This is the first document that has survived to this day from the depths of centuries. Although the city existed much earlier, as evidenced by archaeological excavations.
Excellent geographical conditions and mild climate have attracted tribes and peoples here since ancient times, who left evidence of their presence in the form of settlements, fortresses, burial grounds, etc.
The first information about the settlement that was located on the site of Bender dates back to the 3rd century. BC.
Archaeological research suggests that the first settlers in the city were the Geta tribes, traces of which were found in the area of the Bendery fortress and the villages of Kitskany and Varnitsa adjacent to the city.
In the 3rd - 4th centuries, the tribes that created the Chernyakhov culture lived in the Prut-Dniester interfluve. Traces of this culture were found on the territory of Bendery and surrounding villages.
At the end of the 5th and beginning of the 6th centuries. AD Slavic tribes penetrated these lands and created their own culture here, as evidenced by objects found at the Kalfin settlement in the vicinity of Bendery.
Until the end of the 7th century, the Antes and Sklavins lived on the territory of the Prut-Dniester interfluve, and from the 7th century. until the middle of the 10th century. - Tivertsy and Ulichi.
At the end of the 9th century. The East Slavic population of our lands became part of the ancient Russian state - Kievan Rus. In the XII - XIII centuries, the power of the Galician principality extended to these lands.
In subsequent centuries, until the middle of the 14th century, nomadic tribes of Polovtsians, Pechenegs, and Torks lived in the Prut-Dniester interfluve. In the middle of the 13th century, the region was invaded by the Mongol-Tatars, who dominated here until 1345, when a fief was formed in the Eastern Carpathian region - the future Principality of Moldova.
In the first half of the 14th century, having achieved great power, Hungary forced the Mongol-Tatars to leave the Dniester-Carpathian region. Thus, the power of Hungary extended to these lands in the 14th century. In 1359, as a result of an uprising of the local population against Hungarian rule, an independent Principality of Moldova emerged, headed by Bogdan, the former Voloshsky governor in Maramures and a vassal of the Hungarian king.
By the beginning of the 15th century, all lands from the Carpathian Mountains to the Black Sea entered the Principality of Moldova; the eastern border of the principality was the Dniester River. Our city was a border customs house. In the charter of the Moldavian ruler Alexander the Good dated October 8, 1408, issued to Lviv merchants for the right to trade in cities located along the Dniester, our city called Tyagyanyakyach is mentioned.
Since the second half of the 15th century, our city has been called Tighina in various documents.
when diplomatic, economic, and cultural ties between the Moldavian and Moscow principalities are established. All state documents and religious books were written in the Old Church Slavonic language, subsequently books began to appear in the Moldavian language in Cyrillic, and in 1641 the first printed book in the Moldavian language, “Kazania,” was published.
At the turn of the XIV - XV centuries. Sultan Türkiye strengthens its power. The final establishment of Ottoman rule occurs in the 16th century.
In 1538, after a series of fierce battles in the Budjak steppes, the Turks captured Tighina. The city and the surrounding 18 villages were turned into a Turkish paradise. Its advantageous strategic position on the elevated bank of the Dniester, not far from its confluence with the Black Sea, made the city one of the strongholds in the Turkish struggle against Russia.
On the site of the former customs house at the crossing, construction of a fortress begins according to the plan of the famous Turkish architect Sinan Ibn Abdul Minan. The city and fortress were renamed Bendery (borrowed from Persian, translated as “harbour, pier, port”).
The fortress was built on the model of Western European bastion-type fortresses. In the 17th century, the fortress was already a powerful defensive structure.
By the middle of the 16th century, Moldavia was finally enslaved by Turkey. The three-century Turkish yoke began. The enslaved people rose up to fight against Turkish rule.
In the winter of 1540, the Moldovans, led by A. Korn, besieged the Bendery fortress, but were unable to capture it. In 1574, the ruler I. Voda-Lyuty, together with the Cossacks of Hetman I. Sverchevsky, besieged the fortress, the settlement was taken, but the walls stood. 20 years later, the Zaporozhye Cossacks, led by hetmans Loboda and Nalivaiko, tried to capture the fortress, the settlement was burned to the ground, but they failed to capture the fortress. The same attempt by Hetman Kunitsky in 1684 failed.
Only during the period of the victorious Russian-Turkish wars of the 18th - 19th centuries. The Bendery fortress was taken by Russian troops three times. On September 15, 1770, after a two-month siege, the fortress was stormed by the Russian army under the command of Chief General P.I. Panin.
A regiment of Don Cossacks and detachments of Moldavian volunteers took part in the siege, in which the future leader of the peasant uprising in the Volga region E. Pugachev. E. fought.
The fortress was taken after a heavy, bloody hand-to-hand battle. The Russian-Turkish War of 1768 - 1774 ended with the signing of the Kuchyuk-Kainardzhi Peace, under the terms of which the Bendery fortress, like all of Moldova, remained part of the Ottoman Porte.
On November 4, 1789, Bendery capitulated for the second time. This time before the start of the siege work. The fortress surrendered without resistance to Russian troops under the command of Prince G.A. Potemkin-Tavrichesky. 
In 1792, according to the Treaty of Yassy, the left-bank regions of Transnistria went to Russia, while the right-bank lands and the Bendery fortress remained with Turkey.
The final liberation of Bendery from the Turkish yoke occurred in November 1806. The fortress surrendered to Russian troops under the command of General Meyendorff.
