Soroca is a district in north-east Moldova. Its administrative center is the town of Soroca. In 2018, the population of the region was 100,078.

History

Ancient beginnings

Archeological evidence of prehistoric occupation dating to 35,000 to 50,000 years ago has been found in the Soroco region near the village of Rudi. In about 400 to 300 BC, ancient defensive walls were constructed. From the 9th century to the 12th century AD, two towns developed. They were called 'Farfuria Turceasca' and 'Germanariul'. In the 12th and 13th centuries, a Genoese fortress was expanded at Alchiona. In the period 1439–1457, villages are mentioned: Visoca, Vasilcău, Rudi and Pirlita.

The new town of Soroca

In the second half of the 16th century, Stephan the Great built a wooden fortress on the former Alchiona mount. The fortress was transformed into its present form between 1543 and 1546 during the reign of Peter IV Rareş. The creation of the town allowed for trade along the Nistru while providing protection from foreign invasion. For many years Soroca was a centre for arts and agricultural markets for the Principality of Moldova. At various points in time, Soroca was affected by wars with Tartars, Cossacks,

Poles Pole or poles may refer to: People *Poles (people), another term for Polish people, from the country of Poland * Pole (surname), including a list of people with the name * Pole (musician) (Stefan Betke, born 1967), German electronic music artist ...

and

Russians Russians ( ) are an East Slavs, East Slavic ethnic group native to Eastern Europe. Their mother tongue is Russian language, Russian, the most spoken Slavic languages, Slavic language. The majority of Russians adhere to Eastern Orthodox Church ...

. Between 1684 and 1699, under control of the Poles, changes in Soroca were made. A deep moat was dug; a well was dug in the courtyard. 14 stone casemates inside . Gradually over time, with more stable rule, the town and its region lost military importance.

Soroca in the 19th and 20th centuries

In 1812, Soroca was occupied by

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

. The population became more varied as

Ukrainians Ukrainians (, ) are an East Slavs, East Slavic ethnic group native to Ukraine. Their native tongue is Ukrainian language, Ukrainian, and the majority adhere to Eastern Orthodox Church, Eastern Orthodoxy, forming the List of contemporary eth ...

and

Jews Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

moved to the region. From 1849 to 1917 Soroca was governed as part of the Bessarabia region of the Russian Empire. In 1918, at the conclusion of World War I, Bessarabia was made part of

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

. Until 1944, Soroca remained the administrative centre for this Romanian region. In 1944, as World War II reached its end, Soroca became part of the MSSR. Moldova became an independent state in 1991. Since then Soroca has regained the status of an administrative region of Moldova.

Natural history

Geography

The main geographical feature of Soroca is the Nistru Plateau. The terrain is hilly with deep valleys, dales and ravines. Other features include a gently rolling plain to the north west and the Raut and Nistru rivers. The highest points in Soroca are Vadeni Hill at 347m and the Visoca Hill at 330m.

Soil

The soil is grey or brown to the height of the Nistru prominence. In other areas, the soils are humic-calcareous, chernozem, alluvial soils or swampy. There are active processes of

erosion Erosion is the action of surface processes (such as Surface runoff, water flow or wind) that removes soil, Rock (geology), rock, or dissolved material from one location on the Earth's crust#Crust, Earth's crust and then sediment transport, tran ...

, karst, torrents of mud and sometimes, landslides in the Soroca district.

Climate

The

climate Climate is the long-term weather pattern in a region, typically averaged over 30 years. More rigorously, it is the mean and variability of meteorological variables over a time spanning from months to millions of years. Some of the meteoro ...

in Soroca is

temperate In geography, the temperate climates of Earth occur in the middle latitudes (approximately 23.5° to 66.5° N/S of the Equator), which span between the tropics and the polar regions of Earth. These zones generally have wider temperature ran ...

- continental. Winter is usually mild and short with an average temperature of . Summer is long and warm with an average temperature of . The average annual rainfall is 485 mm. Soroca has a suitable climate for farming cereals,

sugar beet A sugar beet is a plant whose root contains a high concentration of sucrose and that is grown commercially for sugar production. In plant breeding, it is known as the Altissima cultivar group of the common beet (''Beta vulgaris''). Together with ...

, tobacco and also for horticulture.

Fauna

Fauna in the district is typical of steppe areas. In the Nistru basin there are 68 species of fish. Most of Moldova's 270 bird species are present. There is both natural and introduced wildlife. The introduced species include 19 types of mammal, 37 bird species and 7 types of reptile. Native creatures include foxes, hedgehogs, stone marten, deer, wild boar, raccoon dog and

wolf The wolf (''Canis lupus''; : wolves), also known as the grey wolf or gray wolf, is a Canis, canine native to Eurasia and North America. More than thirty subspecies of Canis lupus, subspecies of ''Canis lupus'' have been recognized, includin ...

Flora

7 percent of the district is forested. Common trees include oak, hornbeam, maple, linden, ash and elm. Beneath the trees are hawthorn, hazel, cocksfoot, honey bear and others.

Natural resources

Granite can be found in Cosauti and building stone at Ocland, Vărăncău and Visoca.

Cretaceous The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 143.1 to 66 mya (unit), million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era (geology), Era, as well as the longest. At around 77.1 million years, it is the ...

limestones and iron ores were discovered near the village of Vărăncău. Limestone, for instance in Visoca, is mined for chalk and chalk dust (which is used to make paint). Banks of chalk are also found throughout the Nistru, including in Cremenciug, Soroca, Vasilcău, Vărăncău and Cerlina. The

limestone Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...

is extracted in Visoca.

