Odessa

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Odessa (in Russian, Одéса, AFI:[]шdjesus]in Ukrainian, Одéса, pronounced[]шd]nels]]( listen)) is the third largest city in Ukraine and the administrative center of the Odessa Oblate with a population of 1 017 699 inhabitants. The city has the largest seaport in Ukraine, and its architectural style, influenced by French and Italian, gives a Mediterranean air to the city, which is often called "the Pearl of the Black Sea". Below the city there is a large network of underground passages and labyrinths; Odessa's catacombs are among the most extensive in the world with a tunnel length of approximately 2500 kilometers.

The first settlements in the city were established approximately between the VII century B.C. C. and the III century B.C. C. by sailors from ancient Greece. The settlement was taken over by the Golden Horde in the year 1256 and later, around the year 1324, the coast was taken over by the Grand Duchy, which at that time began construction of a fortress in the settlement, Odessa then called Kotsubiyiv. The Grand Duchy lost control of the settlement, which would later be taken over by various states. The Ottoman Empire renamed the settlement Jadsibey. On September 25, 1789, the settlement was conquered by Cossack troops and troops from the Russian Empire under the command of José de Ribas, after which the settlement was renamed Odessa and received the status of a city within the empire. Between 1819 and 1859, the city served as a «porto-franco», which contributed to its rapid economic development. After the defeat of the Ukrainian People's Republic in the Ukrainian War of Independence in 1921, Odessa came under the influence of the communist government until 1991, when it became part of independent Ukraine.

The historic center of Odessa has been on the preliminary list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites since 2009.

Name and symbols

Name

The city was formerly known as Kotsubiyiv or Istrian. It was renamed Odessa after its seizure by the Russian Empire under Catherine II of Russia's Greek Project, from the ancient Greek city of Odessos, which was mistakenly believed who was here, actually being in Varna (Bulgaria). Odessa is located between the ancient Greek cities of Tyras and Olbia.

In Russian the city is called Одесса – Odessa, from the ancient Greek Ὀδησσός Odēssós; however, Spanish spelling rules require the spelling Odesa. In the Turkic languages it is called Adés, which is an alternative name for the city.

Odessa is also called the "pearl of the Black Sea" or the "Capital of the South".

Symbols

The colors of the flag and coat of arms of Odessa are red, white and yellow with a golden hue. The city's coat of arms is a fishhook and the city's logo is the same fishhook but in the shape of an anchor, referring to the city's port.

History

Historical concerns
  • Foundation: Date unknown
  • City status: 1789
  • Flag of Ulus Juchi.svgGolden Horde: 1256-1350
  • Flag of Ulus Juchi.svgBlue Horde: 1350~1400
  • Coat of arms of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.svg Grand Duchy: ~1400-1475
  • Ottoman flag.svg Ottoman Empire: 1475-1789
  • Lesser Coat of Arms of Russian Empire.svg Russian Empire: 1789-1917
  • Coat of Arms of UNR.svg Ukraine: 1917-1918
  • Alex K Ukrainska Derzhava.svg II Hetmanato: 1918
  • Coat of Arms of UNR.svg Ukraine: 1918-1921
  • Emblem of the Ukrainian SSR.svg RSS feeds Ukraine: 1921-1991
  • Lesser Coat of Arms of Ukraine.svg Ukraine since 1990

The first human settlements on these lands date back to the Stone Age, 30,000 B.C. C. At the beginning of the first millennium B.C. C. the territory of the northern coast of the Black Sea was populated by the Cimmerians who were replaced by the Scythians. On the shores of the Odesa Bay in ancient Greece there were already several towns. The largest was the Milesian colony of Boristhenes (Βορυσθένης), founded in 647 BC. C., which he visited around 460 B.C. C. Herodotus, the great historian of Antiquity, who was interested in the peoples who lived in the vast lands north of the Black Sea such as the Scythians, the Sarmatians and the legendary warrior women called Amazons. For some time the city of Boristhenes was the seat of the Scythian kings. But the area of the current old town was occupied by the Port of Istrianos (Ιστριανών λιμήν), a Greek population that was dedicated, for the most part, to the trade of cereals, honey, wine and slaves. Traces of ancient Greek culture are found almost everywhere, from the port and Primórskiy Boulevard to Greek Square, on Mount Zhivakhova and in the suburbs.

