Bessarabia (Basarabia in Romanian, Бесарабія in Ukrainian, Бессарабия in Russian, Бесарабия in Bulgarian, Besarabya in Turkish, Bessarabien in German, בעסאַראַביע in Yiddish) is a historical term for the geographic entity in Eastern Europe bounded by the Dniester River on the east and the Prut River on the west. This was the name by which Imperial Russia designated the eastern part of the Principality of Moldavia, ceded by the Ottoman Empire (to which Moldavia was a vassal) to Russia at the Peace of Bucharest in the aftermath of the Russo-Turkish War, 1806-1812. The remaining western part of Moldavia united with Wallachia in 1859 in what would become the Kingdom of Romania. (For a short period between 1856 and 1878, two of the nine traditional counties of Bessarabia were also part of Moldavia and then Romania.)
Wikivoyage covers the area in the following articles:
- Moldova — an independent country
- Southern Ukraine — the southernmost parts on the Black Sea coast
- Western Ukraine — the northernmost bit