Bukovina

Former region in southeastern Europe, covering an area of 10,500 sq km/4,050 sq mi. It is now divided between the Ukraine and Romania.

A province of the former principality of Moldavia, Bukovina (‘Land of Beech Trees’) was under Ottoman control from 1504 until 1775, when it was ceded to Austria. Under Austrian rule, it was successively part of Galicia, a duchy (from 1849), and part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire (1867-1918); thereafter it became a province of Romania. Northern Bukovina was occupied by the USSR in 1940 and included in the Ukrainian SSR as the region of Chernivtsi; this annexation was confirmed by a peace treaty between Romania and the USSR in 1947, but the question of its return has been periodically raised by Romania. The southern part of Bukovina, which remained in Romania, became the district of Suceava.