Odessa

Odessa (Ukrainian: Одеса, Roushie: Одесса‎; an aa referred tae as Odesa) is a ceety in soothwastren Ukraine. It is the admeenistrative center o the Odessa Oblast (province), an is designatit as its awn separate raion (destrict) athin the oblast. Odessa is a major port on the Black Sea.

The current estimatit population is aroond 1,012,500 (as o 2004).

Table o contents

1 Owerview
2 History
3 Geography and features
4 Cultur
5 Internaitional relations
- 5.1 Twin touns - sister ceeties
- 5.2 Pairtner ceeties
6 References
7 External links

Owerview [edit]

An ancient Greek colony named Olbia (Greek: Ολβία, glorious) mey hae ance occupied the site o the ceety. Numerous monuments o antiquity confirm links atween this territory an the Eastren Mediterranean. In the Middle Ages these lands wur a part o the Kievan Rus, Galich an Volyn Principality, the Golden Horde, the Great Lithuanie Preencipality, the Crimean Khanate an the Ottoman Empire. Crimean Tatars tradit there in the 14t century. In the course o Roushie–Turkish wars these lands wur captured bi Roushie at the end o the 18t century.^[1]

Frae 1819–1858 Odessa wis a free port (porto franco). Durin the Soviet period it wis the maist important port o trade in the U.S.S.R. an a Soviet naval base. On Januar 1, 2000 the Quarantine Pier o Odessa trade sea port wis declared a free port an free economic zone for a term o 25 years.

Odessa is a warm water port, but o limited military value. Turkey's control o the Dardanelles an Bosphorus haes enabled NATO tae control water traffic atween Odessa an the Mediterranean Sea. The ceety o Odessa hosts twa important ports: Odessa itself an Yuzhny (also an internaitionally important oil terminal), situatit in the ceety's suburbs. Anither important port, Illichivs'k (or Ilyichyovsk), is locatit in the same oblast, tae the sooth-wast o Odessa. Thegither they represent a major transportation junction integratit wi railways. Odessa's oil- an chemical-processin facilities ar connectit tae Roushie's an EU's respective networks bi strategic pipelines.

Odessa Сircuit Court building an Church o the monastery o St. Panteleimon (church consecratit in 1895; uised as a planetarium in 1961–1991).

Odessa is the fift-lairgest ceety in Ukraine an its mast important trading ceety. In the 19t century it wis the fowert ceety o Imperial Roushie, efter Moscow an St. Petersburg, an Warsaw.^[2] Its historical architecture haes a flavor mair Mediterranean than Roushie, haein been hivily influenced bi French an Italian styles. Odessa haes aye possessed a spirit o freedom an ironic humour, probably bi virtue o its location an its willingness tae accept an tolerate fowk o mony different backgrunds.

History [edit]

The 142-metre-lang Potemkin (originally Richelieu) Stairs (constructit 1834–1841), made famous bi Sergei Eisenstein in his movie Battleship Potemkin (1925). It is the set for arguably the maist celebratit short sequence ever filmed.

Frae foondation tae the end o the 19t century [edit]

In the AD 15t century, nomadic tribes o the Nogays unner the suzerainty o the Khanate o Crimea inhabitit what is nou the Odessa region. Durin the reign of Khan Haci I Giray, the Khanate wis endangered bi the Golden Horde an the Ottoman Turks an, in search o allies, the khan agreed tae cede the area tae the Grand Duchy o Lithuanie.

The site o present-day Odessa wis then a toun kent as Khadjibey (an aa spelled as Khadjibei, Khadzhibei, or Gadzhibei; Lithuanian: Chadžibėjus; Crimean Tatar an Turkish: Hacibey) an wis pairt o the Dykra region. Houever, the aurie wis ae sparsely populated wi Turkic tribes an consistit maistly o unpopulatit steppes.

Khadjibey came unner direct control o the Ottoman Empire efter 1529 an wis part o a region kent as Yedisan an wis administered in the Ottoman Silistra (Özi) Province. In the mid-18t century, the Ottomans rebuilt a fortress at Khadjibey, which wis named Eni Dunia (Turkish: Yeni Dünya, literally "new warld").

Durin the Russo-Turkish War o 1787–1792, on 25 September 1789, a detachment o Roushie forces unner Ivan Gudovich took Khadjibey an Yeni Dünya for the Roushie Empire. Ane part o the troops wis unner command o a Spaniard in Roushie service, Major General José de Ribas (kent in Roushie as Osip Mikhailovich Deribas) an the main street in Odessa today, Deribasovskaya street, is named efter him. Roushie formally gained possession o the aurie as a result o the Treaty o Jassy (Iaşi) in 1792 an it became a part o the so-cawed Novorossiya ("New Roushie").

