Tighina, also called Bender, city in southeastern Moldova, on the west bank of the Dniester River. Major products include textiles, food products, cables, and electrical equipment. An Ottoman fortress dating from the 16th century is located in the city.
A settlement existed at the site of present-day Tighina in the 2nd century BC. It was conquered successively by forces from Kyiv (Kiev), Mongolia, Genoa, Moldova, and the Ottoman Empire. In 1818, after repeated attacks, Russia captured the town. Between World War I (1914-1918) and World War II (1939-1945) Tighina was part of Romania. After World War II it became a soviet (organization of local administration) within the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic (SSR), a republic of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). As the USSR began to decline in the late 1980s, Tighina, which had a large ethnic Russian population, agitated for closer identification with the USSR. In 1989 Tighina, together with other soviets of the Moldavian SSR, rejected the Romanian language as the official language of the republic. The Tighina soviet also started a program of civil disobedience against the government of the Moldavian SSR.
