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Odessa
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Odessa or Odesa (; ; ; ; ) is the administrative center of the Odessa Oblast (province) located in southern Ukraine. The city is a major seaport located on the shore of the Black Sea and the fourth largest city in Ukraine with a population of 1,029,000 (as of the 2001 census).
From 1819–1858 Odessa was a free port. During the Soviet period it was the most important port of trade in the Soviet Union and a Soviet naval base. On January 1, 2000 the Quarantine Pier of Odessa trade sea port was declared a free port and free economic zone for a term of 25 years.
In the 19th century it was the fourth largest city of Imperial Russia, after Moscow, Saint Petersburg, and Warsaw.
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Encyclopedia
Odessa or Odesa (; ; ; ; ) is the administrative center of the Odessa Oblast (province) located in southern Ukraine. The city is a major seaport located on the shore of the Black Sea and the fourth largest city in Ukraine with a population of 1,029,000 (as of the 2001 census).
From 1819–1858 Odessa was a free port. During the Soviet period it was the most important port of trade in the Soviet Union and a Soviet naval base. On January 1, 2000 the Quarantine Pier of Odessa trade sea port was declared a free port and free economic zone for a term of 25 years.
In the 19th century it was the fourth largest city of Imperial Russia, after Moscow, Saint Petersburg, and Warsaw. Its historical architecture has a flavor more Mediterranean than Russian, having been heavily influenced by French and Italian styles.
Odessa is a warm water port, but of limited military value. Turkey's control of the Dardanelles and Bosphorus has enabled NATO to control water traffic between Odessa and the Mediterranean Sea. The city of Odessa hosts two important ports: Odessa itself and Yuzhny (also an internationally important oil terminal), situated in the city's suburbs. Another important port, Illichivs'k (or Ilyichyovsk), is located in the same oblast, to the south-west of Odessa. Together they represent a major transportation junction integrated with railways. Odessa's oil- and chemical-processing facilities are connected to Russia's and EU's respective networks by strategic pipelines.
Name
The origin of the name, or the reasons for naming the town Odessa, are not known, though etymologies and anecdotes abound. According to one of the stories, when someone suggested Odessos as a name for the new port (see History), Catherine II said that all names in the South of the Empire were already 'masculine,' and didn't want yet another one, so she decided to change it to more 'feminine' Odessa. This anecdote is highly dubious, because there were at least two cities (Eupatoria and Theodosia) whose names sound 'feminine' for a Russian; besides, the Tsarina was not a native Russian speaker, and finally, all cities are feminine in Greek (as well as in Latin). Another legend derives the name 'Odessa' from the word-play: in French (which was then the language spoken at the Russian court), 'plenty of water' is assez d'eau; if said backwards, it sounds similar to that of the Greek colony's name (and water-related pun makes perfect sense, because Odessa, though situated next to the huge body of water, has limited fresh water supply). Regardless, a link with the name of the ancient Greek colony persists, so there might be some truth in the oral tradition.
History
From the first settlements to the end of the 19th century
The site of Odessa was once occupied by an ancient Greek colony. Archeological artifacts confirm links between the Odessa area and the eastern Mediterranean. In the Middle Ages the Odessa region was ruled in succession by various nomadic tribes (Petchenegs, Cumans), the Golden Horde, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the Crimean Khanate and the Ottoman Empire. Yedisan Crimean Tatars traded there in the 14th century. During the reign of Khan Haci I Giray, the Khanate was endangered by the Golden Horde and the Ottoman Turks and, in search of allies, the khan agreed to cede the area to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The site of present-day Odessa was then a town known as Khadjibey (also spelled as Khadjibei, Khacdjibei, Hacibey, Hocabey or Gadzhibei in Turkish; Lithuanian: Chadžibejus; Crimean Tatar: Hacibey) and was part of the Dykra region. However, most of the area was mostly uninhabited.
Khadjibey came under direct control of the Ottoman Empire after 1529 and was part of a region known as Yedisan and was administered in the Ottoman Silistra (Özi) Province. In the mid-18th century, the Ottomans rebuilt a fortress at Khadjibey (also was known Hocabey), which was named Yeni Dünya. Hocabey was a sanjak centre of Silistre Province.