A ceety wis officially foondit in 1794 as a Roushie naval fortress on the ruins o Khadjibey an wis renamed Odessa bi Januar 1795 (when its new name wis first mentioned in offeecial correspondence). Neither origin o the new name nor reasons for renamin ar kent, though etymologies an anecdotes aboond. Accordin tae ane o the stories, when someane suggestit Odessos as a name for the new Roushie port, Catherine II said that aw names in the Sooth o the Empire wur already 'masculine,' an didna want yet anither ane, so she decidit tae change it tae mair 'feminine' Odessa. This anecdote is hichtlie dubious, because there wur at least twa ceeties (Eupatoria an Theodosia) which names soond 'feminine' for a Roushie; besides, the Czarina wis no a native Roushie speaker, an finally, aw ceeties ar feminine in Greek (as well as in Latin). Anither legend derives the name 'Odessa' frae the word-play: in French (which wis then the leid spoken at the Roushie court), 'plenty o water' is assez d'eau; if said backwards, it soonds similar tae that o the Greek colony's name (an water-relatit pun makes perfect sense, because Odessa, though situatit next tae the huge body o water, haes limitit fresh water supply). Onyhou, a link wi the name o the ancient Greek colony persists, so there might be some truth in the oral tradition.

The new ceety quickly became a major success. Its early growth owed muckle tae the work o the Duc de Richelieu, who served as the ceety's governor atween 1803–1814. Haein fled the French Revolution, he haed served in Catherine's airmy against the Turks. He is creditit wit designin the ceety an organisin its amenities an infrastructure, an is considered ane o the foondin faithers o Odessa, thegither wi anither Frenchman, Coont Alexandre Langeron, who succeedit him in office. Richelieu is commemoratit bi a bronze statue, unveiled in 1828 tae a design bi Ivan Martos.

In 1819 the ceety wis made a free port, a status it retained till 1859. It became hame tae an extremely diverse population o Roushies, Ukrainians, Jews, Greeks, Bulgarians, Albanians, Armenians, Italians, Frenchmen, Germans an traders representin mony ither European naitionalities (hence numerous 'ethnic' names on the ceety's map, e.g., Frantsuszkiy (French) an Italianskiy (Italian) Boulevards, Grecheskaya (Greek), Evreyskaya (Jewish), Arnautskaya (Albanian) Streets). Its cosmopolitan nature wis documented bi the great Roushie poet Alexander Pushkin, who lived in internal exile in Odessa atween 1823–1824. In his letters he wrote that Odessa wis a ceety where "ye can smell Europe. French is spoken an there ar European papers an magazines tae read".

Odessa's growth wis interrupted bi the Crimean War o 1853–1856, durin which it wis bombardit bi Breetish an French naval forces. It soon recovered an the growth in trade made Odessa Roushie's lairgest grain-exportin port. In 1866 the ceety wis linked bi rail wi Kiev an Kharkov as well as Iaşi, Romanie.

Richelieu Street an the Opera Theatre in the 1890s.

The ceety became the hame o a lairge Jewish community durin the 19t century, an bi 1897 Jews wur estimatit tae comprise some 37% o the population. They wur, houever, repeatedly subjectit tae severe persecution. Pogroms wur carried oot in 1821, 1859, 1871, 1881, an 1905. Mony Odessan Jews fled abroad, particularly tae Palestine efter 1882, an the ceety became an important base o support for Zionism.

First half o the 20t century [edit]

In 1905 Odessa wis the site o a workers' uprisin supportit bi the crew o the Roushie battleship Potemkin (an aa see Battleship Potemkin uprising) an Lenin's Iskra. Sergei Eisenstein's famous motion picture The Battleship Potemkin commemoratit the uprisin an includit a scene where hunders o Odessan citizens wur murdered on the great stane staircase (nou popularly kent as the "Potemkin Steps"), in ane o the maist famous scenes in motion picture history. At the top o the steps, which lead doun tae the port, stands a statue o Richelieu. The actual massacre took place in streets nearby, no on the steps themselves, but the movie caused mony tae visit Odessa tae see the site o the "slaughter". The "Odessa Steps" continue tae be a tourist attraction in Odessa. The film wis made at Odessa's Cinema Factory, ane o the auldest cinema studios in the umwhile Soviet Union.

