Demographic history of Transnistria


A demographic history of Transnistria shows that actual Transnistria has been home to numerous ethnic groups, in varying proportions, over time.

Ethnicity prior to 1792

The word "Transnistria" means literally "lands beyond the Dniester." This river is called the Nistru in the Romanian language. These lands are historically related to the neo-Latin populations that lived east of the Dniester River. The territory of Transnistria is only a small area of these lands, and the most easterly extent of Transnistriam territory peaked during World War II reaching to the Bug River. Ethnic Moldavians, however, have lived near the Don river since as far back as 1712.
In the coastal area of these lands, during the Roman Empire, there were small cities of nearly 5,000 inhabitants such as Tyras and Olbia. Roman colonists settled in these areas under the protection of Roman legionaries. The interior of Transnistria was sparsely populated by eastern European tribal groups. The region between the Dniester River and the Bug River, having a steppe topography, was continuously subjected to invasion during the Middle Ages by imperial and tribal forces.
Beside the droughty periods typical for the region, the second reason for the underpopulation of the Black Sea northern shores is the vicinity of the Tatars. Their presence, both military and civil, impeded the settling of the east European type life and blocked the Moldavian or even Polish expansion to the east. The Transnistrian lands settled in the Middle Ages by Romanians were only partially and temporarily ruled by Moldavian princes or possessions of the Moldavian Principality. Probably those Moldavians living east of the Dniester were only a few thousands.
The steppe around the Bug river was mostly depopulated in the 13th and 14th centuries because of the Golden Horde, according to some travelers. They found there only some Vlach shepherds and a few Moldavian and Slav villages.
Meanwhile, the Romanian/Moldavian colonization east of Dniester -that had started around the year 1000 AD- had reached the Kiev area in the 15th century and in 1712 even the Don river, with the Dimitrie Cantemir leadership.
Ethnically the area of Transnistria between the Dniester and the Bug rivers -even if depopulated- was probably 2/3 moldavian speaking, when Russia started to conquest it. Indeed, according to the results of the census of 1793 AD, 49 villages out of 67 between the Dniester and the Bug were Romanian.

Russian Empire period (1792 - 1917)

In 1792, the whole territory between the Dniester and the Bug rivers became part of the Russian Empire. At that time, the population was sparse and the Russian Empire encouraged large migrations into the region, including ethnic Ukrainians, Romanians, Russians and Germans.
Russia began attempting to lure Romanian settlers to settle in its territory in 1775. But the colonization was to a larger scale after 1792, to Transnistria and beyond, when the Russian government declared that the region between the Dniester and the Bug was to become a new principality named "New Moldavia", under Russian suzerainty.
After 1812, Russia annexed from Moldavia a territory which became known as Bessarabia, while a process of russification started to be done with the Moldavian/Romanian populations east of the Dniester River.

Soviet and post-Soviet periods (1917 to present)

Since the Soviet era, Transnistria is home to three major groups: Moldovans forming a plurality alongside Russians and Ukrainians.
Historically, after one century of russification, the Moldovans were no more the majority of population in the areas of the Moldavian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic established, in 1924, within the Ukrainian SSR. MASSR was limited to some areas east of the Dniester, until Balta. East of Balta, most of the Romanians -settled there since the end of Tartar attacks in the 16th century- were already assimilated by the slavs in the early 20th century.
According to the 1926 Soviet census, the Moldavian ASSR had a population of 572,339, of which:
Despite this relatively extensive territory allotted to the MASSR, more than 85,000 Moldovans remained in Ukraine outside the territory of MASSR.
In 1941, during World War II, when Romania created the Transnistria Governorate, an extended territory from the Dniester up to the Bug, most of the population was Ukrainian/Russian and only nearly 10% was Romanian. In this way, from 1941 to 1944 the Romanian "irredentism" had obtained the union of nearly 200,000 ethnic Romanians to their motherland, after the loss of Northern Transylvania to Hungary. Even Odessa was subject to Romanian administration, as the city had been made part of Transnistria Governorate.
In December 1941, Romanian authorities conducted a census in Transnistria Governorate, and the ethnic structure was the following:
EthnicityNumber%RuralUrban
Ukrainians1,775,27376.379.957.4
Romanians197,6858.49.34.4
Russians150,8426.52.427.9
Germans126,4645.45.92.7
Bulgarians27,6381.21.11.4
Jews21,8520.90.72.0
Poles13,9690.60.32.3
Lipovens968--0.1
Tatars900--0.1
Others10,6280.510.21.7
Total2,326,224*1001,956,557369,669

When the Soviet reconquered the area in 1944, they created the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic, where ethnic Moldovans were the majority.
Note: "-" means the official census data does not identify that group in that year, i.e. counts it within other groups, not that the group is not present.
In the years of the latter half of the 20th century, the ethnic proportions have changed in large measure due to industrialization and the immigration of Russian and Ukrainian workers. During the Soviet rule, up to one million people settled in Moldova.
In Transnistria, the trend continued after 1991, too, and the Moldovan population in decreased between 1989 and 2004 from 39% to 32% of the total population.
Ethnicity1926 census1936 census1989 census2004 census2015 census
Moldovans44.1%41.8%39.9%31.9%33.2%
Ukrainians27.2%28.7%28.3%28.8%26.7%
Russians13.7%14.2%25.5%30.3%33.8%
Jews8.2%7.9%6.4%-
Bulgarians6.8%7.4%6.4%2.5%2.8%
Poles6.8%7.4%6.4%2%0.2%
Gagauz:6.8%7.4%6.4%0.7%1.2%
Belarusians6.8%7.4%6.4%0.7%0,6%
Germans6.8%7.4%6.4%0.4%0.3%
Others4.6%7.4%6.4%2.6%1.2%

In 2004, the Moldovans were still the most numerous ethnic group, representing an overall majority in the two districts in the central Transnistria, a 47.82% relative majority in the northern Camenca District, and a 41.52% relative majority in the southern. In Rîbniţa District they are a 29.90% minority, and in the city of Tiraspol, they constitute a 15.24% minority of the population.
Russians were the second numerous ethnic group, representing a 41.64% relative majority in the city of Tiraspol, a 24.07% minority in Slobozia, a 19.03% minority in Dubăsari, a 17.22% minority in Râbniţa, a 15.28% minority in Grigoriopol, and a 6.89% minority in Camenca.
Ukrainians are the third numerous ethnic group, representing a 45.41% relative majority in the northern Rîbniţa District, a 42.55% minority in Camenca, a 32.97% minority in Tiraspol, a 28.29% minority in Dubăsari, a 23.42% minority in Slobozia, and a 17.36% minority in Grigoriopol.
As of 2015, the Moldovans are not anymore the largest single group of the Transnistria region.