Early history Odesa was the site of a large
Greek settlement no later than the middle of the 6th century BC (a
necropolis from the 5th–3rd centuries BC has long been known in this area). Some scholars believe it to have been a trade settlement established by the Greek city of
Histria. Whether the Bay of Odesa is the ancient "Port of the Histrians" cannot yet be considered a settled question based on the available evidence.
Archaeological artifacts confirm extensive links between the Odesa area and the eastern
Mediterranean. In the Middle Ages successive rulers of the Odesa region included various
nomadic tribes (
Petchenegs,
Cumans), the
Golden Horde, the
Crimean Khanate, the
Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and the
Ottoman Empire.
Yedisan Crimean Tatars traded there in the 14th century. Since the middle of the 13th century the city's territory belonged to the Golden Horde domain. On Italian navigational maps of 14th century on the place of Odesa is indicated the castle of Ginestra, at the time the center of a
Gazarian colony of the
Republic of Genoa. During the
Russian-Turkish War of 1787–1792, in Russian service:
Major General José de Ribas (known in Russia as Osip Mikhailovich Deribas); today, the main street in Odesa,
Deribasivska Street, is named after him. Russia formally gained possession of the Sanjak of Özi (Ochakiv Oblast) as a result of the
Treaty of Jassy (Iaşi) On permission of the Archbishop of Yekaterinoslav Amvrosiy, the Black Sea Kosh Host, that was located around the area between
Bender and
Ochakiv, built a second wooden church of Saint Nicholas, after the one in
Sucleia. By the Highest
rescript of 17 June 1792 addressed to General Kakhovsky it was ordered to establish the Dniester Border Line of fortresses. The commander of the land forces in Ochakiv Oblast was appointed Graf (Count)
Suvorov-Rymnikskiy. The main fortress was built near Sucleia at the mouth of
river Botna as the Head Dniester Fortress by Engineer-Major
de Wollant. Near the new fortress saw the formation of a new "Vorstadt" (suburb) where people moved from Sucleia and Parkan. With the establishment of the Voznesensk Governorate on 27 January 1795, the Vorstadt was named
Tiraspol. The Flemish engineer working for the Russian Empress
Catherine the Great, José de Ribas's collaborator
Franz de Voland recommended the area of
Khadjibey fortress as the site for the region's basic port: it had an ice-free harbor, breakwaters could be cheaply constructed that would render the harbor safe and it would have the capacity to accommodate large fleets. The Namestnik of Yekaterinoslav and Voznesensk,
Platon Zubov (one of Catherine's favorites), supported this proposal. In 1794 Catherine issued a Rescript to José de Ribas: "Considering favorable
Khadjibey location... I order to establish here a navy harbor and trading pierce..." and invested the first money (26.000 rubles) in construction. Franz de Voland drew up a plan that would end up being the city's plan. 's statue of the
Duc de Richelieu in Odesa However, adjacent to the new official locality, a
Moldavian colony already existed, which by the end of the 18th century was an independent settlement named
Moldavanka. Some local historians consider that the settlement predates Odesa by about thirty years and assert that the locality was founded by Moldavians who came to build the fortress of Yeni Dunia for the Ottomans and eventually settled in the area in the late 1760s, right next to the settlement of
Khadjibey, on what later became the Primorsky Boulevard. Another version posits that the settlement appeared after Odesa itself was founded, as a settlement of Moldavians, Greeks, and Albanians fleeing the Ottoman yoke. Under
Paul I of Russia, construction of Odesa was stopped, Franz de Voland was removed from the project, and José de Ribas was implicated in a plot to assassinate the Emperor. After Paul's assassination in 1801, the city resumed construction, and used a plan largely from de Voland's work. It was thus one of the few master planned cities in the Russian Empire.
