Heart of Pushkinskaya

during the Soviet Union, "Slava Trudu" or "Glory be to Labor".

Old Soviet era Druginnik (Дружинник) Station

This was once one of the city's Druginnik headquarters, as recognized by the former Soviet sickle and hammer sign posted above the door. Drujzinna were a volunteer force set up to help police ensure public order.

The first Druginna force was established in 1881 by czarist Russia as a self-ruling body to help guard statesmen and imperial processions.

In the Khrushchev era, the Communist Party reestablished the Druginna, at the same time forming special groups among Komsomol (the Party's youth organization, similar to the boy scouts) members. Sometimes these citizen police were used by the Soviet Union to clamp down on what it viewed as signs of subversion.

The Druginna was so popular that communists planned they would replace law-enforcers when the country finally attained utopian communism.

But the popularity of the Druginna dropped. By the mid-1980s, the volunteers were openly ridiculed as they accepted feeble pensioners or unfit youths into their ranks.

To attract more volunteers, the state offered three days off in return for services. Millions of people throughout the USSR became volunteers. But soon, it became clear that it was free time, not idealism, which kept people filling the ranks. Many women would go shopping while on duty, while male volunteers drank away their patrol time. In the late 1980's the free time policy was canceled and the volunteers disbanded.

--Adapted from Lyuba Pronina, The Russia Journal

The primary streets of Odessa, including Pushkinskaya

Pushkinskaya Street · Literary Museum courtyard · Port museum and cannon on stairs
Industrial Port · Pushkin museum · Philharmonic Theater

Heart of Pushkinskaya | Odessa's mall and Orthodox Cathedral
Aleksandrovsky Ave | Ekaterininskaya Street | Rishelevskaya Street