In accordance with the Bucharest Peace Treaty, signed by M.I. Kutuzov on May 16, 1812, the territory of the Prut-Dniester interfluve went to Russia, later these lands received the name Bessarabia. Since 1812, more favorable conditions for the development of agriculture, industry and trade.
With the formation of the Bessarabian province, Bendery was declared a district town by decree of April 29, 1812.
In 1826, the first coat of arms of the city and Bendery district was approved. The coat of arms depicted a double-headed eagle and a defeated lion, symbolizing the stay of the Swedish king Charles XII in the city of Bendery.
Charles XII who fled in 1709 after the defeat in the Battle of Poltava under the walls of the Bendery fortress along with Hetman Ivan Mazepa. Hetman I. Mazepa soon died in Bendery, and his body was transported to the city of Galati, where it was buried in the Church of St. George.
After the death of Mazepa, Philip Orlik was elected hetman, who developed a set of state laws called the “Constitution of Rights and Freedoms of the Zaporozhye Army,” which received the shorter name “Bendery Constitution.”
A hundred years later, the great Russian poet A.S. Pushkin, who visited the site of the Swedish camp in Bendery, will write about these events in his famous poem “Poltava”.
During this period, the city is built up according to a specific plan.
Since the second half of the 19th century, the 55th Podolsk Infantry Regiment, which has a glorious military history, has been stationed in the Bendery fortress. In honor of the centenary of the victory over Napoleon in 1912, at the expense of soldiers and officers of the regiment, a monument in the form of a bronze eagle with outstretched wings was erected on a high pedestal.
The history of our city in the 19th century is connected with many famous people of Ukraine.
Ivan Petrovich Kotlyarevsky is a Ukrainian writer and cultural public figure. In 1806, with the rank of headquarters captain of the Russian army, he took part in the capture of the Bendery fortress.
Under the Bendery sky in the 80s of the 19th century, the star of talent of the future Ukrainian actress, singer Maria Zankovetskaya, who later became a prominent theater figure, People's Artist of Ukraine and an outstanding actor and director Nikolai Tobilevich, flashed brightly.
The economic development of the city was facilitated by the construction of the Tiraspol - Chisinau railway with a bridge across the Dniester in 1871, and in 1877 - Bendery - Galati. A depot, railway workshops and a station appeared.
By the end of the 19th century - the beginning of the 20th century, the city of Bendery became an important railway junction, cultural and industrial center of the Bessarabian province.
The beginning of the 20th century was marked by an explosion of revolutionary struggle in the region. The revolutions of 1905 and 1917 were reflected in the historical fate of our city.
early 20th century station building
Under their influence, on March 8, 1917, the first council of workers' and soldiers' deputies in Moldova was formed in Bendery.
The situation in the region remained complex and tense. At the end of 1917 and the beginning of 1918, military intervention against Bessarabia by Royal Romania began. The heroic defense of Bendery lasted for two weeks, but despite stubborn resistance, on February 7, 1918, the city was occupied. Many places witnessed reprisals against participants in the defense: the “Black Fence” on the railway, the Bendery fortress, the banks of the Dniester, etc. For 22 years, Bessarabia was part of royal Romania, but the residents of Bendery fought tirelessly for their liberation and the restoration of Soviet power.
The Bendery armed uprising on May 27, 1919 was a striking page in this struggle. The names of wrestlers are forever inscribed in the history of the city: G.I. Stary, A. Anisimov, P. Tkachenko, I. Turchak, T. Kruchok and others.
a bridge that was blown up during the armed uprising (later restored)
On June 28, 1940, as a result of an exchange of notes between the Romanian and Soviet governments, Romania agreed to withdraw the administration and troops within four days. On June 28, 1940, a group of Soviet military personnel entered the city of Bendery.
On August 2, 1940, the Moldavian SSR was formed. Measures were taken in the city to eliminate unemployment, a power plant was launched, water supply was restored, railway workshops and travel distances were put into operation, and free medical care was introduced. Teaching children, dozens of teachers began to eliminate adult illiteracy. But a year later war broke out.
On June 22, 1941, dozens of air bombs fell on a peaceful city, bringing with them death and destruction. An important strategic object - the railway bridge across the Dniester was defended by soldiers of the 338th OZAD under the command of Captain I. Antonenko.
A month later, Soviet troops had to retreat, and the Nazis entered the city, establishing the so-called “new order.” For three years, the residents of Bendery were under fascist occupation, from the very first days of which an anti-fascist underground began to take shape. It was led by a bureau consisting of M. Ratushny, V. Ivanov, N.K. Kalashnikov. In December 1943, many of the underground participants were arrested and put on trial. Their fates would have been sad if not for the spring-summer offensive of the Soviet troops. Our city was liberated from the Nazi invaders on August 23, 1944 during the Iasi-Chisinau operation.
More than 3 thousand Soviet soldiers died in the battles for Bendery; they were buried on Heroes Square in the mass grave of the Pantheon of Glory. Their names are carved in gold on granite slabs. An eternal flame burns at the entrance, which keeps the warmth of lost hearts. The names of the heroes are immortalized in the names of the streets.
The first to enter the liberated city were the soldiers of the free detachment 93 and 223 SD under the overall command of a lieutenant colonel.
In Bendery, not a single one of those small industrial enterprises that operated before the war survived. Canneries, breweries, distilleries, mills, butter churns, a power station and a water supply system were destroyed and looted. Social and cultural institutions, schools, libraries, cinemas, kindergartens, hospitals and pharmacies, bakeries and workshops were destroyed. The streets were overgrown with weeds, the housing stock was destroyed by 80%. In fact, the construction of the city began from scratch after the war.
