Russia is |
Peoples of Russia
Moldovans
Their self-designation is Moldoven; they are a Roman people in the Southeastern Europe.
Language
The Moldovans speak the Moldovan language of the Eastern subgroup of the Romanian group of the Indo-European family. The Moldovans living in Pridnestrovye (32 % of the population of the republic) uses the Moldovan language on the basis of the Cyrillic alphabet. The Russian and, to a lesser degree, the Ukrainian language are also widespread among the Moldovans.
Dwellings
For a traditional countryside dwelling, a three-chamber layout is typical: the anteroom (tinde) separates the residential space (kemare) from the guestroom (kasa mare). In the central and southern regions, the traits of the ancient Moldovan dwelling are preserved – a mound of earth and a gallery on the facade side. The modern houses have more rooms and improved layout without losing the national color. In the interior decoration, there is a tradition preserved to decorate rooms with wall carpets (skoartse, rezboy, kovor), runner rugs (peretar, leicher, kadrel), coverlets (cherge, polog), towels.
Food
In the traditional diet, the dishes made from corn flour, dairy products and vegetables had a significant place. The corn flour mamalyga, which was used in place of bread, was cooked every day. The typical dishes are vegetable soup (chorbe), layered pie with brynza (plechinte), stuffed grape leaves (sarmale), creamed kidney beans with crushed garlic (fasole fekeluite), etc. For drinking, self-made and bought grape wines are used. Previously Moldovans used to make plum or apple vodka (tsuika).
Occupations
The main traditional occupations are cattle breeding, since the middle of the 19th century also agriculture (winter wheat, spring barley, corn), wine growing and gardening; home crafts are weaving, carpetmaking, pottery, woodwork, leatherwork, stonework. In some regions of Moldavia, fishing and hunting were widespread.
