This land around the town of Herța was part of historic Moldavia, Cernăuți region, from the 14th century. In 1775 the Austrian Hapsburgs annexed an area of north western Moldavia and named that area “Bukowina” but this did not include the lands around Herța (apart from a few villages on the western edge). This area remained in Moldavia as Ținutul Herța, and as part of Romania until 1940 and was not part of eastern Moldavia that was annexed by Russia in 1812. Following the occupation by Soviet troops in 1939, Herța was annexed by the USSR in 1940, retaken by Romania in 1941 and at the Paris peace treaty in 1947 the refusal by the USSR to return the area to Romania led to the area being allocated to the Ukraine.