In 1944, Bendery residents rebuilt the bridge across the Dniester in 19 days. A railway depot, a bakery, a cannery, a city dairy plant, a meat processing plant, a butter churner, a power plant, ship repair shops, a mill, etc. are being restored.
In the 50s - early 60s, enterprises such as a silk factory, a starch plant, the Moldavkabel plant, Elektroapparatura, a textile and weaving factory, a shoe factory, a clothing factory, a brick and tile factory, etc. came into operation. .
Bendery's industry reached its greatest prosperity in the 70s and early 80s, which today is represented by the following industries: food, light, electrical, furniture and woodworking, building materials. This was reflected in the city's coat of arms, approved in 1967.
However, politics unexpectedly and powerfully burst into the calm and measured life of Bendery residents. The large-scale changes taking place in the country affected the fate of the city. These are the strikes of 1989, the formation of the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic in 1990. But the most significant and tragic event of our time, which dramatically changed the lives of Bendery residents, was the war of the summer of 1992 in Bendery. This war went down in history as the Bendery tragedy. June 19, 1992 became the day of the civil war in Bendery, where people have lived in friendship for a long time and never fought. The city turned into a hot spot on the map, where civilians began to die, where they tried to establish “Constitutional order” by force of arms. During the conflict, 489 people died, 1,280 residential buildings were destroyed and damaged, of which 80 were completely destroyed, 19 public education facilities were destroyed, including 3 schools, 5 healthcare facilities, 42 industrial and transport enterprises. The city suffered material damage in 1992 prices in an amount exceeding 10 billion rubles.
Bendery today is a large industrial and cultural center of the republic. The second largest after the capital Tiraspol, this is the most ancient city in Transnistria, which is reflected in the coat of arms of the city, the return to which took place at the session of the Bendery City Council in 2003.
It’s just that everything has already happened...
25 years ago, on June 19, 1992, Moldovan nationalists invaded the city of Bendery using tanks, artillery, and aircraft. A very real war began in Transnistria, the active part of which lasted until June 23, but in fact the conflict was completely stopped only on August 1. During these days According to various sources, about five hundred Pridnestrovians died, more than a thousand were injured, tens of thousands became refugees.
The Battle of Bendery was the culmination of that war. In terms of the duration of full-scale hostilities, their fierceness, and the number of casualties, the Transnistrian conflict was, of course, the “mildest” of the series of wars that tore apart the outskirts of the USSR after the collapse of the Union. The reasons that gave rise to these conflicts are common to what happened in Nagorno-Karabakh, Abkhazia, South Ossetia, and now in Donbass. And also their consequences and the fact that they cannot be resolved even today, a quarter of a century after those events; on the contrary, the contradictions are only deepening, threatening to unfreeze the war at any moment.
The Transnistrian conflict began during the existence of the Soviet Union. In fact, its beginning coincided with the Chisinau nationalist authorities taking a course towards leaving the USSR and joining Romania. The formation of Moldovan, or rather, then rather, Romanian nationalism in Moldova, began in the late 80s with the demand to recognize the identity of the Moldovan and Romanian languages, as well as to translate the Moldovan language into the Latin script and make it the state language. Then there were demands
Then all this logically and quickly grew into demands “suitcase-station-Russia!”, “throw out the invaders across the Dniester!”, into “we are Romanians, period!”
Of course, on the right bank of the Dniester they did not want to tolerate this, and on September 2, 1990, at the Second Extraordinary Congress of Deputies of all levels of Transnistria, the Transnistrian Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic was proclaimed within the USSR.
The first shots were fired already in November 1990, when three people were killed as a result of clashes on the Dubossary Bridge. From that moment on, the parallel formation of paramilitary forces of both sides began, clashes between which regularly occurred for the next two years, the escalation increased.
The apotheosis was the battle for Bendery in June 1992.
The day before, on June 18, Moldovan parliamentarians, together with Pridnestrovian deputies, approved the basic principles of a peaceful settlement. However, the Moldovan government obviously sought to first suppress the resistance of the Transnistrian people, and only then negotiate from a position of strength. On June 19, taking advantage of the provoked conflict at the printing house, the forces of the Moldovan army, police and volunteer fighters, supported by armored vehicles and artillery, entered Bendery.
By dawn on the 20th, they managed to capture key points of the city and reach the bridge across the Dniester, cutting off the city from the rest of Transnistria.
For four days there were heavy street battles in the city, the city was shelled with mortars, snipers worked, and the streets were mined. The result was a huge number of civilian casualties residents. There was no way to clean up the corpses lying on the streets, which in 30-degree heat created the threat of an epidemic; the dead were buried right in the courtyards. They say that the occupiers behaved like their Romanian predecessors during the Great Patriotic War: they looted, robbed and killed civilians.
The first mention of modern Bendery was in 1408. Then the city bore the name Tyagyanakacha, which was later transformed into the simpler Tighina. In 1538, the Turks captured Tighina, built a fortress, and gave it a new name, Bendery. In 1709, the Ukrainian hetman Mazepa, who fled here with the Swedish king Charles XII, died in Bendery. The local fortress more than once became the scene of battles in the Russian-Turkish wars, until in 1806 it was included in Russia. From 1918 to 1940 the city was part of Romania. (During this period it was again called Tighina). In May - August 1992, the fighting of the Transnistrian conflict took place on the territory of Bendery.
