BENDER (more correctly BENDERY)  , a town of Russia, in the government of Bessarabia, on the right bank of the Dniester, 37 M. by rail S.E. of Kishinev . It possesses a tobacco factory, candle-works and brick-kilns, and is an important river port, vessels discharging here their cargoes of corn, wine, wool, cattle, flour and tallow, to be conveyed by land to Odessa and to Yassy in Rumania . Timber also is floated down the Dniester . The citadel was dismantled in 1897 . The town had in 1867 a population of 24,443, and in 1900 of 33,741, the greater proportion being Jews . As early as the 12th century the Genoese had a settlement on the site of Bender . In 1709 Charles XII., after the defeat of Poltava, collected his forces here in a camp which they called New Stockholm, and continued there till 1713 . Bender was taken by the Russians in 1770, in 1789 and in 1806, but it was not held permanently by Russia till 1812 .