bank of the Dniester river. On the opposite side of the river lies the Moldovan town of Otaci, and the two municipalities are connected to each other by a bridge. Population: 30,186
The Soviet occupation of Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina took place from June 28 to July 4, 1940, as a result of the ultimatum by the Soviet Union to Romania on June 26, 1940, that threatened the use of force. Bessarabia had been part of the Kingdom of Romania since the time of the Russian Civil War and Bukovina since the dissolution of Austria-Hungary, and Hertsa was a district of the Romanian Old Kingdom. Those regions, with a total area of 50,762 km2 (19,599 sq mi) and a population of 3,776,309 inhabitants, were incorporated into the Soviet Union. On October 26, 1940, six Romanian islands on the Chilia branch of the Danube, with an area of 23.75 km2 (9.17 sq mi), were also occupied by the Soviet Army.
Bălți is the second largest city in Moldova. It is located in the northern part of the country, within the historical region of Bessarabia, with which the city's own history is closely intertwined.
Zgurița, pronunciation Zguritsa, is a village in Drochia District, in the north of Moldova. At the 2004 census, it had a population of 2,840.
The union of Bessarabia with Romania was proclaimed on April 9 [O.S. March 27] 1918 by Sfatul Țării, the legislative body of the Moldavian Democratic Republic. This state had the same borders of the region of Bessarabia, which was annexed by the Russian Empire following the Treaty of Bucharest of 1812 and organized first as an Oblast and later as a Governorate. Under Russian rule, many of the native Tatars were expelled from parts of Bessarabia and replaced with Moldavians, Wallachians, Bulgarians, Ukrainians, Greeks, Russians, Lipovans, Cossacks, Gagauzes and other peoples, although colonization was not limited to formerly Tatar-inhabited lands. Russia also tried to integrate the region by imposing the Russian language in administration and restricting education in other languages.
The history of the Jews in Transnistria is mainly connected to the history of the Jews in Moldova, the history of the Jews in Ukraine, the history of the Jews in Romania and the history of the Jews in the Soviet Union as well as to countries in several other neighboring areas.
The Romanian military intervention in Bessarabia took place between 19 January and 8 March 1918, as part of the broader Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War. It pitted the Kingdom of Romania, Russian Republic, Ukrainian People's Republic and anti-Bolshevik factions of the Moldavian Democratic Republic on one side, against the Bolshevik controlled Rumcherod and Odessa Soviet Republic, as well as pro-Bolshevik factions within the Moldavian DR. The intervention began when the Romanian army and its allies crossed into Bessarabia and launched an attack on Chișinău and Ungheni, capturing the latter.
The Moldovan resistance during World War II opposed Axis-aligned Romania and Nazi Germany, as part of the larger Soviet partisan movement. The Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic (MSSR), presently Moldova, had been created in August 1940 after a Soviet annexation, and retaken by Romania during Operation Barbarossa. Moldovan resistance straddled across a new administrative border: in 1941–1944, Bessarabia was reincorporated within Romania as a semi-autonomous governorate, while areas across the Dnister were administered into a separate Transnistria Governorate. Shortly after the German–Romanian invasion of June–July 1941, the Communist Party of Moldavia (PCM) ordered the creation of a partisan network. The order was largely ineffective in creating an organized movement due to the rapid disintegration of Soviet territorial structures in Bessarabia. Some early organizers opted to abandon their posts, and Soviet attempts to infiltrate experienced partisans across the front line were often annihilated by the Special Intelligence Service. Nevertheless, partisan formations were still able to stage large-scale attacks on the Romanian infrastructure, at Bender and elsewhere. While Romanian documents identified categories of locals influenced by communist ideas as a passive component of the resistance, various modern commentators point to the overall unpopularity of communism in Bessarabia as accounting for the movement's marginality.