Saturday 10 September 2016

Moldova Flag And Its History

By Kalen Swift


Moldova is a landlocked republic of hilly plains lying east of the Carpathian Mountains between the Prut and Dniester rivers. The country is sandwiched between Romania and Ukraine.

However, what is today the Republic of Moldova consists only of the central and eastern parts of the original principality. The Transdniestrian region was never part of the principality, but Moldovan colonists settled on the left bank of the Dniestr in the fifteenth century. At the beginning of the fifteenth century, the principality extended from the Carpathians to the Dniestr.

For many years, Romania and the USSR disputed each other's territorial claims over Bessarabia. Following the aborted coup against Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev, Moldavia proclaimed its independence in Sept. 1991 and changed its name to the Romanian spelling, Moldova.

This flag flew only briefly because Moldova was incorporated into Romania in April 1918. The Soviet Union acquired Moldova in 1940, and, after German and Romanian occupation through 1944, the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic was reestablished. Its distinctive flag, adopted in 1952, added a green horizontal stripe through the center of the Soviet Red Banner. Green was said to stand for the viticulture and other agricultural activities of the area.

Three equal vertical bands of blue (hoist side), yellow, and red; emblem in center of flag is of a Roman eagle of gold outlined in black with a red beak and talons carrying a yellow cross in its beak and a green olive branch in its right talons and a yellow scepter in its left talons; on its breast is a shield divided horizontally red over blue with a stylized aurochs head, star, rose, and crescent all in black-outlined yellow; based on the color scheme of the flag of Romania - with which Moldova shares a history and culture - but Moldova's blue band is lighter; the reverse of the flag does not display any coat of arms.

The Moldavian flag was based on the Romanian national flag and represents Moldova's shared heritage with Romania. The coat of arms consists of the eagle of Walachia holding an Orthodox Christian cross in its beak and an olive branch in one talon, with the scepter of Michael the Brave of Walachia in the other. Walachia is a historic region of Eastern Europe. The Flag Company Inc specialized in flag designs offered a special edition of decals and flags to memorize the history of Moldova flag for the future.




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