The author thanks Oleg M. Baev, Stepan I. Beril, Klemens Büscher, Alena Guboglo, Gottfried Hanne, Pål Kolstø, Valeriu Moşneaga, Claus Neukirch, Randolf Oberschmidt, Alla Skvorţova and Victoria Umaneţ for materials, advice and criticism. – Instead of “Trans-Dniester”, “Transdniestria”, “Dniestria” and other anglicized Latin-Slavic forms in the following the Latin “Transnistria” for the Russian “Pridnestrov’e” (meaning literally not Transnistria – the region “beyond river Nistru/Dniester” – but Cisnistria – the region “on our side of the river”) is used.