Some of the stages in the city's development can be seen right on the street.
Capture by the Turks and construction of the fortress. 
Presentation of the keys to the fortress to Prince Potemkin.
Inclusion of Bendery into the Russian Empire.
Sergius of Radonezh is considered the patron saint of the city. (Miracle Worker). The latest information for ill-wishers, if there are any...
The Transfiguration Cathedral was built at the beginning of the 19th century in honor of liberation from the Turkish yoke.
Cinema.
This is the city center, and therefore there is excellent amenities and cleanliness here.
There are few dogs, so you can relax quietly in the shade on the lawn. Judging by the uniform apron that the lady is wearing, this happens during working hours, and therefore the benefit she receives can be safely multiplied by two...
Vladimir Ilyich is all khaki, which is understandable. The fighting has ended, but no legal documents have been signed.
There is, presumably, enough sun in this area, but this circumstance has little effect on architectural details. The main element of protection against it, as in other places, is trees planted next to the house.
There is nothing very different from the Russian average. Is it just this?
Stalin's order of August 23, 1944. In honor of the liberation of the cities of Bendery and Belgorod-Dnestrovsky, perform a fireworks display in Moscow and reward those who distinguished themselves. And Eternal glory to us...
The Bendery-1 railway station is practically idle. Trains no longer come here. They go through the Bendery-2 station, located in another area of the city.
Nearby is the museum of the revolutionary and military glory of railway workers. Despite the tempting offer for visitors, there is no one nearby.
Art school.
Protestant Church.
Alexander Pushkin visited Bendery. Here he is so black that he immediately removes all questions about his origin.
Museum of Local Lore.
The Museum of the Bendery Tragedy is open nearby.
Young guys. I wish I could live and live... There are many similar photographs inside.
The President of the Geographical Society, academician Lev Semyonovich Berg, was born in one of them.
Let's take another look at the center of Bendery. You can also have a snack, since a significant part of trade is concentrated here, including the market.
Past the monument to revolutionary Pavel Tkachenko
We are moving towards the Dniester. First, either former shipyards or cargo berths are revealed. Currently, it looks more like a settling tank where ships that have spent their time wait to be disposed of.
Before the Great Patriotic War, many Jews lived in Bendery.
Hotel on the shore. There are plenty of places, prices are low, so there are no problems with spending the night here.
In this place, the Dniester embankment is ennobled and consists of two tiers.
Apparently, this ship sometimes gives rides to those who want it (when there are any...).
The future of the high berth for receiving large ships is in question.
The bridge over the river was the most important strategic object in the last conflict. Because Bendery is located on the right bank of the Dniester, and almost the rest of Transnistria is on the left. Now it is guarded by Russian soldiers.
The main battles took place here.
Memorial in honor of the fallen.
General Alexander Lebed played a major role in ending the conflict. He crashed in a helicopter crash much later, when he served as governor of the Krasnoyarsk Territory.
A memorial sign in honor of the introduction of Russian peacekeepers into the conflict zone. (Probably one of the few places where they really managed to bring peace).
A monument at the front door of one of the neighboring houses.
In 1912, apparently on the centenary of the victory over Napoleon, soldiers of the 55th Podolsk Infantry Regiment erected a monument to their valiant ancestors. Two years will pass, and they will need no less valor...
This obelisk is already in their honor...
The Bendery fortress has recently become a tourist attraction. Most likely there will be many more additions. But the fortress itself is already in order, and this is the main thing.
Something is located outside, near its walls.
Including monuments to famous people related to it.
Ivan Kotlyarevsky, a Ukrainian writer and staff captain of the Russian army, took part in the siege of the Bendery fortress and described its capture in 1806, after which Bendery became part of the Russian Empire.
It was over the Bendery fortress that the brave Baron Munchausen flew on a cannonball.
The core itself (most likely a copy of it) is currently located in another yard.
Before Generalissimo Suvorov stands a line of very eminent citizens. Among them are young captains Kutuzov and Raevsky.
Entrance to the fortress. It can be seen that the towers were put in order quite recently.
As the rules of fortification art suggest, in front of the gate there is a bridge over a moat.
Military Temple of Alexander Nevsky. Mid-19th century. (Already outside the fortress territories provided for tourists to view).
A sentry was idling at his post nearby. Seeing that I pointed the camera at him, he began to demonstratively remove the machine gun from his shoulder. Ah, young man! The uncle also served in the army and was on duty... I understand that you are bored, but you need to develop patience... Seeing that his actions did not cause any reaction, the soldier returned the machine gun to its place and turned away...
Monument to Rodion Gerbel, military engineer, lieutenant general. During the first Russian-Turkish war, according to his plan, a tunnel was carried out under the wall of the fortress, into which 400 pounds of gunpowder were placed and exploded.
From here it’s a stone’s throw to the village of Varnitsa, which is not part of Transnistria, but is part of the Republic of Moldova. Passage through the checkpoint (barrier on the road), as I understand it, is free. At least they didn't ask me anything.
Local recreation center.
Shopping mall.
Monument to those killed in the conflict on the Moldovan side.
Local church.
There is not much to see in Varnitsa. But it’s also good that life goes on, the village is quite alive. At the exit from Varnitsa, having already found myself on Transnistrian territory (that’s where I came and filled out the declaration there), I asked one of the people in uniform how approximately the border was. He waved his hand towards the rails
- Something like this... Why are you interested?
