The Roma set out from northwestern India and reached the Principality of Moldavia almost six centuries ago. Follow the route on the map, discover the key moments of this history and today's Roma communities in Moldova and the wider region.
No written records describe the departure from India. The route has been reconstructed mainly through language: every stop left new words in Romani.
Approximate, simplified route. The migration happened in waves over several centuries, not as a single journey.
Romani is related to the Indo-Aryan languages of northern India, such as Hindi and Punjabi. The ancestors of the Roma gradually left this region; the exact dating is still debated by researchers.
The passage through the Persian world left many words in Romani. One of them is baxt — “luck”, also found in the greeting Te aven baxtale!
Armenian loanwords in Romani show lasting contact with this region before the arrival in the Byzantine Empire.
Byzantine sources mention groups that can be identified with the Roma. Words such as drom — “road” — come from Greek. The exonym “Gypsy” in its local forms (in Romanian, țigan) also originates here and is considered derogatory today.
Roma communities are recorded in Greece, Bulgaria and Serbia. From here, some of them crossed the Danube to the north.
The first known document mentioning Roma in the Romanian lands: Prince Dan I confirms the donation of 40 families (sălașe) to the Vodița Monastery.
Alexander the Good donates 31 Roma families to the Bistrița Monastery — the first documentary record of Roma in Moldavia. From this moment on, Roma history is part of Moldova's history.
The history of the Roma of Moldova unfolds where the Romanian Principalities, the Russian Empire, interwar Romania and the Soviet Union meet.
For almost five centuries the Roma of Moldavia and Wallachia were enslaved by the princely court, monasteries and boyars. They could be sold, donated or inherited. Many were craftsmen: blacksmiths, musicians (lăutari), spoon-makers, builders.
The territory between the Prut and the Dniester is annexed by the Russian Empire. The legal status of the Roma of Bessarabia begins to evolve separately from that of Moldavia west of the Prut, under the Empire's laws and tax categories.
In Moldavia, Roma owned by the state and monasteries are freed in 1844, and those owned by boyars in 1855, under Prince Grigore Alexandru Ghica. Wallachia completes emancipation in 1856. Legal freedom came without land or economic support.
In the USSR a Cyrillic-based Romani alphabet, schools and publications appear, and in 1931 the Romen Theatre opens in Moscow. By the late 1930s these initiatives are curtailed.
The Antonescu regime deports about 25,000 Roma from Romania, including Bessarabia, to Transnistria. According to the International Commission on the Holocaust in Romania, around 11,000 of them died. Roma call the wartime genocide Samudaripen or Porajmos.
A Soviet decree bans itinerant life and forces still-nomadic families to settle. The measure deeply changes the communities' occupations and way of life.
In London, on 8 April, community representatives adopt the flag, the anthem “Gelem, Gelem” and the name “Roma”. The date later becomes International Roma Day.
Roma organisations emerge and the Government adopts action plans to support the Roma population. Since 2013 community mediators have linked communities with local authorities.
In the 2014 census, 9,323 people declared themselves Roma. Roma organisations and independent studies estimate a higher number, as not everyone declares their ethnicity.
Select a red dot on the map. Grey dots are reference towns. The list is illustrative: Roma communities live in many other towns and villages.
The capital is home to a large and diverse Roma community, most Roma organisations and many of the cultural events dedicated to the Roma.
Soroca's “Roma Hill” is known for its spectacular houses, inspired by famous buildings. The town is often called, unofficially, the “Roma capital”.
A small town on the Dniester, on the border with Ukraine, with one of the largest Roma communities in the country.
A town in northern Moldova with an active Roma community involved in local and educational initiatives.
One of the northern towns where Roma form a visible part of the population.
The country's second-largest city, with a long-established Roma community. The Ethnographic Association of Roma is based here.
From Moldova to the Baltic states and Central Asia, the former Soviet space includes communities with different histories, languages and traditions.
The Roma are not a uniform community. Group names may reflect migrations, dialects, historical occupations or ties to a particular territory. They are not the same as citizenship: several groups live in the same country, and one group may have communities in several states.
Approximate locations: each dot marks the historical region associated with a group, not its present distribution. The former Soviet area is shown in a darker shade. Filters zoom the map to the selected region.
The groupings below are an editorial arrangement by historical regional ties, based on the 14 names in the source article. They are not an exhaustive ethnological classification or a map of present-day distribution. Regions overlap, and names and spellings differ between sources.
The groups described in the article have historical ties with Moldova, including the wider historical region. Their presence extends beyond the borders of the Republic of Moldova.
The name refers to the old occupation of travelling with trained bears. The article later describes the link of some communities with blacksmithing. The name preserves an occupational memory without indicating what members do today.
Presented in connection with Moldova and Transcarpathia, they are historically associated with metalwork. The article mentions their own Romani dialect and dress traditions.
The name is linked to making wooden spoons and vessels. The source describes Romanian-speaking communities, showing that ethnocultural identity does not always mean speaking Romani.
The article uses this name for a group with roots in Moldova and migrations to Ukraine and Russia. It mentions Romanian influences in their dialect. The name does not refer to all Roma of Chișinău.
A group with a long history in Russia and ties to other Eastern European territories. The article highlights their musical traditions and the circulation of repertoire between communities.
Historical ties with Polish milieus in Belarus, Lithuania and Latgale are described. The group name does not automatically coincide with the borders of today's Polish state.
Communities historically associated with Latvia and cultural contacts in the Baltic region. The article also mentions families settled in other former Soviet countries.
A group historically linked to Ukraine, with communities also described in Russia. Contact with the Ukrainian environment shaped their language and cultural practices; family experiences differ.
The article describes a group in Ukraine and southern Russia with historical ties to Wallachia. The name should not be confused with all speakers of Vlax Romani dialects.
Presented in the context of Transcarpathia, they speak Hungarian in the communities described. The term in the article is a regional label, not the name of all Roma in Hungary.
These histories link the Romanian and Central European space with territories of the former Russian Empire and the USSR. These ties overlap with the regions above.
The name is linked to metalwork and cauldron-making. The source describes migrations from the Romanian lands and the preservation of varieties of Romani and community traditions.
The article traces historical ties with Hungary and migrations to Russia. Horse trading appears as a historical occupation; it does not define the current activities of group members.
A group described with origins in the Carpathian area and a presence in Ukraine, Russia and Azerbaijan. We keep the transliterated name from the article, without extending the description to all Roma of these countries.
Communities documented mainly in Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. They are sometimes included in studies under the label “Central Asian Roma”, but their history, languages and self-identification call for a distinct presentation. We do not automatically equate them with European Roma groups.
Sources describe the use of Tajik and Uzbek in different communities. The choice of name should respect people's preferences; “Lyuli” can be derogatory in some contexts.
Starting source for the ethnic groups: Nikolai Bessonov's article “Roma ethnic groups in the post-Soviet space”. The descriptions have been summarised and rephrased. Historical observations about occupations, religion or language do not describe every person and are not current data about the whole community. See also the Council of Europe's history factsheets.
The historical information on this page is summarised from the sources below.
Map outlines: Natural Earth (public domain). The maps are illustrative and do not represent positions on borders.