Between the centuries II-IV the area belonged to the Roman Empire as part of the provinces first Dacia, then Moesia Inferior.

It is assumed that the main cause of the town's decline was the invasion of the Gothic tribes from the north, which in the middle of the century III, together with the Alans, who lived north of the Azov Sea, devastated the Greek peoples on the northern coast of the Black Sea. It is not attested, but it is likely that in these lands the Goths for the first time encountered the developed Greco-Roman culture and Christianity. This resulted in its Christianization and the appearance of the Gothic alphabet, the first European alphabet created from Latin. The conflict between German paganism and Christianity resulted in the fact that this area of the northern Black Sea coast gave the Christian Church many martyrs for the faith, of Gothic origin.

In 375 the Goths, driven out by the Huns, retreated under Roman protection to the Balkan provinces. The Huns erased the remains of the Hellenic cities, opening the way for other nomadic peoples to the great steppes: Avars, Bulgars, Hungarians, Khazars, Pechenegs, Polovtsians, who dominated those lands successively from the century IV to XIII. Between the IX and XI" centuries Slavic sedentary tribes also settled in that territory.

In the second half of the XIII century the territory falls under the rule of the empire of Batu Khan, the Golden Horde At that time, the Genoese mercantile scale called Ginestra appears on the map of the area. The Mongol-Tatar chiefs favored the Genoese, having common interests in the slave trade.

Disintegrated in the XIV century by the Horde, the northern shoreline of the Black Sea passed to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and was built a wooden fort overlooking the bay. But the Duchy did not know how to maintain what it had acquired. From the 15th century the territory was populated by semi-nomadic Tatars and Greeks in small coastal towns. The Great Nogai Horde, an independent Tatar Khanate until 1475, fell under the rule of the Ottoman Empire.

According to the testimony of the entourage of the Swedish King Charles XII, who was defeated by the Russian Tsar Peter the Great at the Battle of Poltava and fled to Moldavia, in 1709 they found only a "miserable village" there. In 1765, a small Turkish fortress of Yení Dunyá was built near it, which the town began to be called in the same way as the nearby Greco-Tatar village of Jadsibey.

After two Russo-Turkish wars, started by Catherine the Great in the second half of the 18th century, the territory was united to the Russian Empire. At dawn on September 14, 1792, the detachment of Russian troops and Cossack mercenaries, under the command of Count José de Ribas, definitively took the Yení Dunyá fort, that is, Jadsibey. The famous Russian literary critic, journalist and philosopher of the XIX century Vissarion Belinsky called Odessa "the third of Russian cities" for its importance, while the poet Aleksandr Pushkin characterized it as "the most European of Russian cities".

Russian Empire

Map of Odesa in 1850

The city and port of Odessa gained city status in 1794, by decree of Catherine the Great as the main southern sea gate of the Russian Empire. The initiative came from the Spaniard born in Naples (and Rear Admiral of the Russian Navy) Count José de Ribas who directed the construction of the city, the fortress and the port, designed by the Dutch engineer Franz de Volán. The name chosen for the city was that of the ancient Greek colony of Odessos (Οδησσός) and in 1795, the Empress changed the gender to the feminine, Odessa. The rapid development and flourishing of Odesa is mainly due to the activity and good governance of the fathers of the city: Count J. de Ribas, the military engineer F. de Volán, the Duke of Richelieu, Count L. Langerón, and Count Mikhail Vorontsov.

