BALTA, the chief town of the autonomous Moldavian S.S.R. Lat. 55' N., Long. 29° 35' E. Pop. (1926) 21,374. It is linked by road and rail with Odessa and Kiev and has annual fairs, mainly dealing in cattle, horses, grain and hide. It has tallow-melting, soap boiling, tile-making and brewing industries. The town was formerly the residence of the Podolian voivode and was almost r destroyed by the Russians in 1780, but after the peace of Jassy, 1792, when the Dniester was recognized as a frontier, Balta became definitely a Russian town.