Moldova Flag

Moldova Flag

Moldova Flag

Moldova has also been known as Bessarabia (from the 10th to the 12th centuries, when the area was ruled by the Kiev Rus) and Moldavia (from the 15th century, when it was a Romanian principality within the Ottoman Empire). In 1812, it was ceded to the Russians, who remained in control until 1917, when a short-lived Bessarabian Republic was created, only to be crushed by a Bolshevik invasion in 1918, after which the region became part of the kingdom of Romania. In 1944, following a Soviet invasion, it became the Moldavian Soviet Republic, becoming the independent Republic of Moldova following the dissolution of the U.S.S.R. in 1991.

Moldova's tricolor (which is almost identical to Romania's flag) was first adopted in 1848, the year in which revolutions raged throughout Europe, when the colors represented the three Ottoman provinces of Moldavia (red), Oltenia (East Wallachia, blue) and Muntenia (West Wallachia, yellow). Today, the colors are said to denote Moldova's past, present and future. Positioned within the yellow stripe are the Moldovan arms, a golden eagle holding an Orthodox Christian cross in its beak and an olive branch and sceptre in its talons. On top of the eagle is a shield divided in half horizontally which features the head of an auroch (a now extinct, European bison), as well as astrological emblems, all of which symbolize Moldova.