Monument to Pushkin, Odesa, Department of Image Collections, National Gallery of Art Library, Washington, DC

During the years 1823-1824, the poet Aleksandr Pushkin lived and wrote in Odessa. His "Letters from him" tell how Odessa was the great Russian city "where everything in Europe smells and breathes..." , and where you can speak French and read European press. Since then, the city has become a Mecca for world-famous artists, scientists and other intellectuals, a favorite summer resort for the nobility, mostly Russian and Polish.

The Potemkin Staircase, one of the Odessa symbols

During the Crimean War, in April 1854, Odessa was bombarded by British and French naval forces with a landing attempt, but without success, due to strong resistance from the citizens and the immediate reaction in their defense on the part of the European press.

At the beginning of the XX century, Odessa became the fourth largest city in the Russian Empire (after Moscow, Saint Petersburg and Warsaw), and was considered one of the most comfortable cities in Europe. It had rail and sea communication, electricity, telephone, running water, sewerage, the best paved streets in Europe (American specialists came to learn about its technology), municipal transport, hospitals and ambulances, spas, the University, institutes and high schools, five private libraries. and two public, museums, the Opera (the shows were given in Russian, Polish, German, Italian and French), theaters and cinemas, a hippodrome, parks, luxury hotels, nearly a thousand cafes and restaurants, and a good company of rich and nobles from all over Europe.

In 1905, Odessa experienced a workers' revolution. The famous feature film Battleship Potemkin by director Sergei Eisenstein makes reference to this event, and includes one of the most famous scenes in film history, where hundreds of civilians are killed on a stone staircase. The massacre never happened in reality, but the film ended up convincing many people that it was real and for many decades the Odessa Steps have been an Odessa tourist attraction.

Ukrainian Revolution

Entry of the Red Army in the city, 1919

After the Ukrainian war of independence in 1917 the city became part of the Ukrainian People's Republic, in 1918 the Bolsheviks seized the city and self-proclaimed the Odesa Soviet Republic, which existed for three months, before being reoccupied by the Ukrainian People's Republic. In 1920 Ukraine lost the war of independence and the Bolshevik army took the city until 1922, when the city was assigned to the Ukrainian SSR, later part of the USSR.

World War II

Ships stationed in Odessa, the largest port of the Soviet Union in 1960.

Between 1941-1944 the city was occupied by Romanian and German forces, except for its underground part where resistance continued. In the first months of the occupation, approximately 280,000 people (mostly Jews) were killed or deported. Odessa was liberated by the Red Army on April 10, 1944.

Odesa became the first European city that gave a strong and lasting resistance to Hitler's troops, being besieged by them for 73 days until its abandonment by Soviet troops according to Stalin's order. For the heroism of the citizens in 1945 Odessa was awarded the title of Hero City.

Postwar

During the 1960s and 1970s, the city grew rapidly and became one of the most important industrial centers in the USSR.

In 1991, Ukraine became an independent state, following the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

Government and politics

Administration

The city is administered by the Odessa City Council, which consists of 64 deputies elected by the city's inhabitants every 5 years. Currently the mayor of the city is Oleksander Trujanov.

Territorial organization

The city is divided into 4 raiones or districts:

Raion Ukrainian Name
Raion of Suvor Суворовський район
Raion of Kiev Кивський район
Raion of Frambuesa Малиновський район
Prymore Raion Приморський район

International relations

The city of Odessa has agreements for the establishment of consulates of the following countries: Bulgaria, China, Georgia, Greece, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Russia, Turkey, Germany, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Pakistan, South Africa.

Geography

It lies on a plain on the shores of the Odessa Bay of the Black Sea between the mouths of the Dniester and Bug rivers. The city is bordered by salty lakes up to 5 m deep, traditionally called "limanes". In the south is the Limán Sujoy, in which is the port of Ilichevsk, one of the suburbs. In the north are the Khadzhibei and Kujálnik limans (both known for their curative mud), separated from each other by the 41 m Zhivakhova mountain, the highest point of the city.

Climate

Odessa's climate is moderate continental and comparatively dry. It has about 290 sunny days a year.

Precipitation is 460 mm per year, with its maximum in October.