- I am a disciplined tourist, and therefore I would not want to become a violator... Have you seen a film in which the border between France and Italy was laid in the middle of a village, and its residents went to visit another country?
- I think I saw it... It’s about the same with us...
- So there the border divided one house right in the middle, and the husband went to see his wife abroad (this is from memory)?
- No, we haven’t come to that... (Smiles).
I looked again at the border between the two countries. The goat was clearly in the border zone and the length of its rope could allow it to eat the biological resources of another power. But everyone calmly looked at this circumstance. Perhaps now less attention will be paid to the incorrect behavior of some goats...
City `s history
The history of the city of Bendery goes back to ancient times. The first information about the settlement, which was located on the site of Bender, dates back to the 3rd century BC. The territory of the region, starting from the Stone Age, was at the epicenter of historical events taking place in Eastern Europe. Several hundred thousand years ago, primitive people appeared here, engaged in hunting and gathering. They were replaced by flourishing civilizations of the Copper-Stone Age. Archaeological research suggests that the first settlers in the city were the Geta tribes, traces of which were found in the area of the Bendery fortress and the villages of Kitskany and Varnitsa adjacent to the city. The Geto-Dacian tribes were engaged in agriculture, cattle breeding, and trade with the Greek and Roman world.
In the 3rd-4th centuries, the tribes that created the Chernyakhov culture lived in the Dniester-Prut interfluve - the Thracians, late Scythians, Wends, Bastarnae, Sarmatians, etc. Traces of this culture were also found in the territory of the city and surrounding villages. The Chernyakhov culture was formed under the influence of late Roman ancient culture.
At the end of the 5th - beginning of the 6th centuries, Slavic tribes penetrated these lands and created their own culture. In subsequent centuries, nomadic tribes of Polovtsians, Pechenegs, and Torks passed through the Dniester-Prut lands. In the middle of the 13th century, the Mongol-Tatars invaded the region and dominated here until 1345. In the first half of the 14th century, Hungary, which had achieved great power, forced the Mongol-Tatars to leave this region. In 1359, as a result of an uprising of the local population against Hungarian rule, an independent Principality of Moldova emerged, headed by Bogdan, the former Voloshsky governor in Maramures and a vassal of the Hungarian king.
By the beginning of the 15th century, all lands from the Carpathian mountains to the Black Sea became part of the Principality of Moldova, the eastern border of which was the Dniester River. Our city was a border customs house. In the charter of the Moldavian ruler Alexander the Good dated October 8, 1408, issued to Lviv merchants for the right to trade in cities located along the Dniester, it was first mentioned under the name Tyaganyakyacha. Since the second half of the 15th century, the city has been known as Tighina.
The Moldavian state reached its greatest prosperity during the reign of Stefan III the Great, when diplomatic, economic and cultural ties were established with neighboring states.
At the turn of the XIV-XV centuries, the power of Sultan Turkey increased. From this time on, a steady process of subordination of the Moldavian Principality to the Ottoman Porte began. In 1538, after a series of fierce battles in the Budjak steppes, the Turks captured Tighina. The city and the surrounding 18 villages were turned into a Turkish paradise. The advantageous strategic position on the elevated bank of the Dniester near its confluence with the Black Sea made the city one of the strongholds in the Turkish struggle against Russia. On the site of the former customs house at the crossing, construction of a fortress begins according to the plan of the famous Turkish architect Sinan Ibn Abdul Minan. The city and fortress were renamed Bendery (borrowed from Persian - harbor, pier, port city).
The fortress was built on the model of Western European bastion-type fortresses. It was surrounded by a high earthen rampart and a deep ditch, which was never filled with water, and consisted of three parts: the citadel, the upper and lower parts. On the southwestern side of the fortress there was a settlement.
By the middle of the 16th century, Moldova was finally enslaved by Turkey, but the Moldavian people waged a tireless struggle against their enslavers. In the winter of 1540, the Moldavians, led by the ruler A. Korn, besieged the Bendery fortress, but were unable to capture it. In 1574, the ruler I. Voda-Lyuty, together with the Cossacks of Hetman I. Svercheskiy, besieged the fortress, the settlement was taken, but the walls of the fortress stood. 20 years later, the Zaporozhye Cossacks, led by hetmans G. Loboda and S. Nalivaiko, tried to capture the fortress, the settlement was burned to the ground, but they failed to capture the fortress.
Only as a result of the victorious Russian-Turkish wars of the 18th-19th centuries, the Bendery fortress was conquered by Russian troops three times. On September 15, 1770, after a two-month siege, the fortress was stormed by the Russian army under the command of Chief General P.I. Panin. A regiment of Don Cossacks took part in the siege, in whose ranks the future leader of the peasant uprising Emelyan Pugachev fought. The fortress was taken after a heavy, bloody hand-to-hand battle. The capture of the fortress came at a high price: during the siege and during the assault, the Russian troops lost over six thousand people killed and wounded, the Turks - over five thousand. “Rather than lose so much and gain so little, it would have been better not to take Bender at all,” this is how Russian Empress Catherine II reacted to this event. The Russian-Turkish War of 1768-1774 ended with the signing of the Kuchuk-Kainardzhi Peace, under the terms of which the Bendery fortress, like all of Moldova, again ceded to Turkey.
