46°30N 30°46E, pop (2000e) 1 095 000. Seaport capital of Odesskaya oblast, Ukraine, on NW shore of the Black Sea; centre of the battleship Potemkin mutiny in the 1905 Revolution; railway; university (1865); naval base and home port for a fishing and Antarctic whaling fleet; leading Black Sea port, trading in grain, sugar, machinery, coal, oil products, cement, metals, jute, timber; icebreakers ensure that the port is ice-free throughout the year; large health resorts nearby; fishing, solar research, machines, oil refining, metalworking, chemicals; Uspensky Cathedral (185569).
Odessa (Ukrainian: Одеса, Russian: Одесса; It is the administrative center of the Odessa Oblast (province), and is designated as its own separate raion (district) within the oblast. Odessa is a major port on the Black Sea.
Overview
An ancient Greek colony had once occupied the site of the city.
From 1819–1858 Odessa was a free port (porto franco). 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.
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. Odessa's oil- and chemical-processing facilities are connected to Russia's and EU's respective networks by strategic pipelines.
In the 19th century it was the fourth city of Imperial Russia, after Moscow and St. Petersburg, and Warsaw. Odessa has always possessed a spirit of freedom and ironic humour, probably by virtue
of its location and its willingness to accept and tolerate people of many different backgrounds.
History
From foundation to the end of the 19th century
In the AD 15th century, nomadic tribes of the Nogays under the suzerainty of the Khanate of Crimea inhabited what is now the Odessa region.
The site of present-day Odessa was then a town known as Khadjibey (also spelled as Khadjibei, Khadzhibei, or Gadzhibei;
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.
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.
A city was officially founded in 1794 as a Russian naval fortress on the ruins of Khadjibey and renamed Odessa by January 1795, when its new name was first mentioned in official correspondence. According to one of the stories, when someone suggested Odessos as a name for the new Russian port, 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. 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).
The new city quickly became a major success. He is credited with designing the city and organising its amenities and infrastructure, and is considered one of the founding fathers of Odessa, together with another Frenchman, Count Alexandre Langeron, who succeeded him in office.
In 1819 the city was made a free port, a status it retained until 1859. It became home to an extremely diverse population of Russians, Ukrainians, Jews, Greeks, Bulgarians, Albanians, Armenians, Italians, Frenchmen, Germans and traders representing many other European 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.
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.
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.
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. 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 great famine that occurred in 1921–1922 as a result of the war. During World War II Odessa was occupied by Romanian and German forces from 1941–1944. Many
parts of Odessa were damaged during its fall and later recapture in April 1944, when the city was finally liberated by the Soviet Army. It was one of the first four Soviet cities to be awarded
the title of "Hero City" in 1945.
Second half of the 20th century
During the 1960s and 1970s the city grew tremendously. Nevertheless, between the 1970s and 1990s, the majority of Odessa's Jews emigrated to Israel, the United States and other Western countries, 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. Despite being part of the Ukraine 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, Azeri and Jewish communities have influenced different aspects of Odessa.
In 1991, after the collapse of Communism, the city became part of newly independent Ukraine. Today Odessa is a city of around 1.1 million people. Odessa is also a Ukrainian naval base and home to a fishing fleet.
The transportation network of Odessa consists of trams (streetcars), trolleybuses, buses; and marshrutkas.
Geography and features
Odessa is situated (Google Map) 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 primary language spoken is Russian, with Ukrainian being less common despite its being an official language in Ukraine.
Culture
Odessa is a popular tourist destination, with many therapeutic resorts in and around the city.
The Tolstoy, Vorontsov, and Potocki families owned palaces in Odessa, which can still be visited.
The writer Isaac Babel was born in the city, which has also produced several famous musicians, including the violinists Nathan Milstein, Mischa Elman and David Oistrakh, and the pianists Benno Moiseiwitsch, Sviatoslav Richter and Emil Gilels. (All listed, except for Richter, are representatives of the city's Jewish community.)
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). Their success in 1970s contributed to Odessa's established status of a "capital of Soviet humour".
Most of the city's 19th century houses were built of limestone mined nearby. This created a complicated labyrinth of underground tunnels beneath Odessa, known as "catacombs". These tunnels are a primary reason why a subway system was never built in Odessa. How Things Were Done in Odessa: Cultural and Intellectual Pursuits in a Soviet City. "The Ethnic Composition of the City of Odessa in the Nineteenth Century". "Greek Merchants in Odessa in the Nineteenth Century". Commerce and Architecture in Odessa in Late Imperial Russia. Port Jews of Odessa and Trieste: A Tale of Two Cities (Jahrbuch des Simon-Dubnow-Instituts II). "The Persuasive Power of the Odessa Myth". A History of Odessa, the Last Italian Black Sea Colony. The Greeks of Odessa: Diaspora Leadership in Late Imperial Russia (East European Monographs). New Voices of Russian Jewry: A Study of the Russian-Jewish Press of Odessa in the Era of the Great Reforms, 1860–1871 (Studies in Judaism in Modern Times, No. 4). "How It Was Sung in Odessa: At the Intersection of Russian and Yiddish Folk Culture". The Pogrom of 1905 in Odessa: A Case Study. The Revolution of 1905 in Odessa: Blood on the Steps (Indiana–Michigan Series in Russian and East European Studies). "Review of The Revolution of 1905 in Odessa: Blood on the Steps". The Jews of Odessa: A Cultural History, 1794–1881.
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