Odessa
''This is about the Ukrainian city of Odessa. For other uses, see Odessa (disambiguation). ''
Odessa or Odesa (Turkish Hacıbey) is a Ukrainian port on the Black Sea.
From 1819-1858 Odessa was a free port. In Soviet times it was a Soviet naval port, and since January 1, 2000 the Quarantine Pier of Odessa trade sea port was declared a free port and free economic zone for 25 years.
Odessa is a warm water port, but of limited military value. Turkey's control of the Dardanelles and Bosporus has enabled NATO to control water traffic between Odessa and the Mediterranean Sea.
Odessa is the 5th largest city in Ukraine and its most important trading city. In the nineteenth century it was the 3rd city of Russia, after Moscow and St. Petersburg. It looks more Mediterranean than Russian, having been heavily influenced by French and Italian styles. Odessa has always possessed a spirit of freedom, probably by virtue of its location and its willingness to accept many different peoples.
Nearly 1700 years ago an ancient Greek colony settled near the place where the later city was founded. In the 14th century, Crimean Tatars traded in the Odessa region. During the Russo-Turkish War, from 1787-1791, the Ukrainian Black Sea Kozaks conquered the Tartar settlement of Khadzhibei(Hacıbey) and the Turkish fortress of Eni-Dunia, near the city's present-day location. The Spaniard in Russian service De Ribas helped lead this conquest.
Odessa was officially founded in 1794 as a Russian naval fortress on lands annexed from Turkey as a result of the Treaty of Jassy in 1792. The city was named after an ancient Greek colony Odessos (probably located near Varna, Bulgaria), and in 1795 it was Empress Catherine II's wish to use this name but in feminine gender, thus Odessa.
From 1803-1814 a Frenchman, Duke de Richelieu, was nominated governor of Odessa. Having fled the French Revolution, he had served in Catherine's army against the Turks. He is credited with designing the city and organising its amenities and infrastructure, and is considered one of the founding fathers of Odessa.
During 1823-1824 the great Russian poet Alexander Pushkin lived in internal exile in Odessa. 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". The writer Isaak 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. The chess player Efim Geller was born in the city.
During the Crimean War from 1853-1856, Odessa was bombarded by British and French naval forces. As trade grew, so did Odessa, becoming Russia's largest grain-exporting port. In 1866 the city was linked by rail with Kiev and Kharkov as well as Jassy, Romania.
In 1905 Odessa was the site of a workers' uprising supported by the crew of the Russian battleship Potemkin and Lenin's Iskra. Following the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917 during World War I, Odessa was occupied by several groups, including the Central Powers, the French, the Reds and the Whites. Finally, in 1920, the Reds took control of Odessa and united it with the Ukrainian SSR, later becoming part of the USSR. The famous motion picture The Battleship Potemkin fictionalized this event and included a scene where hundreds of Russian citizens were murdered on a great stone staircase, in one of the most famous scenes in motion picture history. The massacre was entirely fictional, but the movie convinced many people it was real, and for years people would come to Odessa to see the site of the "slaughter." The "Odessa Steps" continue to be a tourist attraction in Odessa. Eisenstein's film was made at Odessa's "Cinema Factory", one the oldest cinema studios in Russia.
From 1921-1922 the people of Odessa suffered from a great famine that occurred as a result of the War. During the Great Patriotic War from 1941-1944, Odessa was occupied by Romanian and German forces, and suffered severe casualties. Approximately 280,000 Odessans (mostly Jews) were either massacred or deported. Some 30,000 defended their city from some 300,000 Fascist troops. Odessa was finally liberated by the Soviet army in April of 1944. It was one of the first four Soviet cities to be awarded the title Hero City in 1945.
During the 1960s and 1970s the city grew tremendously. In 1991, after the collapse of Communism, the city became part of newly independent Ukraine. Today Odessa is a city of 1.1 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.
Odessa is situated on terraced hills overlooking a small harbor. The weather in Odessa is mild and dry with average temperatures in January of -2 C (29 F), and July of 22 C (73 F). Odessa averages only 35 cm (14 in) of precipitation annually.
Odessa remains an important holiday destination and has many therapeutic resorts. The primary language spoken is Russian, though Ukrainian is the official language. The city is a mix of many nationalities and ethnic groups, including Ukrainian, Russian, Moldavian, Greek, Romanian, Bulgarian, Caucasian, Jewish, Turkish, and Vietnamese, among others.