Renaming of the settlement and establishment of sea port In 1795,
Khadjibey was officially renamed with the feminine name " ()" after a Greek colony of Odessos that supposedly was located in the area. The first census that was conducted in Odesa was in 1797 which accounted for 3,455 people. In their settlement, also known as Novaya Slobodka, the Moldavians owned relatively small plots on which they built village-style houses and cultivated vineyards and gardens. What became Mykhailovsky Square was the center of this settlement and the site of its first
Orthodox church, the Church of the Dormition, built in 1821 close to the seashore, as well as a cemetery. Nearby stood the
military barracks and the country houses (
dacha) of the city's wealthy residents, including that of the
Duc de Richelieu, appointed by Tsar
Alexander I as Governor of Odesa in 1803. Richelieu played a role during
Ottoman plague epidemic which hit Odesa in the autumn 1812. Dismissive of any attempt to forge a compromise between quarantine requirements and free trade, Prince
Kuriakin (the Saint Petersburg-based High Commissioner for Sanitation) countermanded Richelieu's orders. In the period from 1795 to 1814, the population of Odesa increased 15 times over and reached almost 20 thousand people. The first city plan was designed by the engineer F. Devollan in the late 18th century. Its early growth owed much to the work of the
Duc de Richelieu, who served as the city's governor between 1803 and 1814. Having fled the
French Revolution, he had served in
Catherine's army against the Turks. He is credited with designing the city and organizing its amenities and infrastructure, and is considered one of the founding fathers of Odesa, together with another Frenchman, Count
Andrault de Langeron, who succeeded him in office. Richelieu is commemorated by a
bronze statue, unveiled in 1828 to a design by
Ivan Martos. His contributions to the city are mentioned by
Mark Twain in his travelogue
Innocents Abroad: "I mention this statue and this stairway because they have their story. Richelieu founded Odessa – watched over it with paternal care – labored with a fertile brain and a wise understanding for its best interests – spent his fortune freely to the same end – endowed it with a sound prosperity, and one which will yet make it one of the great cities of the Old World". In 1819, Odesa became a free port, a status it retained until 1859. Odesa became home to an extremely diverse population of Albanians, Armenians, Azeris, Bulgarians, Crimean Tatars, Frenchmen, Germans (including Mennonites), Greeks, Italians, Jews, Poles, Romanians, Russians, Turks, Ukrainians, and traders representing many other nationalities (hence numerous "ethnic" names on the city's map, for example
Frantsuzky (French) and
Italiansky (Italian) Boulevards,
Grecheskaya (Greek),
Yevreyskaya (Jewish),
Arnautskaya (Albanian) Streets). The
Filiki Eteria, a Greek
freemasonry-style society that was to play an important role in the
Greek War of Independence, was founded in Odesa in 1814 before relocating to
Constantinople in 1818. Hundreds of refugees from the
Chios massacre settled in Odesa. Odesa's
cosmopolitan nature was documented by the great
Russian poet Alexander Pushkin, who lived in
internal exile in Odesa between 1823 and 1824. In his letters, he wrote that Odesa was a city where "the air is filled with all Europe, French is spoken and there are European papers and magazines to read". Odesa's growth was interrupted by the
Crimean War of 1853–1856, during which it was bombarded by
British and
Imperial French naval forces. It soon recovered and the growth in trade made Odesa Russia's largest grain-exporting port. In 1866, the city was linked by rail with
Kyiv and
Kharkiv as well as with
Iaşi in Romania. (constructed 1837–1841), which were famously featured in the 1925 film
Battleship Potemkin. It was built with the important contribution of the
Italians of Odesa. 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. The community, however, was repeatedly subjected to
antisemitism and anti-Jewish agitation from almost all Christian segments of the population.
Pogroms were carried out in
1821, 1859, 1871, 1881 and 1905. Many Odesan Jews fled abroad after 1882, particularly to the
Ottoman region that became
Palestine, and the city became an important base of support for
Zionism. Until the 1870s, Odesa's Italian population grew steadily. Over time they merged with the local population, losing the ethnic connotations of origin. They disappeared completely by
World War II. With the end of the
World War I and the withdrawal of armies of Central Powers, the Soviet forces fought for control over the country with the army of the Ukrainian People's Republic. A few months later the city was occupied by the
French Army and the
Greek Army that supported the Russian
White Army in its struggle with the Bolsheviks. The Ukrainian general
Nykyfor Hryhoriv who sided with Bolsheviks managed to drive the
Triple Entente forces out of the city, but Odesa was soon retaken by the Russian White Army. By 1920 the Soviet Red Army managed to overpower both the Ukrainian and Russian White Army and secure the city. The people of Odesa suffered badly from a
famine that resulted from the
Russian Civil War in 1921–1922 due to the Soviet policies of
prodrazverstka. In 1937, around 1,000 Poles were executed in Odesa during the
Polish Operation of the NKVD.
World War II During
World War II, Odesa was attacked by Romanian and German troops in August 1941. The
Siege of Odessa (1941) started on 5 August and lasted for 73 days. The defense was organized on three lines with emplacements consisting of trenches, anti-tank ditches and pillboxes. The first line was long and situated some from the city. The second and main line of defense was situated from the city and was about long. The third and last line of defense was organized inside the city itself.