Winters are short and mild. Average temperature values oscillate around -2 °C (min -26 °C) in January and 22 °C (max 36 °C) in August.

Gnome-weather-few-clouds.svgAverage climate parameters of Odesa (1991-2020)WPTC Meteo task force.svg
Month Ene.Feb.Mar.Open up.May.Jun.Jul.Ago.Sep.Oct.Nov.Dec.Annual
Temp. max. abs. (°C) 15.1 19.2 24.1 29.4 33.2 37.2 39.3 38.0 35.4 30.5 26.0 16.9 39.3
Average temperature (°C) 2.3 3.4 7.7 13.6 20.3 25.1 27.9 27.7 21.8 15.3 9.1 4.2 14.9
Average temperature (°C) -0.4 0.4 4.3 10.0 16.2 20.8 23.4 23.1 17.8 12.0 6.3 1.5 11.3
Temp. medium (°C) -2.7 -2.1 1.6 6.9 12.6 16.9 19.1 18.9 14.0 8.9 3.9 -0.8 8.1
Temp. min. abs. (°C) -26.2 -28.0 -16.0 -5.9 0.3 5.2 7.5 7.9 -0.8 -13.3 -14.6 -19.6 -28.0
Total precipitation (mm) 43 35 35 28 39 47 45 40 44 37 39 38 470
Nevadas (cm) 2 2 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 6
Days of rain (≥ 1 mm) 9 7 10 11 12 13 10 8 9 10 13 10 122
Days of snowfall (≥ 1 mm) 11 10 6 0.4 0 0 0 0 0 0.2 4 9 40.6
Hours of sun 63.2 91.6 142.2 199.5 292.5 307.5 332.9 313.1 234.6 164.7 73.0 57.4 2272.2
Relative humidity (%) 83 81 78 74 71 70 66 65 72 77 82 84 75.3
Source #1: Погода и климат
Source No. 2: World Meteorological Organization

Demographics

Historically, the ethnic spectrum of the city has been very diverse, although it was practically uniformed by the Soviet culture.

At the time of the capture of the Turkish fortress of Jadsibey by Russian troops, in 1789, the population was less than 100 people and consisted of Greeks, Yedisan Tatars and few Moldovans. Once the lands of southern Russia were reconquered, Catherine the Great began the repopulation of the region. People from all over Europe were welcome. Greeks, Russians, Italians, Yugoslavs, Bulgarians, Germans, Belgians, Armenians, Rumanians, Poles, Ukrainians, French, Belarusians, Swiss, Jews, etc. arrived en masse, forming neighborhoods or streets that began to be called according to the town that lived there. she lived. Although today Odesa has no ethnic neighborhoods, its map abounds with such place names: Greek Square, French and Italian boulevards, Bulgarian, Polish, Jewish, Lesser and Greater Arnauta (Albanian) streets, Greek, Estonian, etc. The fusion of all these peoples who had left their native lands, fleeing from misery or persecution, in search of a better future, formed the adventurous, hospitable, joyful, and freedom-loving character of the Odesites.

In 1926, 39.2% of the population identified as Russian, 36.9% as Jewish, 17.7% as Ukrainian, and 2.4% as Pole. the Nazi occupation. In the 1989 census Jews were 5.9% of the population and in the 2001 census 12.4%, compared to 61.6% Ukrainians and 29% ethnic Russians.

The Odesite mentality differs from that of the Russian-speaking world in general and is considered a specific cultural phenomenon. The Odesite diaspora that took place in the last decades of the existence of the USSR, mainly towards the Anglo-Saxon countries, Germany and Israel, has formed a separate cultural group. There are international organizations and municipal bodies that deal with contacts with the diaspora.

Since independence there was a notorious emigration. In 1989 the city had 1,115,371 inhabitants and in 2001 a total of 1,029,049. Ethnic Russians rose from 39% of the population to 29%. In the last three decades, the cultural climate of the city was strongly affected by the emigration of Jews and Germans, and the large influx of Ukrainian immigrants from rural areas.

