In October 2005, with financial support provided by the Department for Romanians Everywhere, the “Magazin Istoric” Cultural Foundation organized in Bucharest the first Conference of historians from Romania and the Republic of Moldova. That particular event marked the birth of the idea to launch a website where all those interested in the history of Bessarabia could find relevant information on this topic.
The absence of such a website was not reported only by Romanian readers. Mr. Vladimir Socor forwarded us an e-mail he had received from a Swedish researcher, who was complaining precisely of the scarcity of such information. Mr. Andreas Johansson had engaged in a project and had launched the Moldovan Reference Database, hosted by Södertörn University College Library, Sweden. It is available at http://bibl.sh.se/moldova/.

The absence of any Romanian presence in the field was all the more unpardonable after 18 years of “bridges of flowers” over the Prut River and all sorts of projects that have been under the media spotlight over and over again. Thanks to a private sponsorship, the same that
allowed us to print the special issue Basarabia, consisting of the presentations delivered during the Conference itself, we were able to announce the go-live of a Romanian website on the history of Bessarabia.

Now, with financial support provided by the Department for Romanians Everywhere we can provide the English version.

We have conceived the website as a place where all those interested might find papers or studies focusing on various moments in the history of Bessarabia. Furthermore, the site will showcase – as biographical or bibliographical references – several historians in the field as well as books (older editions or newcomers) reviewing the history of Bessarabia. So here we are, embarking on this path with an incomplete number of texts and files, in our staunch belief that it would have been useless to postpone the launch of the website until having all the books and historian files available. As a matter of fact, it is easily noticeable that, at present, the Romanian historiography on the western banks of the Prut River fails to treat the Bessarabian issue accordingly. Moreover, the curriculum of major academic institutions does not include special lectures on this matter, just like there are no dedicated research topics within the history institutes of the Romanian Academy, nor any M.A. or Ph.D. undergraduate courses on this issue.

Being an open electronic source, the site looks forward to any contributions from all those interested in this regard, so as to add any relevant new content and keep it up to date. We hereby invite all those interested to notify us of any new books out there and report any forthcoming or past events, along with accompanying pictures and video footage. We believe it would be best for our friends from across the Prut to let us know in due time of any planned events, so that we in Romania and especially Romanians abroad might help out (including financially) in organizing such get-togethers.

The website also features a forum available to everyone stopping by. Therefore, we hereby ask anyone wishing to post their messages on this website to use civilized language, without any slanderous or disparaging words, refraining from any personal attacks or attacks directed at countries/governments.

The website also boasts a photo gallery, which we will hopefully manage to expand thanks also to our correspondents’ contributions.

May our endeavor be crowned with success and let us hope that, with your contribution as well, this website will soon become a landmark for all those interested in this matter.