Lyudmila Pavlichenko, the famous female sniper, took part in the battle for Odesa. She recorded 187 confirmed kills during the defense of Odesa. Pavlichenko's confirmed kills during World War II totaled 309 (including 36 enemy snipers). The city fell to the
Axis on 16 October 1941, and it was henceforth subject to Romanian administration. By that time, the Soviet authorities had been able to evacuate 200,000 people as well as weaponry and industrial equipment. A day later, Odesa was made the capital of
Transnistria. Partisan fighting continued, however, in the
city's catacombs. Following the siege, and the Axis occupation, approximately 25,000 Odesans were murdered in the outskirts of the city and over 35,000 deported; this came to be known as the
1941 Odessa massacre. Most of the atrocities were committed during the first six months of the occupation which officially began on 17 October 1941, when 80 per cent of the 210,000 Jews in the region were killed, compared to Jews in Romania proper where the majority survived. After the Nazi forces began to lose ground on the Eastern Front, the Romanian administration changed its policy, refusing to deport the remaining
Jewish population to extermination camps in German
occupied Poland, and allowing Jews to work as hired labourers. As a result, despite the events of 1941, the survival of the Jewish population in this area was higher than in other areas of occupied eastern Europe. Subsequent Soviet policies imprisoned and executed numerous Odesans (and deported most of the German population) on account of collaboration with the occupiers. File:Odessa (timbre soviétique).jpg|Postage stamp of the USSR 1965 "Hero-City Odesa 1941–1945" File:Defence of Odessa OBVERSE.jpg|Obverse of the Soviet campaign medal "For the Defence of Odesa" File:Defence of Odessa REVERSE.jpg|Reverse of the Soviet campaign medal "For the Defence of Odesa"; the inscription reads "For our Soviet homeland". File:Наградное удостоверение к медали За оборону Одессы.jpg|alt=Certificate "For taking part in the heroic defense of Odessa" Logvinov Petr Leontievich was awarded the Medal for the Defense of Odessa.|Certificate "For taking part in the heroic defense of Odesa"; Logvinov Petr Leontievich was awarded the Medal for the Defense of Odesa.
Postwar Soviet period During the 1960s and 1970s, the city grew. Nevertheless, the majority of Odesa's Jews emigrated to
Israel, the United States and other Western countries between the 1970s and 1990s. Many ended up in the
Brooklyn neighborhood of
Brighton Beach, sometimes known as "Little Odesa". Domestic migration of the Odesan middle and
upper classes to Moscow and
Leningrad, cities that offered even greater opportunities for career advancement, also occurred on a large scale. Despite this, the city grew rapidly by filling the void of those left with new migrants from rural Ukraine and industrial professionals invited from all over the Soviet Union. As a part of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, the city preserved and somewhat reinforced its unique cosmopolitan mix of Russian/Ukrainian/Jewish culture and a predominantly
Russophone environment with the
uniquely accented dialect of Russian spoken in the city. The city's unique identity has been formed largely thanks to its varied demography; all the city's communities have influenced aspects of Odesan life in some way or form.
Independent Ukraine In the
1991 Ukrainian independence referendum 85.38% of Odesa Oblast voted for independence. Odesa is a city of more than 1 million people. The city's industries include shipbuilding,
oil refining, chemicals, metalworking, and food processing. Odesa is also a Ukrainian
naval base and home to a
fishing fleet. It is known for its large outdoor market – the
Seventh-Kilometer Market, the largest of its kind in Europe. Odesa was a contender for hosting
Euro 2012 football matches in, but lost the competition to other cities in Ukraine. The city saw violence in the
2014 pro-Russian unrest in Ukraine during the
2014 Odesa clashes. The 2 May 2014 Odesa clashes between pro-Ukrainian and pro-Russian protestors killed 42 people. Four were killed during the protests, and at least 32 people were killed after a trade union building was set on fire after Molotov cocktails exchange between sides. Polls conducted from September to December 2014 found no support for joining Russia. Odesa was struck by three bomb blasts in December 2014, one of which killed one person (the injuries sustained by the victim indicated that he had dealt with explosives). Internal Affairs Ministry advisor
Zorian Shkiryak said on 25 December that Odesa and Kharkiv had become "cities which are being used to escalate tensions" in Ukraine. Shkiryak said that he suspected that these cities were singled out because of their "geographic position". Until 18 July 2020, Odesa was incorporated as a
city of oblast significance. In July 2020, as part of the administrative reform of Ukraine, which reduced the number of raions of Odesa Oblast to seven, the city of Odesa was merged into newly established Odesa Raion. In the
2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the city
faced Russian bombing attacks. On 23 April 2022, Russian troops bombarded Odesa with cruise missiles. They destroyed both the city's military infrastructure and residential buildings, killing eight people and wounding another eighteen people. In addition, the Russian military destroyed more than 1,000 m2 of the territory of the cemetery. The city suffered further aerial attacks on regional infrastructure facilities in October 2022, cutting off power to 10,500 households and injuring three people. Throughout the
war, Odesa came under repeated attack. On 25 January 2023,
UNESCO announced that the historical city center of Odesa was added to UNESCO's World Heritage List. In order to provide technical and financial assistance if needed, it was also included into the
list of world heritage sites in danger. == Geography ==