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Odessa guide. History of
Odessa Ukraine. Historical events by Helen Pavlova
A colony from ancient Greece
may have once occupied the site of the city. Numerous monuments of antiquity
confirm links between this territory and the Eastern Mediterranean. In
the Middle Ages these lands were a part of the Kiev Rus, Galich and Volyn
Principality, the Golden Horde, the Great Lithuanian Principality, the
Crimean Khanate and the Osman Empire. Crimean Tatars traded there in the
14th century. In the course of Russian-Turkish wars these lands were captured
by Russia at the end of the 18th century.
| Catherine the Great founded
Odessa in 1794. In 1764 the Empress formed the territories newly acquired
in the southwest other empire into a province called New Russia. During
the Russian-Turkish war of 1787-91, Don Josef de Ribas, a soldier of fortune
born in Naples of Spanish and Irish stock and one of many adventures in
Catherine's service, stormed the fortress of Yeny-Dunai at Khadzhibei.
De Ribas and his close collaborator, a Dutch engineer named Franz de Volan,
recommended Khadzhibei as the site for the region's principal port. Its
harbor was deep and nearly ice-free. Breakwaters, on the model of those
found at Naples, Livorno and Ancona, could be cheaply constructed and would
render the harbor safe even for large fleets. The Governor General of New
Russia, Prince Platon Zubov one of Catherine's favorites gave decisive
support to the latter proposal. In 1794, Catherine gave it her approval.
She immediately sent twenty-six thousand rubles to de Ribas and de Volan
to build a harbor. This new settlement was given the name Odessa. |
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The city's name came about
as a result of an error. It was meant to be named after the ancient Greek
city of Odessos or Ordissos, which was believed to have been founded in
the vicinity. Actually, it was somewhere near the present day town of Varna
in Bulgaria. But Catherine the Great liked "Adessa" as the Russians and
Ukrainians pronounce it.
In 1803, Tsar Alexander I
appointed a young French emigrant, then 36 years old, the Duke de Richelieu
to be the mayor, of Odessa. Eighteen months later, in 1805, the Tsar enlarged
his authority by appointing him to serve simultaneously as the governor
of the three provinces of New Russia. In the 11 years of his administration,
the Duke de Richelieu acquired an extraordinary reputation for statesmanship
and sense, both abroad and in Russia. Clothed inexplicable in a toga, his
statue now points out to the sea, presumably to indicate the source of
Odessa's wealth. Duke left Odessa on September 26, 1814 for France. Even
after his return to France to serve as prime minister under the restored
monarchy, he retained cordial ties with the Imperial Russian Court and
with the Russian ambassador to France, Pozzo di Borgo.
By 1820 Odessa had become
an important commercial, industrial and cultural center in the southern
part of Tsarist Russia and the greatest seaport on the Black Sea. The economy
of Odessa was based on private businesses. They made the city a 'dissident'
in the old feudal Russia.
The unique position of Odessa
as a vital trade link between the West and the East, and the growth in
importance of Russia's external trade through the Black Sea in the 19th
century made way for the establishment of a big trade port center for the
development of Odessa into an advanced European city. A crucial event in
the trade policy was the declaration of a free port regime in Odessa in
August 1819, establishing a customs border in the vicinity. It was aimed
at overcoming scarcity in the domestic market, by the attraction of investment
capital. It has been also done because of absence of Russia's trade fleet
in the Black Sea.
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The free port was a guarantee
of Odessa's financial security, a breakthrough into the civilized world,
a dress rehearsal for the development of an open economy in the Russian
Empire. Prominent administrators experienced and cultured governor-generals
of the New Russia region put the transformation of Odessa into an advanced
European city forward
Their work was based on the
activities of representatives of numerous nations and nationalities that
came to Odessa bringing their cultures of manufacturing, trade and management.
It resulted in a new culture comprising the best features of all its constituents.
Throughout the whole period
of the free port in Odessa (1819-1858) there was a huge discussion between
supporters and opponents of the privileged tax regime. |
Free trade influenced negatively
the development of manufacturing in the region. Local products could not
compete in quality with overseas goods.
The Crimean War (1853-56)
revealed the bankruptcy of the closed economy in feudal Russia compared
to the developed capitalistic economies of the Great Britain and France.
The war prompted the reforms of the 1860's. With new trade regulations,
the free port regime in Odessa was out of date, and was eventually abolished.
By its hundredth anniversary
(1894), Odessa occupied the 4th place in the Russian Empire in size and
economic power - after St. Petersburg, Moscow and Warsaw.
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