Journey to Bender in Transnistria

Anna Kulchenko writes: “Another city of Pridnestrovie that we visited in addition to Tiraspol is Bendery, famous primarily for its fortress.”

(Total 25 photos)

Source: Journal/kulchenko

1. You can get from Tiraspol to Bender by the most ordinary intercity trolley bus. The fare is approximately 9 Russian rubles. The length of the route, of course, is small - 33.3 km (in contrast to the 96-kilometer trolleybus route Simferopol - Yalta, on which we also already rode).

2. Bendery is a small town on the right bank of the Dniester River (about 100 thousand people).

3. The city center is mainly made up of buildings of the late 19th - early 20th century, on the outskirts there are modern 5-, 9-story and the highest - 14-16-story residential complexes. On a warm October Monday, the streets of the city were not very crowded.

4. During the Second World War, the city was destroyed almost to the ground, not a single enterprise survived, but in the 50s the city began to revive again. Bendery reached its greatest prosperity in the socio-economic development by the mid-80s of the 20th century. The largest enterprises of the city supplied their products to more than 40 foreign countries and to all corners of the Soviet Union. In 1992, during the Transnistrian conflict, the city suffered great damage as a result of hostilities, 140 residential buildings were damaged.

5. Some kind of warning system.

6. Lenin in Bendery suddenly turned green. During its existence, the figure of the leader was painted in colors from gold to dark green.

7. We paid attention to the beautiful paving slabs.

8. Fat-Frumos and Balaur are characters of Romanian and Moldavian folklore, analogues of Ivan Tsarevich and Serpent Gorynych.

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10. A.S. repeatedly visited Bendery. Pushkin during his southern exile in the early 19th century. In this city there is a monument to the poet. Pushkin also walked near the walls of the Bendery fortress, where we walked with pleasure. By the way, Denis' post about Bendery is HERE.

11. Such an unusual installation was installed near the fire station.

12. But in such an unusual way they put things in order after autumn leaf fall.

13. The Transnistrian conflict began in 1989, and in 1992 it led to armed confrontation and numerous casualties on both sides. Armed actions were stopped after Russian troops under the command of General Alexander Lebed, well-known in our area, intervened in the conflict to protect civilians. Currently, security in the conflict zone (and relations between the parties to the conflict remain tense) is still provided by peacekeeping forces. The monument to A. Lebed was opened on the Day of Russia on June 12, 2012 at the Memorial of Memory and Sorrow.

14. As of 2014, only Abkhazia, Nagorno-Karabakh and South Ossetia recognized the independence of the MRT.

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16. For many years, the fortress was not accessible to the public, as it is located on the territory of a military unit, now part of the fortress is open to those who wish and is under long-term (since 2008) restoration. To get to the walls of the fortress, you need to overcome some distance through the territory of the industrial zone; in Soviet times, factories were set up around, not particularly caring about the proximity to the historical monument.

17. Literally near the walls of the fortress there is a bust of Baron Munchausen. It was a real discovery for me to learn that Munchausen, it turns out, is not a fictional character, but a real person. Next to the bust is a model of a cannonball with a seat, on which he flew over the fortress, but this, of course, is a literary fiction. “Baron Munchausen, as part of the regiments of Prince Ulrich, showed particular fearlessness in a bloody battle with the Turks in the area of the river. Squirrel (Rybnitsa) August 14, 1738. It was this campaign against Bendery that later became the basis for the story “Flight on a cannonball over the fortress,” is written on one of the plates next to the bust.

18. An alley of glory for Russian commanders has been created on the territory of the fortress.

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20. Restoration work is underway on the territory, while the cultural monument is rather boring. Although there is a small museum.

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22. There were no people who wanted to walk around the territory of the fortress except for us, but for sure all Bendery schoolchildren visited here.

23. The Bendery fortress is the main motive for postcards, souvenirs from Bendery, and its image can also be found on Pridnestrovian currency and stamps.

24. An 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 of the Turks in the Russo-Turkish wars. During the Russian-Turkish wars in the 18th century, this territory passed from hand to hand, it is for the merits in those battles in Bendery that Mikhail Kutuzov is remembered and honored.

25. Model of the fortress in the museum on the territory of the historical military memorial complex.