Moldova, republic in southeastern Europe. In Moldovan, the state language, the country’s official name is Republica Moldova. Moldova is bordered on the north, east, and south by Ukraine and on the west by Romania. Moldovans are the country’s largest ethnic group, although other ethnic groups constitute a majority in some regions. Chişinău is Moldova’s capital and largest city.

Present-day Moldova comprises a large part of the eastern half of the historic principality of Moldavia (the principality is generally known by the Westernized form of the name). At its largest extent, in the Middle Ages, the principality stretched from the Dniester River in the east almost to the Carpathian Mountains in the west. Much of the eastern half of Moldavia, between the Prut and Dniester rivers, was traditionally known as Bessarabia (Bessarabiya). Moldavian territory was divided in 1812, when the Ottoman Empire took control of all of the land west of the Prut River and Russia took control of the rest. The Russian government gave the name Bessarabia to the territory under its control to distinguish it from neighboring Ottoman-controlled Moldavia.