On November 4, 1789, after a brilliant victory of Russian troops under the command of A.V. Suvorov near the banks of the Rymnik River, the fortress capitulated for the second time. This time before the start of the siege work. The fortress surrendered without resistance to Russian troops under the command of Prince G.A. Potemkin-Tavrichesky. This victory was largely predetermined by the skillful actions of the cavalry commander M.I. Kutuzov, who defeated the three-thousand-strong army of the Budzhak Tatars on the approaches to Bendery. The Turks presented the keys to the fortress to G.A. Potemkin-Tavrichesky, whose tent was located on Borisov Hill north-west of the fortress.
In 1791, according to the Treaty of Jassy, the left bank regions of Transnistria went to Russia. The right bank territory of Moldova, together with the Bendery fortress, again remained with Turkey. Russia gained access to the Black Sea via the Dniester River.
The final liberation of Bendery occurred in November 1806 as a result of the Russian-Turkish War of 1806-1812. The fortress surrendered to Russian troops under the command of General Meyendorff without significant resistance.
In accordance with the Bucharest Peace Treaty, signed by M.I. Kutuzov on May 16, 1812, the territory of the Prut-Dniester interfluve went to Russia. Later these lands received the name Bessarabia.
With the formation of the Bessarabian province, Bendery was declared a district town by decree of April 29, 1818. The city is being built up according to a specific plan: at a distance of 500 m south of the Bendery fortress, eight wide streets are laid along the Dniester, eight perpendicular. The settlement of the city took place initially at the expense of the garrison, military officials and clerks, and later at the expense of Old Believers and runaway serfs. In 1818, 5.1 thousand people lived in Bendery.
In 1815, on the site of the ruins of Turkish barracks, construction began on the Transfiguration Cathedral, which was conceived as a symbol of the liberation of the region from the Turkish yoke. The main dome of the cathedral is designed in the form of the helmet of an ancient Russian warrior. The plan of the cathedral was prepared by a member of the Chisinau Ecclesiastical Dicastery, Archimandrite Ioanikei. On September 29, 1827, His Eminence Dmitry consecrated the cathedral, but work was still ongoing. The cathedral was not painted until 1934. The wall paintings in the cathedral were carried out by the Moldavian sculptor and painter A. Plamadeala.
"The coat of arms of the city of Bendery, Bessarabian province, district, was HIGHLY APPROVED on April 2, 1826. The shield is divided into two fields; in the upper, gold, there is a double-headed eagle, decorated with a gold crown, holding in both claws lightning bolts, the flames of which are directed downward, with a shield on the chest, on which in a red field is depicted the Holy Great Martyr and Victorious George, sitting on a white horse and striking a serpent with a spear in the lower, black field, a lying lion is depicted, in memory of the difficult situation in this city, the Swedish king Charles XII, after the Battle of Poltava. "
The economic development of the city was facilitated by the construction of the Tiraspol-Chisinau railway in 1871 with a bridge across the Dniester. 1,500 workers were employed in the construction of this road, 400 of them in the Bendery region. Working conditions were extremely difficult, and therefore, the workers of the Bendery site, driven to despair, organized an economic and then a political strike, about which the Novorossiysk and Bessarabian Governor-General, in his report to the prosecutor of the Odessa Court Chamber, noted: a strike of workers in Bendery - “a completely new phenomenon, which has not hitherto manifested itself in the heart of our labor movement.”
The beginning of the 20th century was marked by an explosion of revolutionary struggle in the region. The revolutions of 1905 and 1917 were reflected in the historical fate of our city. Under their influence, in March 1917, the first Council of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies in Moldova was formed in Bendery.
At the end of 1917 - beginning of 1918, military intervention by Royal Romania began. The heroic defense of Bendery lasted for two weeks, but, despite stubborn resistance, the city was occupied on February 7, 1918. For twenty-two years Bessarabia was part of Romania. The Bendery armed uprising in May 1919 was a striking page in the struggle against the occupation regime.
A new stage in the history of Bendery began after the liberation of Bessarabia from the boyar-Romanian occupation and formation on August 2, 1940. Moldavian SSR. A power plant was commissioned in Bendery, which is still in operation today, a number of industrial enterprises were built, and the network of medical and treatment institutions, schools and kindergartens was expanded. But a year later the Great Patriotic War broke out. During the war years the city was destroyed almost to the ground. In Bendery, not a single one of the industrial enterprises that operated before the war survived. A canning factory, a distillery brewery, mills, butter churns, a power station and a water supply system were destroyed and looted. Social and cultural institutions were destroyed: schools, libraries, cinemas, kindergartens, hospitals, pharmacies, bakeries, workshops. The city streets are overgrown with weeds. The housing stock was destroyed by 80%.
The restoration of Bendery began almost from scratch, and, thanks to the labor heroism of Bendery residents, vital city facilities were restored in a short time. And in the 50s, construction began on the largest enterprises in the light, food, and electrical industries, which today form the basis of the city’s economy.
Not many buildings that once adorned the city survived the cataclysms of the 20th century. In one of these houses in the central part of the city, the world-famous scientist Academician L.S. Berg, President of the Geographical Society of the USSR, author of 800 fundamental works on ichthyology, climatology, biology, lake science, history and geography, was born in 1876. Not far from L.S. Berg’s house on Sovetskaya Street there is a beautiful 19th-century mansion, which today houses the city’s local history museum. The building was built by the merchant Fishtenberg. The completion of construction work is eloquently evidenced by the date recorded on the interlacing of the openwork gate: “1890”.