During the Russo-Turkish War of 1787–1792, on 25 September 1789, a detachment of Russian forces under Ivan Gudovich took Khadjibey and Yeni Dünya for the Russian Empire. One part of the troops was under command of a Spaniard in Russian service, Major General José de Ribas (known in Russia as Osip Mikhailovich Deribas) and the main street in Odessa today, Deribasovskaya Street, is named after him. Russia formally gained possession of the area as a result of the Treaty of Jassy (Iasi) in 1792 and it became a part of the so-called Novorossiya ("New Russia").
The city was officially founded in 1794 as a Imperial Russian naval fortress on the ruins of Khadjibey and renamed Odessa by January 1795, when its new name was first mentioned in official correspondence.
However, adjacent to the new official locality, a Romanian colony already existed, which by the end of 1700s was an independent settlement known under the name of Moldavanka. Legend has it that the settlement predates Odessa by about thirty years and asserts that the locality was founded by Romanians from Moldavia (hence the name) who came to build the fortress of Yeni Dunia for the Ottomans and eventually settled in the area in the late 1760s, right next to the settlement of Khadjibey (since 1795 Odessa proper), on what later became the Primorskii Boulevard.
The Romanians owned relatively small plots on which they built village style houses and cultivated vineyards and gardens. What was to become Mikhailovskaia Square was the centre of this settlement and the site of its first Orthodox church, the Church of the Dormition, built in 1821 close to the sea shore, as well as of a cemetery. Nearby were the military barracks and the country houses (dacha) of the city's wealthy residents, including that of the Duc de Richelieu, appointed by Czar Alexande I as Governor of Odessa in 1803.
In the period from 1795 to 1814 the population of Odesa has increased 15 times and reached almost 20 thousand people. Colonist of various ethnicities settled mainly in the area of former Romanian colony, outside of the official boundaries, and as a consequence, in the first third of the nineteenth century, Moldavanka emerged as the dominant settlement.
After planning by the official architects who designed buildings in Odessa's central district, such as the Italians Franz Karlowicz Boffo and Giovanni Torichelli, Moldovanka was included in the general city plan, though the original grid-like plan of Moldovankan streets, lanes and squares remained unchanged.
The new city quickly became a major success. Its early growth owed much to the work of the Duc de Richelieu, who served as the city's governor between 1803–1814. Having fled the French Revolution, he had served in Catherine's army against the Turks. He is credited with designing the city and organizing its amenities and infrastructure, and is considered one of the founding fathers of Odessa, together with another Frenchman, Count Louis Alexandre Andrault de Langeron, who succeeded him in office. Richelieu is commemorated by a bronze statue, unveiled in 1828 to a design by Ivan Martos.
In 1819 the city was made a free port, a status it retained until 1859. It became home to an extremely diverse population of Ukrainians, Russians, Jews, Poles, Romanians, Greeks, Bulgarians, Albanians, Armenians, Italians, Frenchmen, Germans (including Mennonites) and traders representing many other nationalities (hence numerous 'ethnic' names on the city's map, e.g., Frantsuszkiy (French) and Italianskiy (Italian) Boulevards, Grecheskaya (Greek), Evreyskaya (Jewish), Arnautskaya (Albanian) Streets). Its cosmopolitan nature was documented by the great Russian poet Alexander Pushkin, who lived in internal exile in Odessa between 1823–1824. In his letters he wrote that Odessa was a city where "you can smell Europe. French is spoken and there are European papers and magazines to read".
Odessa's growth was interrupted by the Crimean War of 1853–1856, during which it was bombarded by British and French naval forces. It soon recovered and the growth in trade made Odessa Russia's largest grain-exporting port. In 1866 the city was linked by rail with Kiev and Kharkiv as well as Iasi, Romania.
The city became the home of a large Jewish community during the 19th century, and by 1897 Jews were estimated to comprise some 37% of the population. They were, however, repeatedly subjected to severe persecution. Pogroms were carried out in 1821, 1859, 1871, 1881, and 1905. Many Odessan Jews fled abroad, particularly to Palestine after 1882, and the city became an important base of support for Zionism.