Protected areas

* Baxani forest * Cosauti landscape reserve *Hill "Casca" from Cremenciug * Nistru threshold from Cosauti * Reef mounds near Visoca * Rudi- Arionesti landscape reserve

Rivers

The Nistru river creates 93 km of the eastern boundary of Soroca. The barrier of the Nistru plateau means the tributaries are short (15 to 25 km). Water from the Nistru river is used for irrigation, public supply and industry. Reservoirs have been constructed to meet public demand. There are also 64 natural reservoirs.

Administrative subdivisions

Soroca has sixty-eight subdivisional areas and thirty-three villages containing thirty-four commons. The administrative centre is the town of Soroca.

Demographics

On 1 January 2012, the district population was 100100. 37.5 percent live in urban areas and 63.5 percent in rural areas. * Births (2010): 1051 (10.5 per 1000) * Deaths (2010): 1427 (14.2 per 1000) *Growth Rate (2010): -376 (−3.7 per 1000)

Ethnic groups

''Footnote'': * There is an ongoing controversy regarding the ethnic identification of Moldovans and Romanians.

Religion

Christians make up 98.4% of Soroca's population. The great majority (97.8%) are of the orthodox faith. Those of

Protestant Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that emphasizes Justification (theology), justification of sinners Sola fide, through faith alone, the teaching that Salvation in Christianity, salvation comes by unmerited Grace in Christianity, divin ...

denominations make up 0.6% of the population while those of other religions or no religion constitute 1.6%. * Orthodox Christians – 97.8% *

– 0.6% ** Seventh-day Adventists – 0.2% ** Evangelicals – 0.2% ** Pentecostals – 0.1% ** Baptists – 0.1% *Other – 1.1% *No Religion 0.5%

Economy

Soroca hosts 24645 registered businesses. 62795 hectares (60.2 percent) of the total land area is used for agriculture. Arable land occupies 55 801 ha (53.5 percent) of the total agricultural land area: * orchards – 6348 (6.0%) ha, * vineyards – 134 ha, others – 512 ha. *

grassland A grassland is an area where the vegetation is dominance (ecology), dominated by grasses (Poaceae). However, sedge (Cyperaceae) and rush (Juncaceae) can also be found along with variable proportions of legumes such as clover, and other Herbaceo ...

– 11794 ha (11.3%) *other – 512 ha.

Education

Soroca has about 58 educational institutions catering for preschool to tertiary students. The total number of students is approximately 12023. Among others, there is a boarding school in Visoca; a special school in Soloneţ; as well as a temporary placement centre for at risk children. In Azimut there is "The Icarus day center for disabled children". In Dacia there is "The house of hope" for youth. Specialised areas of education include sports, teachers' training, agricultural training and a school for the arts. A vocational school has about 308 students.

Politics

Soroca lies in the North Red electoral region. In elections of the first decade of the 21st century, the PCRM achieved 50% of the vote in Soroca. See the table below for the results of the 2010 election. District is one of the founding members of Euroregion Dniester. , - ! style="background:#e9e9e9; text-align:center;" colspan="2", Parties and coalitions ! style="background:#e9e9e9; text-align:right;", Votes ! style="background:#e9e9e9; text-align:right;", % ! style="background:#e9e9e9; text-align:right;", +/− , - , , align=left,

Party of Communists of the Republic of Moldova The Party of Communists of the Republic of Moldova (, PCRM) is a communist party in Moldova led by Vladimir Voronin. It is the only communist party to have held a majority government in a post-Soviet state. It has been variously described as Com ...

, align="right", 20,595 , align="right", 46.29 , align="right", −2.36 , - , , align=left, Liberal Democratic Party of Moldova , align="right", 9,816 , align="right", 22.06 , align="right", +8.68 , - , , align=left, Democratic Party of Moldova , align="right", 6,322 , align="right", 14.21 , align="right", -1.88 , - , , align=left, Liberal Party , align="right", 2,565 , align="right", 5.76 , align="right", −2.20 , - , , align=left, Party Alliance Our Moldova , align="right", 2,097 , align="right", 4.71 , align="right", −5.86 , - , style="background:#03c;", , align=left, European Action Movement , align="right", 937 , align="right", 2.11 , align="right", +2.11 , - , style="background:gray;", , align=left, Other Party , align="right", 2,180 , align="right", 4.86 , align="right", +1.51 , - , style="text-align:left; background:#e9e9e9;" colspan="2", Total (turnout 60.25%) , style="text-align:right; width:30px; background:#e9e9e9;", 44,867 , style="text-align:right; width:30px; background:#e9e9e9;", 100.00 , style="text-align:right; width:30px; background:#e9e9e9;",

Culture

The Soroca region hosts a number of cultural centres and libraries. There are also museums, art galleries and monuments. The region preserves objects of national importance and local importance. There are two monasteries: The Monastery of the Assumption in Cosuti and the Monastery of Rudi.

Health

Soroca has a general hospital with about 375 beds. It is complemented by general practitioners, health centres and specialists.

Personalities

* Emanuil Gavriliță – lawyer, journalist and activist * Eugen Coca – composer and violinist * Kira Muratova – director, screenwriter * Leonte Tismăneanu – Communist militant * Luda Kroitor – Australian dancer, five-time world champion salsa, winner of the Australian show " Dancing with the Stars" (2008) * Robert Steinberg – Canadian and American mathematician, known for his work on representation theory * Samuel Bronfman – Canadian businessman, billionaire, philanthropist and founder of the distillery company " Seagram" * Margareta Timofti – First Lady of Moldova (2012-2016)

References

{{Authority control Districts of Moldova