The fortress was built according to the design of the Turkish architect Sinan, following the model of Western European bastion-type fortresses. Construction began in 1538 after the city became part of the Ottoman Empire. It was surrounded by a high earthen rampart and a deep ditch, which was never filled with water. The fortress was divided into upper, lower parts and the Citadel. The total area is about 20 hectares. On the southwestern side of the fortress there was a settlement. The advantageous strategic position on the elevated bank of the Dniester near its confluence with the Black Sea made the city one of the strongholds in the Turkish struggle against Russia. The Bendery fortress was called “a strong castle on Ottoman lands.” One of the first descriptions of the fortress that reached us was left by the Turkish traveler and writer Evliya Celebi.
Over the years, a number of unsuccessful attempts were made to capture the fortress. In the winter of 1540, the Moldavian army, led by the ruler Alexander Korn, besieged the Bendery fortress, but was unable to capture it. In 1574, the ruler Ion Voda the Fierce, together with the Cossacks of Hetman Ivan Sverchesky, after the capture of Bucharest, unexpectedly approached Bendery in several marches and besieged the fortress. The Turks were taken by surprise. The Moldavian-Cossack army quickly occupied the settlement, but the walls of the fortress stood. Due to the fatigue of the army, the ruler organized a camp at a commanding height to the north-west of the fortress, but a new assault could not be launched, since large Turkish reinforcements arrived from Akkerman. Ion Voda defeated the enemy, but the Turkish Sultan ordered the Crimean Khan to gather an army and move to the Danube. Having learned about this, Ion Voda was forced to lift the siege from Bender.
In 1584, the Turks forced the Moldavian ruler Peter the Lame to repair the Bendery fortress. In 1594, the Zaporozhye Cossacks, led by Hetman Grigory Loboda and Severin Nalivaiko, tried to capture the fortress, the settlement was again burned to the ground, but they failed to capture the fortress. Both Moldavian and Cossack forces were too small to capture one of the most defended Turkish fortresses. Moreover, none of the besiegers had the appropriate artillery necessary for the assault.
Russo-Turkish wars
During the Russian-Turkish wars of the 18th-19th centuries, the Bendery fortress was taken three times by Russian troops.
In July-September 1770, the 33,000-strong second Russian army under the command of Count Pyotr Ivanovich Panin besieged the Bendery fortress, which was defended by an 18,000-strong Turkish garrison. A regiment of Don Cossacks took part in the siege, in whose ranks the future leader of the Cossack-peasant uprising Emelyan Pugachev fought. On the night of September 15-16, 1770, after a two-month siege, the Russian army began an assault on the fortress. Those who climbed the rampart first were promised a reward: officers were given a rank one step higher, and soldiers 100 rubles each. The attack began with the explosion of a “globe de compression” (lit. “compressed ball”) weighing 400 pounds of gunpowder.
The fortress was taken after a heavy and bloody hand-to-hand battle, and inside the fortress there were battles for almost every house. The Turks killed 5 thousand people, 2 thousand were captured, 2 thousand fled. The Russians lost more than one-fifth of their entire army (over 6 thousand people) during the attack. The assault on Bender became the bloodiest battle for Russia in the war of 1768–1774. “Rather than lose so much and gain so little, it would have been better not to take Bender at all,” this is how Russian Empress Catherine II reacted to this event. However, her indignation was unfounded. The capture of Bendery was not an ordinary victory, but dealt a heavy blow to the Turkish army. The Turks even declared three days of mourning on this occasion. After the fall of Bendery, the Dniester-Prut interfluve came under the control of Russian troops. For the capture of Bender, Panin received the Order of St. George, 1st degree. The Russian-Turkish War of 1768 - 1774 ended with the signing of the Kuchyuk-Kainardzhi Peace, under the terms of which all of Moldova, including the Bendery fortress, again ceded to Turkey.
In 1789, during the Russian-Turkish war of 1787-1792, the Russian army under the command of Suvorov won a brilliant victory at Rymnik. After this, on the night of November 3-4, 1789, the Bendery fortress surrendered without resistance to Russian troops under the command of Prince Potemkin-Tavrichesky. This victory was largely predetermined by the skillful actions of the cavalry commander Kutuzov, who defeated the three-thousand-strong army of the Budzhak Tatars on the approaches to Bendery, thereby completely demoralizing the enemy. The Turks handed the keys to the fortress to G. A. Potemkin-Tavrichesky, whose tent was located on Borisov Hill north-west of the fortress at the same distance from the Byk River and from the fortress, between the roads to Kalfa and Gura-Bikului. In accordance with Potemkin's promises, the entire Muslim population of the city was released with the possibility of selling their houses, property and livestock. To proceed to Turkish possessions, 4 thousand carts and food were allocated from the Russian convoy. The Russian army received as trophies more than three hundred guns with ammunition, 12 thousand pounds of gunpowder, 22 thousand pounds of crackers, 24 thousand quarters of flour and much more.
In accordance with the Treaty of Iasi of 1791, the lands east of the Dniester were ceded to Russia. The right bank territory of the Moldavian principality, together with Bendery, again came into the possession of Turkey. The Orthodox Church of St. George in the fortress again became a Muslim mosque, and the defensive structures were strengthened.
Bendery finally ceded to the Russian Empire only in November 1806 during the Russian-Turkish War of 1806–1812. Alexander I, without declaring war, sent troops into the Danube principalities under the pretext of “executing the Russian-Turkish alliance.” On November 24, 1806, General Meyendorff's corps approached Bendery. Here, with the help of bribery, they forced the Turks to let them into the fortress. Joint Russian-Turkish posts were posted at all gates. According to the same scenario, the Russian army entered Khotyn, Akkerman and Kiliya. Only after this the Sultan declared war on Russia. Meyendorff then officially stated that the Turkish garrison was considered captured from that moment on. Military operations began on the Danube, and Bendery became a rear base.