First half of the 20th century
In 1905 Odessa was the site of a workers' uprising supported by the crew of the Russian battleship Potemkin (also see Battleship Potemkin uprising) and Lenin's Iskra. Sergei Eisenstein's famous motion picture The Battleship Potemkin commemorated the uprising and included a scene where hundreds of Odessan citizens were murdered on the great stone staircase (now popularly known as the "Potemkin Steps"), in one of the most famous scenes in motion picture history. At the top of the steps, which lead down to the port, stands a statue of the Duc de Richelieu. The actual massacre took place in streets nearby, not on the steps themselves, but the movie caused many to visit Odessa to see the site of the "slaughter". The "Odessa Steps" continue to be a tourist attraction in Odessa. The film was made at Odessa's Cinema Factory, one of the oldest cinema studios in the former Soviet Union.
Following the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917 during World War I, Odessa was occupied by several groups, including the Ukrainian Tsentral'na Rada, the French Army, the Red Army and the White Army. Finally, in 1920, the Red Army took control of Odessa and united it with the Ukrainian SSR, which later became part of the USSR.
The people of Odessa suffered from a famine that occurred in 1921–1922 as a result of the Civil war. In 1941 the retreating Red Army units destroyed as much as they could of Odessa harbour facilities. The city was land mined in the same way as Kiev. During World War II, from 1941–1944, Odessa was subject to Romanian administration, as the city had been made part of the Transnistria occupation district. Romanians used the name 'Odessa' as the Ukrainian version of the city. The Romanian occupation may be described a "soft one" compared to the short period of German occupying in 1944. The Romanian commanding General made an "unofficial armistice" with the partisans hidden in the city's catacombs, who in their turn did not made many activities against the Romanians. At the same time, the occupying administration continued to run the public schools, theatres and the university, and to allow locals to operate private businesses. The Romanian State Railways (CFR) connected, after the change of the Russian gauge 1,524mm to European 1,435mm gauge, Odessa with two daily express trains to Bucharest-Gara de Nord. These trains run until March 19, 1944. In addition to the CFR trains, there was a daily train 841 / 941 introduced in 1942 from Odessa, for German soldiers, to Szolnok in Hungary and back.
When the people of Odessa suffered from hunger, the Romanians transported grain from Bessarabia to Odessa in 1942 and 1943. It is told that the Romanians imported the best cognac and wines, in addition to two train loads of the best French food in 1942 to the restaurants of Odessa, from France. During the April 1944 battle Odessa suffered severe damage and many casualties. Many parts of Odessa were damaged during its siege and recapture on 10 April 1944, when the city was finally liberated by the Red Army. It was one of the first four Soviet cities to be awarded the title of "Hero City" in 1945, though local narratives, though sometimes ambivalent, often contradict Soviet claims that the occupation was a time of hardship, deprivation, oppression and suffering - claims embodied in public monuments and disseminated through the media to this day. Subsequent Soviet policies imprisoned and executed numerous Odessans (and deported most of the German and Tatar population) on account of collaboration with the occupiers.
The Odessa Massacre
Following the Siege of Odessa, and the Axis occupation, approximately 25,000 Odessans (mostly Jews) were murdered and over 35,000 deported. Most of the atrocities were committed during the first six months of the occupation which officially begun on 17th October 1941, after the bombing of the Romanian HQ and the subsequent brutal response of the Romanian military. After this time period, the Romanian administration changed its policy, refusing to deport the remaining Jewish population to extermination camps in Poland, and allowing Jews to work as hired labourers. As a result, despite the tragic events of 1941, the survival of the Jews in this area was higher than in other areas of occupied Europe.
Second half of the 20th century
During the 1960s and 1970s the city grew tremendously. Nevertheless, the majority of Odessa's Jews emigrated to Israel, the United States and other Western countries between the 1970s and 1990s. Domestic migration of Odessan middle and upper classes to Moscow and Leningrad that offered even greater opportunities for career advancement, also occurred on a large scale. But the city grew rapidly by filling the void with new rural migrants elsewhere from Ukraine and industrial professionals invited from all over the Soviet Union.
Despite being part of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, the city preserved and somewhat reinforced its unique cosmopolitan mix of Russian/Ukrainian/Mediterranean culture and a predominantly Russophone environment with a uniquely accented dialect of Russian spoken in the city. The city's Russian, Ukrainian, Greek, Armenian, Moldovan, Bulgarian, and Jewish communities have influenced different aspects of Odessa life.