Odessa is one of the areas of Ukraine where Russian is the dominant language. In the 2001 census, 64.75% of residents reported Russian as their native language. The official state language is Ukrainian, the native language of 30.41% of the city's population, although the percentage of the population who uses it daily is even less.

The population of Odessa today numbers 1,061,116 people (2014).

Infrastructure

Economy

Odesa's economy is based primarily on trade, freight transport, and industrial production; the tourism sector is underdeveloped. Odesa's industry includes such branches as chemistry, petrochemistry, metallurgy, metalworking, pharmaceuticals, food and film. The Odessa Film Studio was founded in 1907. Odessa has an international airport, freight and passenger ports, plus two merchant ports in the suburbs. There is also a naval base and a fishing fleet.

Near the city is the largest open-air market in Europe, which gives 1% of Ukraine's GDP. Thanks to this, the development of the port and the growing sector of civil construction, the unemployment rate in Odessa is lower than in other parts of the country. In 2009, the Fitch Ratings credit agency downgraded Odesa's credit rating to 'B'. long-term negative.

Education

The city also has 136 high schools and approximately 130,000 students study on the campuses of the city's higher education institutions. The most famous educational centers in the city are the Odessa National University and the Odessa National Polytechnic University, each of which covers many specialties and jobs in the fields of humanities and technical sciences, respectively. In 2019, 15 of the 19 Odesa universities were included in the ranking of the 200 best universities in Ukraine.

Main Institutions of Odessa

Name
National University of Odessa I.I. Méchnikov
Institute of Earth Troops
South Ukrainian Pedagogical University K.D. Ushínskiy
State Academy of Music A.V. Nezhdánova
Polytechnic University of Odesa
Agrarian State University
State Medical University
Odesa State Economic University
State Academy of Food Technologies
Institute of Internal Affairs

Culture

Architecture

Odessa is mainly represented by the architecture of the XIX and XX: neoclassicism, modernism, postmodernism, constructivism. The first buildings in Odessa were built in the style of classicism, characterized by rationalism and greedy decoration. The multinational composition of the population led to the fact that the Byzantine-Greek influence was reflected in the architecture of religious buildings, and not only Italian and French, but also Armenian decoration can be found in the design and compositions of facades of residential buildings. In addition, the climatic nature had a great influence on the appearance of the city. The use of shell rock determined the masonry of large blocks and the absence of small pieces. For protection from the scorching summer heat, porches, loggias and covered galleries were widely used. Even the market squares, like the ancient Greek agoras, were framed along the contour by galleries.

Main theaters in Odessa

Name
State Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre
Russian Dramatic Theatre I. Ivanov
State Circus
Philharmonic
Regional Theatre of Títeres (1932)
Ukrainian Musical Dramatic Theatre V. Vasylko
State Theatre of the Minor Spectator N. Ovstróvskiy
Musical Comedy Theatre M. Vodianoy
Casa de Payazos Theatre
Municipal Theatre of Spiritual Music A. Sálik

Art

The Museum of Fine Arts is the largest art gallery in the city, whose collection includes canvases mostly by Russian painters from the 17th to 21st centuries, as well as a collection of icons and modern art. The Museum of Western and Oriental Art has large European collections from the 16th to the 20th centuries, there are paintings by Caravaggio, Mignard, Hals, Teniers and del Piombo. Other museums in the city include the Odessa Archaeological Museum, which is housed in a neoclassical building, the Odessa Numismatic Museum, the Odessa Regional History Museum, and the Odessa Museum of Heroic Defense.

Among the city's public sculptures, two sets of Medici lions can be seen, in the Vorontsov Palace and in the Starosinnyi Garden. The Odessa International Film Festival has also been held annually since 2010.