Bendery fortress in the Russian Empire
On May 16, 1812, according to the Treaty of Bucharest, the fortress went to Russia. According to the list of regular Russian fortresses of 1816, it is already listed as a 2nd class fortress. From the second half of the 19th century, the 55th Podolsk Regiment was stationed there. The fortress has been reconstructed more than once. During the Crimean campaign, some defensive work was carried out in it, and in 1863 the armament was strengthened. At the end of the 60s of the 19th century, on the instructions of General Totleben, the fortress was again strengthened. During the Russian-Turkish war of 1877 - 1878, warehouses for dynamite, entrenching tools and a traveling telegraph were built in Bendery. The fortress was finally abolished in 1897.
Dislocation of units in the 20th century
In the fortress, and then next to it, starting from the 1920s, Romanian, in 1940-41 Soviet, in 1941-44 Romanian and one German, and from 1944 again Soviet military units were stationed. During Soviet times, a missile brigade of the 14th Army, a pontoon-bridge regiment and an automobile repair plant were stationed in the fortress. Since 1996, a military unit of the army of the unrecognized PMR has been stationed in the fortress and next to it.
Bendery fortress today
In 2008, a planned reconstruction of the fortress began. The reconstruction (completion) is led by the PMR Ministry of Internal Affairs. On October 8, 2008, a theatrical reconstruction of the storming of the Bendery fortress in 1770 took place.
On the territory of the fortress, the Walk of Fame of Glory of Russian commanders was created, on which there are monuments to great commanders. Also in the fortress there is a monument to the Constitution of Philip Orlik and a bust of Baron Munchausen, who flew a cannonball through the fortress.
There are two museums in the fortress: the history of the Bendery fortress and medieval instruments of torture.
In October 2012, the Besiktas souvenir shop began operating, where you can purchase a variety of souvenirs, calendars and magnets with images of the Bendery Fortress, as well as souvenirs made of wood and ceramics.
On September 12, 2008, the first church service was held on the territory of the fortress in the Church of the Holy Blessed Prince Alexander Nevsky and a blessing was given to begin restoration work.
In November 2012, the Museum of Medieval Torture Instruments was opened on the territory of the fortress. The museum exhibits are fake samples of torture instruments and devices. The history of the creation of the museum began with a prison tower, into which employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs looked during restoration work. It was believed among the population that revolutionaries were once held in this tower, but in fact they were never kept here. People were imprisoned in the tower for looting, robbery, theft, but the necessary set of shackles and handcuffs was available. As a result, more sophisticated interrogation tools were added to them (interrogation chair, vigil or Judas cradle, iron shoe, pear torture, knee crusher, piercing goats, iron lady).
In November 2013, restoration work continued on the two towers of the fortress, and earlier six towers of the citadel were restored, and in December of the same year the painting of the fortress church of the Holy Blessed Prince Alexander Nevsky was completed. In 2013, attendance at the fortress increased 4 times and amounted to fourteen thousand people.
In 2014, construction began on the archery and crossbow shooting range, which is located behind the back of the powder magazine, between the walls of the citadel and the cellar itself. The maximum distance to targets is twenty-five meters, and the minimum is seven. In the same year, the reconstruction of the Lower Fortress began.
Bendery fortress on banknotes
The first banknote on which the image of the Bendery fortress was placed was the 100 lei banknote of the Republic of Moldova, issued in 1992. In 2000, the Pridnestrovian Republican Bank introduced into circulation a banknote in denomination of 25 rubles of the PMR, on the reverse side of which a monument to Russian Glory is depicted against the backdrop of the Bendery fortress. In 2006, the Transnistrian Republican Bank again placed the image of the Bendery Fortress on banknotes. This time on a silver coin of 100 rubles of the PMR in the series “Ancient Fortresses on the Dniester”.
Practical information
Working hours
Bendery Fortress is open seven days a week, from 9.00 to 18.00 in the summer, from 10.00 to 16.00 in the winter.
Price
The entrance ticket to the territory of the Bendery Fortress with a visit to the Museum of the Bendery Fortress and the Museum of Medieval Instruments of Torture is 25 PMR rubles for citizens of Moldova and neighboring countries and 50 PMR rubles for citizens of non-CIS countries.
Excursions are paid separately.
For children under 16 years of age, schoolchildren, students, as well as preferential categories of citizens established by the legislation of Moldova, payment of entrance tickets is made at a 50% discount, and benefits also apply to museum workers.
How to get there
For those traveling by car from Tiraspol, you need to go towards the exit to Chisinau, along the moat of the fortress to the Tiras-Oil gas station, opposite the gas station on the right you will see the banner of the fortress, turn right and then follow the signs, to checkpoint No. 3. If you are traveling by public transport, then it is better to go to the city market, there by trolleybus or minibus, to the same gas station, or ask to stop at the turn of the SARM plant. From Chisinau it’s even easier - all minibuses from Chisinau pass by this gas station. But those traveling from Chisinau, do not forget to exchange your currency for PMR rubles - the closest for you - at the Sheriff supermarket, which is located near the Military Historical Memorial Cemetery, or at the Eximbank branch, located in the rows of automobile boutiques.