In 1991, after the collapse of Communism, the city became part of newly independent Ukraine. Today Odessa is a city of more than 1 million people. The city's industries include shipbuilding, oil refining, chemicals, metalworking and food processing. Odessa is also a Ukrainian naval base and home to a fishing fleet. It is also known for its huge outdoor market, the Seventh-Kilometer Market, the biggest market of the kind in Europe.
Government and administrative divisions
While Odessa is the administrative center of the Odessa Oblast (province), the city is the capital of the Odessa City Municipality. However, Odessa is a city of oblast subordinance, thus being subject directly to the oblast authorities rather to the Odessa City Municipality housed in the city itself.
The territory of Odessa is divided into four administrative raions (districts):
- Kyivskyi Raion
- Malynovskyi Raion
- Prymorskyi Raion
- Suvorovskyi Raion
In addition, every raion has its own administration, subordinate to the Odessa City Council, and with limited responsibilities.
Geography and features
Odessa is situated on terraced hills overlooking a small harbor, approximately 31 km (19 mi.) north of the estuary of the Dniester river and some 443 km (275 mi) south of the Ukrainian capital Kiev. The city has a mild and dry climate with average temperatures in January of -2 °C (29 °F), and July of 22 °C (72 °F). It averages only 350 mm (14 in) of precipitation annually.
The primary language spoken is Russian, with Ukrainian being less common despite its being an official language in Ukraine. The city is a mix of many nationalities and ethnic groups, including Ukrainians, Russians, Greeks, Jews, Moldovans, Bulgarians, Armenians,Turks,Georgians, Germans, Koreans, and many others.
Attractions
Resorts and health care
Odessa is a popular tourist destination, with many therapeutic resorts in and around the city.
The Filatov Institute of Eye Diseases & Tissue Therapy in Odessa is one of the world's leading ophthalmology clinics.
Odessa catacombs
Most of the city's 19th century houses were built of limestone mined nearby. Abandoned mines were later used and broadened by local smugglers. This created a gigantic complicated labyrinth of underground tunnels beneath Odessa, known as "catacombs". They are a now a great attraction for extreme tourists. Such tours, however, are not officially sanctioned and are dangerous because the layout of the catacombs has not been fully mapped and the tunnels themselves are unsafe. The tunnels are a primary reason why a subway system was never built in Odessa.
Transportation
The first car in Russia, a Mercedes-Benz belonging to V. Navrotsky, came to Odessa from France in 1891. He was a popular city publisher of the newspaper The Odessa Leaf.
Odessa was the first city in Imperial Russia to have steam tramway lines since from 1881, only one year after horse tramway in 1880 operated by the "Tramways d´Odessa", an Belgian owned company. The first metre gauge steam tramway line run from Railway Station to Great Fontaine and the second one to Hadzhi Bey Liman. These were operated by the same Belgian company. Electric tramway started to operate on on 22.08.1907. Trams were imported from Germany.
The city public transit in Odessa is currently represented by trams (streetcars), trolleybuses, buses and fixed-route taxis (marshrutkas). Odessa also has a cable car, cable-way, and recreational ferry service.
Odessa International Airport is served by major airline carriers, including Aerosvit, Ukraine International, Austrian Airlines, El Al, and Turkish Airlines. These and other airlines provide flights to numerous locations in Europe and Asia.
Passenger trains connect Odessa with Warsaw, Prague, Bratislava, Vienna, Berlin, Moscow, St.-Petersburg, the cities of Ukraine and many other cities of the former USSR.
Intercity bus services are available from Odessa to many cities in Germany (Berlin, Hamburg and Munich), Greece (Thessaloniki and Athens), Bulgaria (Varna and Sofia) and several cities of Ukraine and Europe.
Passenger ships and ferries connect Odessa with Istanbul, Haifa, and Varna.
Famous people from Odessa
Political leaders
Ze'ev Jabotinsky was born in Odessa, and largely developed his version of Zionism there in early 1920s.
Poets and writers
Poet Anna Akhmatova was born in Bolshoy Fontan near Odessa. The city has produced many writers, including Isaac Babel, Ilf and Petrov, and Yuri Olesha. Vera Inber, a poet and writer, as well as the famous poet and journalist, Margarita Aliger were both born in Odessa.
