Breakaway state on the left bank of the Dniester, internationally recognized as part of Moldova. Declared in 1990 as the USSR dissolved, it fought a short war with Moldova in 1992 and has run its own government, army and currency from Tiraspol ever since, with a Russian "peacekeeping" garrison in place.
The standard English history of Moldova — the fullest scholarly account of the Transnistria conflict and the PMR.