Bessarabia villages. It is bounded by the Dnister River flowing into the Dnister Estuary on one side and the Danube River into the Black Sea on the other. Prospering through agriculture The land available for farming also expanded. After the Soviet occupation of Bessarabia in 1940, its southern part, which along with its northern part was included in the Ukrainian SSR (unlike the rest of Bessarabia, which was included in the Moldavian SSR), became known as Budjak, thus being slightly smaller than the historical term. … This work presents a more humanistic view of life in the former German colonist villages of South Russia during the earliest years of the Soviet Union. EWZ Records DAI Bessarabia Village Reports DAI Miscellaneous Reports Evacuation from Bessarabia & Bukovina Bessarabia Koblenz Index Derivative Supplemental Information Bessarabia Head of Household Index Bessarabia Surnames Origins Index Heimatbuch der Dobrudscha Deutschen Surname Index Christian Fiess Indices Search the Letter Archives for this Bessarabia Watch the movie Home page » Regionen » Bessarabia » Bessarabia Besarabia is a historical region in the southwest of Ukraine, bordering Moldova and Romania. Jewish Population of Bessarabia With time, as the regional autonomy of Bessarabia came to be limited, tsarist legislation was authorized. BESSARABIA, region between the rivers Prut and Dniester; before 1812 part of Moldavia, with several districts under direct Ottoman rule; within Russia 1812–1918; part of Romania 1918–40; returned to Russia 1940, and together with the Moldavian Autonomous S. Ethnic Germans began settling in Bessarabia in 1813, coming from Poland/Prussia, Germany, and German villages in the Odessa area. Unlike most of the rest of the Russian Empire, in Bessarabia, Jews were allowed to settle in fairs and cities. The earlier letters contain many names, places and family events.