Odessa's main museums and galleries

Name
Archaeological Museum
UNO Paleontological Museum
UNO Petromineral Museum
UNO Zoo Museum
Museum of Art
Museum of Western and Eastern Art
Museo de la Marina
Historical Museum of Odesa
Memorial to Odesa's heroic defense
Literary Museum

Literature

Important literary figures such as Anna Akhmatova, Isaac Babel, Yuri Olesha, Vera Inber, Margarita Aliger and Leone Ginzburg were born in the city.

One of the most prominent Soviet writers, Valentin Katayev, was born here and began his writing career as early as high school. Katayev became a symbol for young authors, who would become some of the most talented and popular Soviet writers of this period.

These authors and comedians played a major role in establishing the "myth of Odessa" in the Soviet Union. The "Odesite speech" became a staple of "Soviet Jew" as depicted in a multitude of jokes and comedy acts, in which an adherent Jew acted as a wise, subtle and opportunistic dissenter, always looking out for his own well-being, but unconsciously pointing out the flaws and absurdities of the Soviet regime.

Ivan Frankó Adam Mickiewicz Aleksandr Pushkin Mihai Eminescu Mark Twain
Ivan Franko (1898).pngAdam Mickiewicz by Joachim Lelewel.jpgEminescu.jpgMark Twain by AF Bradley.jpg

Sports

Odesa is one of the country's largest sports training centers. The most outstanding schools are those of figure skating, chess, boxing, weightlifting, shooting sports, football, basketball, handball, mountaineering and sailing. In the city there are the stadiums of «Tsentralny-Chernomórets (ChMP)», «Spartacus», «SKA», «Dinamo», the Palace of Sports and several sports schools. The city is home to the football club FC Chernomórets Odesa, which hosts the Tsentralny-Chernomórets Stadium.

Sister Cities

  • Bandera de España Valencia, Spain.
  • Bandera de Egipto Alexandria, Egypt.
  • Bandera de Estados Unidos Baltimore, Maryland, United States.
  • Bandera de la India Calcutta, West Bengal, India.
  • Bandera de Moldavia Chisináu, Moldova.
  • Bandera de Rumania Constance, Romania.
  • Bandera de Grecia The Piraeus, Atica, Greece.
  • Bandera de Turquía Istanbul, Turkey Marmara Region.
  • Bandera de Armenia Yerevan, Armenia.
  • Bandera de Polonia Gdansk, Voivodato de Pomerania Poland.
  • Bandera de Italia Genoa, Liguria, Italy.
  • Bandera de Israel Haifa, Israel.
  • Bandera de México León, Guanajuato, Mexico.
  • Bandera del Reino Unido Liverpool, England, Great Britain.
  • Bandera de Polonia Łódź, Poland.
  • Bandera de Francia Marseille, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, France.
  • Bandera de Chipre Nicosia, Cyprus.
  • Bandera de Finlandia Oulu, North Ostrobotnia, Finland.
  • Bandera de la República Popular China Qingdao, Shandong, China.
  • Bandera de Alemania Regensburg, Bavaria, Germany.
  • Bandera de Israel Rosh HaAyin, Israel.
  • Bandera de Croacia Split, Croatia Split-Dalmacy.
  • Bandera de Hungría Szeged, Del-Alföld, Hungary.
  • Bandera de Turquía Van, Turkey.
  • Bandera de Canadá Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
  • Bandera de Bulgaria Varna, Bulgaria.
  • Bandera de Arabia Saudita Yeda, Mecca, Saudi Arabia.
  • Bandera de Japón Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan.

The city of Odessa also has cooperation agreements with other cities:

  • Bandera de Bielorrusia Brest
  • Bandera de Lituania Klaipeda
  • Bandera de Bielorrusia Minsk
  • Bandera de Polonia Gdansk
  • Bandera de Chipre Larnaca
  • Bandera de Marruecos Marrakech
  • Bandera de Estonia Tallinn
  • Bandera de Georgia Tiflis (Georgia)
  • Bandera de la República Popular China Ningbo
  • Bandera de Chile Valparaiso
  • Bandera de Austria Vienna
  • Bandera de Polonia Warsaw

Illustrious people of Odesa

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