Scientists
A list of world known scientists lived and worked in Odessa. Among them: Ilya Mechnikov (Nobel Prize in Medicine 1908), Igor Tamm (Nobel Prize in Physics 1958), Selman Waksman (Nobel Prize in Medicine 1952), Dmitri Mendeleev, Nikolay Pirogov, Ivan Sechenov, George Gamow, Nikolay Umov, Leonid Mandelstam, Aleksandr Lyapunov, Mark Krein, Alexander Smakula, Waldemar Haffkine, Valentin Glushko, etc.
Artists
Jacob Adler, the major star of the Yiddish Theater in New York and father of the actor, director, and teacher Stella Adler, was born in and spent his youth in Odessa. The most popular Russian show-business people from Odessa are Yakov Smirnoff (comedian), Mikhail Zhvanetsky (legendary humorist writer, who began his career as port engineer) and Roman Kartsev (comedian). Zhvanetsky's and Kartsev's success in 1970s, together with Odessa's KVN team, much contributed to Odessa's established status of a "capital of Soviet humour", culminating in the annual Humorina festival, carried out on and around the April Fool's Day. Odessa was also the home of the late Armenian painter Sarkis Ordyan (1918-2003) and Greek philologist, author and promoter of Demotic Greek Ioannis Psycharis (1854-1929).
One of the most prominent pre-war Soviet writers, Valentin Kataev, was born here and began his writing career as early as high school (gymnasia). Before moving to Moscow in 1922, he made quite a few aquaintances here, including Yury Olesha and the writing duo Ilf and Petrov. He became a benefactor for these young authors, who moved to being among the most talented and popular Russian writers of this period. Kataev later became a chief editor of one of the leading literature magazines of the Ottepel of the 50-60-s in USSR, the Yunost'.
The aforementioned authors and comedians played a great role in establishing the "Odessa myth" in the Soviet Union. Odessites were and are viewed in Russian culture (in the broad sense of the word "Russian") as sharp-witted, street-wise and ever-optymistic. These qualities (along with a strong accent) are reflected in the notorious "Odessa dialect", borrowing chiefly from the characteristic speech of the Ukrainian Jews, enriched by the plethora of influences common for the port city. The "Odessite speech" became a staple of a "Soviet Jew" depicted in a multitude of jokes and comedy acts, in which the Jew always served as a wise and subtle dissenter\opportunist, always pursuing his own well-being, but unwittingly pointing out the flaws and absurdities of the Soviet regime. Although the everyday antisemitism was rather strong in the nation's unconsciousness, the Jew in the jokes always "came out clean" and was, in the end, a lovable character - unlike some of other jocular nation stereotypes like The Chukcha, The Ukrainian, The Estonian or The American.
Musicians
Odessa produced one of the founders of the Soviet violin school, Piotr Stolyarsky. It has also produced a famous composer Oscar Borisovich Feltsman and a galaxy of stellar musicians, including the violinists Nathan Milstein, David Oistrakh and Igor Oistrakh,Boris Goldstein, Zakhar Bron, and pianists Sviatoslav Richter, Benno Moiseiwitsch, Vladimir de Pachmann, Shura Cherkassky, Emil Gilels, Maria Grinberg, Simon Barere, Leo Podolsky, and Yakov Zak.
Athletes
The chess player Efim Geller was born in the city. Gymnast Tatiana Gutsu known as "The Painted Bird of Odessa" brought home Ukraine's first Gold Medal as an independent nation when she outscored the USA's Shannon Miller in the women's All-Around event at 1992 Summer Olympics held in Barcelona Spain.
Other notable sportsmen:
Nikolai Avilov - Olympic champion in decathlon,
Oksana Baiul - Olympic champion in figure skating,
Viktor Petrenko - Olympic champion in figure skating,
Igor Belanov - European Footballer of the Year in 1986,
Lenny Krayzelburg - Olympic champion swimmer.
Artur Kyshenko - K1 Muay Thai Kickboxer
Ekaterina Rubleva - Russian Ice Dancing Champion.
Maksim Chmerkovskiy - Professional ballroom and Latin dancer on the American Dancing With the Stars.
Twin Towns - Sister Cities
Odessa is twinned, has sister and partner relationships with many other cities throughout the World:
Sister cities
Partner cities
See also
Further reading
External links
- Russian, Ukrainian, and English versions
English guide on Odessa, Ukraine.
An independent city guide on Odessa in English
- English-Russian e-zine and guide*
History of pogroms in Odessa
Information (in Russian)
Russian and English versions*
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