Budzhak. A historical land of the 16th-19th century between the lower Danube River and the lower Dniester River in southern Bessarabia, consisting of steppe that is flat in the south and undulating in the north. In the 17th-18th century the Budzhak was inhabited by the Bilhorod Horde. Along with the rest of Bessarabia, it was ceded to Russia by Turkey under the Bucharest Peace Treaty of 1812.