Hungarian Csángós in Moldavia [antikvár]

The present study attempts to cast into relief the 16lh-17lh century history of the Hungarians living in Moldavia. First, however, it is necessary to present somé well-known facts. The borders of the Moldávián voivodship, which was one of the two Románián principalities until 1859, and since then a part of the unified Románián state, were changed several times in the course of history.1 This paper deals with the whole of historical Moldavia, which comprises a large territory from the eastern slopes of the Carpathians to the River Dnester. This includes the areas beyond the River Prut: Bessarabia and Budzsák, which were both assigned to Russia in the Treaty of Bucharest in 1812, as well as Bucovina in the north, which was brought under Austrian rule in 1775. In the south, this entire territory is bordered by the lower reaches of the River Szeret/Siret, the Lower Danube, and the Black Sea. BRIEF HISTORY OF MOLDAVIA For over a millennium, this 93,000 square km fiat area-there is only a strip of hilly region along the western bordér-was the military springboard for equestrian-shepherd peoples coming from Asia and heading west. Somé of them merely crossed the area in question, others settled for a shorter or longer period.2 First were the Huns, followed by the Avars and somé Bulgárián tribes. In the second half of the 9th century came the Hungarians; then it was the turn of the Pechenegs and the Uz. Finally, in the llth century, came the Cumanians who were stopped by the frontier defences of the Hungárián kingdom. While the Pechenegs and the Uzes were dispersed by the battles, the Cumanians were forced to settle down in Moldavia and Wallachia. Nevertheless, later in the 1240s, they were not only dispersed, they were destroyed as a nation by the great Mongol-Tartar invasion. The several century long period of warfare and its effects-destruction and uncertainty-ended only in the 14th century when, under the command of András Lackfi-bailiff of the Székelys-the army of Nagy Lajos [Louis the Great], King of Hungary, forced the Tartars back to the River Dnester (1345) once and for all.