a city in the Moldavian SSR, a river port on the right bank of the Dnestr, as well as an important rail connection. Population, 72,000 (1969). In the 12th century the Genoese built a fort here at the site of an ancient settlement. In the early 16th century it was taken by the Turks. Russian troops occupied it three times (1770, 1789, and 1806) during the Russo-Turkish wars of the 18th and 19th century. The Treaty of Bucharest in 1812 made it a part of Russia along with the rest of Bessarabia. After 1818 it was a district center. From 1918 to 1940 it was part of boyar Rumania, but on June 28, 1940, it was reunited with Moldavia. In the period 1941–44 the German fascist aggressors almost completely destroyed Bendery. The city was liberated by the Soviet Army on Aug. 23, 1944. Bendery is one of the industrial centers of the republic. Light industry and food industry enterprises are important: there is a meat-packing combine, a vegetable oil-extracting plant, and a wine-making and canning plant, as well as a silk-making combine, a cotton spinning factory, a shoe factory, a garment factory, and others. The Moldavia Cable Plant, an electrical appliance plant, a plant for reinforced concrete structures, and the Fane-rodetal’ Combine are all located there. Bendery has a light industry technicum and a medical college, as well as a museum of local lore and people’s theater. The fortress, of rectangular design, founded in 1538, has been preserved along with its inner citadel (the Turkish architect Sinan). An early 19th-century cathedral has also been preserved.