File:Bolsheviks enter odessa.jpg

Bolshevik forces enter Odessa. Februar, 1920.

Followin the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917 durin World War I, Odessa wis occupied bi several groups, includin the Ukrainian Tsentral'na Rada, the French Airmy, the Red Airmy an the White Army. Finally, in 1920, the Red Airmy took control o Odessa an unitit it wi the Ukrainian SSR, which later became part o the USSR.

The fowk o Odessa suffered frae a great famine that occurred in 1921–1922 as a result o the war. Durin Warld War II Odessa wis occupied by Romanie an German forces frae 1941–1944. The ceety suffered severe damage an mony casualties.

Unner the Axis occupation, approximately 60,000 Odessans (maistly Jews) wur either massacred or deportit. Mony parts o Odessa wur damaged durin its fall an later recapture in Aprile 1944, when the ceety wis finally liberatit bi the Soviet Army. It wis ane o the first fower Soviet ceeties tae be awardit the title o "Hero Ceety" in 1945.

Second half o the 20t century an ayont [edit]

Pushkinskaya Street.

During the 1960s an 1970s the ceety grew tremendously. Nivertheless, atween the 1970s an 1990s, the majority o Odessa's Jews emigratit tae Israel, the Unitit States an ither Wastren kintras, domestic migration o Odessan middle an upper classes tae Moscow an Leningrad affered even greater opportunities for career advancement, an aa occurred on a lairge scale. But the ceety's grew rapidly bi filling the void wi new rural migrants elsewhere frae the Ukraine, industrial professionals invitit frae Roushie as well as ither Soviet republics. Despite being part o the Ukraine Socialist Republic, the ceety preserved ad somewha reinforced its unique cosmopolitan mix o Roushie/Ukrainian/Mediterranean culture an a predominantly Russophone environment wi a uniquely accented dialect o Roushie spoken in the ceety. The ceety's Roushie, Ukrainian, Greek, Armenian, Moldovan an Azeri an Jewish communities hae influenced different aspects o Odessa.

Odessa tram.

In 1991, efter the collapse o Communism, the ceety became part o newly independent Ukraine. Today Odessa is a ceety o around 1.1 million fowk. The ceety's industries include shipbuildin, oil refinin, chemicals, metalworkin an food processin. Odessa is an aa a Ukrainian naval base an hame tae a fishin fleet. It is an aa kent for its huge ootdoor market, the Seivent-Kilometer Market.

The transportation network o Odessa consists o trams^[3] (streetcaurs), trolleybuses, buses; an marshrutkas.

Geography and features [edit]

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 city has a mild and dry climate with average temperatures in January of -2 °C (29 °F), and July of 22 °C (73 °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, Jews, Greeks, Moldovans, Bulgarians, Armenians, Georgians, Turks, and Vietnamese, among others.

Cultur [edit]

Odessa Public Library (now Archaeological Museum), like so many other landmarks in the city, was designed in Neoclassical style.

Odessa is a popular tourist destination, with many therapeutic resorts in and around the city.

The Tolstoy, Vorontsov, an Potocki families awned palaces in Odessa, which can still be visitit.

The writer Isaac Babel wis born in the ceety, which haes an aa produced several famous muisicians, includin the violinists Nathan Milstein, Mischa Elman an David Oistrakh, an the pianists Benno Moiseiwitsch, Sviatoslav Richter an Emil Gilels. The chess player Efim Geller wis born in the ceety. (Aw leetit, except for Richter, ar representatives o the ceety's Jewish community.)

The maist popular Roushie show-business fowk frae Odessa ar Yakov Smirnoff (comedian), Mikhail Zhvanetsky (legendary humorist writer, who began his career as port ingineer) an Roman Kartsev (comedian). Their success in 1970s contributit tae Odessa's established status o a "caipital o Soviet humour". Later several humour festivals wur established in the ceety, includin the celebration o the Aprile Fool's Day.

See mair fowk born in Odessa in Category:Fowk frae Odessa.

Maist o the ceety's 19t century hooses wur built o limestane mined nearbi. Abandoned mines wur later uised an broadened bi local smugglers. This creatit a complicatit labyrinth o unnergrund tunnels aneath Odessa, kent as "catacombs". They ar a nou a great attraction for extreme tourists. Such tours, houever, ar no offeecially sanctioned an ar dangerous because the layoot o the catacombs haes no been fully mapped an the tunnels themselves ar unsafe. These tunnels ar a primary reason why subway wis niver built in Odessa.