The natural brown forest soils, currently called ”brownzems”, formed on the Codrii Plateau in the central part of Republic of Moldova are described. As a result of the research, it was found that these soils were formed as a result of semi-arid climatic conditions for the peripheral hills of the Codrii; contrasting conditions of the semi-arid hydrothermal regime of the soils on the Codrii Plateau as a result of the latitudinal position of the territory and the sandy-loamy granulometry of the parental rocks; multiple climatic oscillations during the entire period of the Holocene; impact of the long-term anthropogenic factor that began in the 4th millennium BC, which led to deforestation and use of the soils as arable land; permanent invasions of nomads, which caused the change of the anthropic phase of pedogenesis of post-forestry arable soils with that of pedogenesis under secondary steppe vegetation and the progradation of forest soils into the chernozems. Brown forest soils can be divided by highlighting the process that dominates the textural differentiation of their profile: spodosolification or "in situ" argillisation and leaching. The Brownzems from Republic of Moldova differentiated into two subtypes: typical Luvic and Luvic-stagnic.