15 ATLASES

History of Moldova in maps

Moldova as it appears in 15 interactive history atlases, from 264 BC to 2015: Getic lands, the Bugeac steppe, Moldova, Bessarabia, Bessarabia and the Moldavian ASSR, Soviet Union, Soviet Moldavia. Each era below lists who ruled the land and when control changed, linked to the dated map that shows it.

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Map of Europe in June 1940, showing Moldova — MAP OF EUROPE IN JUNE 1940

These maps are reconstructed from published sources · Cliopatria v0.2.1 — dated political boundaries · French Ministry of the Armed Forces — La ligne de démarcation · IGM Fiume, 1:25,000, sheet53B II SE — boundary established in1924 · Natural Earth — physical reference geography · Yugoslavia (1929–1939) location map — international frontier and Adriatic coast · Treaty of Rome (1924), division of Fiume and west-bank boundary · Murli / rowanwindwhistler — Slovakia border changes, 1938–1945 · United States Holocaust Memorial Museum — The Holocaust in Slovakia · Slovak Nation’s Memory Institute — The First Vienna Award

Source details

Cliopatria contributors / Seshat Global History Databank. CC BY4.0 · Dated polity and constituent territory selections; campaign-dependent occupation overlays reconstructed separately.
Ministère des Armées. Historical facts consulted; actual polygon imported from Cliopatria
Istituto Geografico Militare, Fiume (printed1946; 1927 survey with1931–1940 updates), reproduced by Istituto regionale per la storia della Resistenza e dell’Età contemporanea nel Friuli Venezia Giulia. Independent reconstruction from graticule coordinates and boundary observations; archive page reserves artwork rights.. Geographical-fact reconstruction; original archive artwork not distributed
Natural Earth. Public domain
NordNordWest/Wikipedia. Converted from the published SVG to WGS84; eastern Italian regional territory extracted. Source cites Velhagen & Klasings Großer Volksatlas (1938).. CC BY-SA 3.0 Germany
1924 agreement interpreted alongside the regional history institute and City of Rijeka’s explanation of the Donja/Gornja Drenova division.. Historical geographic facts; citation only
Murli; SVG adaptation by rowanwindwhistler (2021). CC BY-SA 2.5; derived geographic paths under the same license · Georeferenced actual published vector regions using eight printed city positions; no map artwork or labels in the atlas.
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum — The Holocaust in Slovakia. Historical chronology consulted; no source prose or artwork republished
Slovak Nation’s Memory Institute — The First Vienna Award. Historical territorial chronology consulted; no source artwork or prose republished

Slovak territory is reconstructed from the published 1938–1945 border-change map, which separates the client state from Hungarian and German annexations. This regional source does not resolve small northern frontier changes or survey-level detail. After August 1944, German military occupation supersedes the client-state fill.

The eastern Italian frontier uses the published 1930s regional map and a reconstruction of the 1924 Fiume boundary. Source conquests after April 1941 remain separately dated.

reconstruction: 1936–1940 · reconstruction: 1936–1941 · reconstruction: 1936–1942 · reconstruction: 1939–1944 · reconstruction: 1940.5 · reconstruction: 1940–1940 · reconstruction: 1940–1941 · vector: 1912–1955 · vector: 1924–1940 · vector: 1936–1941 · vector: 1936–1944 · vector: 1936–1945 · vector: 1938–1972 · vector: 1939–1944 · vector: 1939–2023 · vector: 1940–1940 · vector: 1940–1941 · vector: 1940–1942 · vector: 1940–1943

Layer records and reconstruction methods

What was Moldova before it was Moldova? The sections below follow this land through every era covered by the Maps of History atlases: who ruled it, what it was called, and when control changed. Each line links to the dated map. Modern borders serve as an approximation, as each atlas says on the map itself.

Getic lands (mod. Moldova) · Ancient Rome

264 BC

Tribal peoples & confederations — the opening position

ANCIENT ROME: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →

Moldova · Norse and Aztecs

c. 790

Other peoples and states — the opening position

NORSE AND AZTECS: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →

The steppe frontier (mod. Moldova) · Crusades

CRUSADES: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →

The Bugeac steppe (mod. Moldova) · Mongol Empire

1206	Beyond the conquests — the opening position
1241	The Mongol Empire

MONGOL EMPIRE: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →

Moldova · Industrial Revolution

1890	Industrialising — the opening position
1890	Industrialising

INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →

Moldova · Age of Revolutions

JUL 1789

Neutral / uncommitted — the opening position

AGE OF REVOLUTIONS: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →

Moldova (Moldavia) · Meiji Japan and post-Soviet Russia

Moldova, a mostly Romanian-speaking republic, declared sovereignty in 1990 and independence in 1991. East of the Dniester, a largely Russian- and Ukrainian-speaking strip proclaimed the Transnistrian republic. A short war in 1992, decided by Russia’s 14th Army, left Transnistria outside Moldovan control as an unrecognized statelet. It remains in existence and is hatched on the map. Moldova emerged from the decade among Europe’s poorest countries.

OCT 1964	The USSR, then Russia — the opening position
DEC 1991	Independent neighbours

MEIJI JAPAN AND POST-SOVIET RUSSIA: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →

Bessarabia (mod. Moldova) · Russian Revolution

Bessarabia had been Russian since 1812, though its southern districts passed to Moldavia at the Peace of Paris in 1856 and returned to Russia at Berlin in 1878. As Russia dissolved, Bessarabia declared for autonomy in 1917 and united with Romania in 1918. It was the one substantial territory the Soviets failed to reconquer during the civil war. Moscow never recognized the loss and took it back in 1940. On this map it appears Romanian, an exception amid the spreading red.

SEP 1855	The Tsarist empire — the opening position
MAR 1917	Provisional Government, then the Whites
MAR 1918	Foreign powers & intervention

RUSSIAN REVOLUTION: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →

Bessarabia (Russian Empire) · WWI

JAN 1894	The Entente & Allies — the opening position
JAN 1894	The Entente & Allies
NOV 1917	Russia in revolution
MAR 1918	Under Central Powers occupation
JUN 1919	The Entente & Allies

WWI: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →

Bessarabia and the Moldavian ASSR (mod. Moldova) · Stalin’s Soviet Union

The territory of modern Moldova brings together two histories. East of the Dniester, the Moldavian autonomous republic belonged to Soviet Ukraine from 1924 and suffered the famine of 1932–33. To the west, Bessarabia remained Romanian until the Soviet ultimatum of June 1940, when it became the Moldavian SSR. Romania retook it in 1941–44. Soviet rule returned, followed by famine in 1946–47 and the deportation in July 1949 of some 11,000 families, about 36,000 people.

JAN 1924	The Soviet Union — the opening position
WINTER 1932–33	Famine regions (memorial)
1934	The Soviet Union
DEC 1941	Under German occupation
SEP 1945	The Soviet Union
WINTER 1946–47	Famine regions (memorial)
JUN 1948	The Soviet Union