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From 2odessa.com The most comprehensive guide to Odessa, Ukraine

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• Continue to Odessa a guide 2, part 2

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CONTENTS

6 Introduction

9 Brief History

12 From the Founding of the City and up to the Revolution (1794-1917)

18 The Establishment of Soviet Power (1917-1920)

20 Socialist Construction Between the Two World Wars (1920-1941)

22 The Great Patriotic War (the Heroic Defense of Odessa, the Partisan Movement, the Liberation of tile City)

31 The Restoration of Odessa and Its Further Economic and Cultufal Advancement

33 Odessa Today

34 The Southern Sea Gates of the USSR

38 Odessa as an Industrial Centre

39 Odessa as a Science and Cultural Centre

42 Odessa as a Health Resort

43 International Ties

45 Five Sightseeing Routes Through Odessa

46 The Historic Centre of the City (First Tour)

92 The Historic Centre of the City (Second Tour)

104 The Modern Centre of Odessa

122 The Health Resort District Arksdlya

141 Shevchenko Park

151 Odessa Environs

152 Bus Trip to the Partisan Museum in the Catacombs

157 Boat Trip Along the Coast

173 Trips to the Environs of Odessa Arranged by Intourist

174 Kherson

178 Belgorod-Dnestrovsky 185 Useful Information

190 Index

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Introduction

The city of Odessa lies on the Black Sea coast in the Bay of Odessa, at the point where the sea and steppe meet. It has a population of over one million-Ukrainians, Moldavians, Bulgarians, Jews, Byelorussians and others-more than forty nationalities in all. The city occupies a territory of 160 square kilometers.

Odessa is a regional centre of the Ukraine, which is one of the fifteen Soviet republics. The Odessa region is 33,300 square kilometers in area and its population of about 2,6 million people (as of January 1st, 1979, gives an average density of some 76 persons per sq. km.

The Odessa region lies in the south-west of the Ukraine between northern latitudes 45' and 48' In the north it borders on the Vinnitsa region, in the north-east on the Kirovograd region,

in the east on the Nikolayev region (all of the Ukraine), in the west with the Moldavian Soviet Republic, and in the south-west along the Danube with Romania. About 300 km of its southwestern borders are washed by the Black Sea.

The Odessa region is rich in fresh-water and salt-water limans (a liman'or lagoon is a former part of the sea, now separated from it by a sand strip). These have been used to build the modern ports of Ilichyovsk and Yuzhny. Enclosed salt-water limans, like the Khadjibey, Kuyalnik and others, are rich in medicinal muds.

Europe's second longest river, the Danube, runs, out of its total 2,B50 km, for 144 km through the Odessa region. The second major river is the Dniester, which flows into the fresh water

Dniester Liman. The waters of both these rivers are used widely for irrigation. Another major river is the Yuzhny Bug which flows through the Odessa region for 40 km and ends in the Dnieper Bug Liman.

CLIMATE: The climate is moderately continental and comparatively dry, with a short mild winter and long hot summer. Because of the nearness of the sea, the heat of the summer is ruced, as is the coldness of the winter. Since the region is drawn out along the meridian, the climate in the narrow 30-40 km-stretch along the coast is practically ideal, with the soft tang of the sea mixing with the scent of the steppes. Along the coast, there are soft sandy beaches, the Iimans with their medicinal muds and saline waters, and also mineral springs. Throughout summer and autumn there is an abundance of vegetables, as well as grapes and other fruit.

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The Odessa regional centre lies on the same latitude as Budapest, Zurich, Milan, Berne, Zagreb, Turin, Montreal and Ottawa.

The mean annual temperature in Odessa is 10 C, with the mean temperature of the coldest month. January, being -25 C while that of July, the hottest' month, is 22-24 C. There are more than 290 sunny days in the year which is nearly as many as in such famous holiday resorts as Yalta and Sochi, but Odessa has the advantage in having less rainfall as the annual precipitation: it is only 350-460 mm. Between 100 and 110 days in the year are favorable for summer holidays and medical treatment and swimming conditions are good from mid-May to mid-September. The mean annual temperature of the sea is about 11 C, and the mean temperature in May 14.6 C, in June 19-20'C, July and; August 22.5 C, September 17-18'C, and October 14-16 C. in December the temperature of the sea drops to 4 C.

Day and night temperature fluctuations do not as a rule exceed 2.5-3'C, but there can be one to three days a month when swimming is not so pleasant when the north, north-west and west winds push the warmer water out to sea and the cooler waters come up from the bottom. When they warm up they discharge large quantities of oxygen leaving the air very fresh and pleasant.

Some districts around the city (Kuyalnik, Luzanovka, Arkadiya, Fontany, Chernomorka) have particularly favourable climatic conditions.

TRANSPORT: Odessa is a major railway junction with direct lines to Kiev (654 km), Moscow (1,526 km), Leningrad (1.769 km), Lvov, Kharkov, Rostov, Simferopol, Kishinev, Novosibirsk, and other towns. Aeroflot flies from Odessa to Kishlnev, Kiev, Moscow, Leningrad, Yerevan, Tbilisi, Tashkent, Tallinn, Riga, Simferopol, Sochi, Alma-Ata, Vladivostok, etc. There are also charter flights to Berlin, Prague, Bratislava and Budapest.

Odessa is also-the biggest southern seaport of the country and is the starting point for the International passenger lines to Greece, Syria, Cyprus, Yugoslavia, France, Italy, Algeria and other Mediterranean countries. The domestic line linking the Black Sea port of Odessa to the Crimea and the Caucasus is highly popular with tourists.

Odessa is one of the most popular tourist centers of the Soviet Union, and all year round tourists from different republics and many foreign countries can be seen on its streets.

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This guide book is not meant to give a detailed picture of the whole of Odessa, which is constantly changing. Any visitor with time to spare can ride out to the new districts, Cheremushki, Yugo-Zapad, and Tairov, where hundreds of thousands of people have moved into new homes with every modern amenity. Those with only two or three days at their disposal will be unable to take in everything, so this guide book focuses on the sights no visitor should miss. Most of them are along the coastline, since Odessa is above all a sea port and the sea dominates its life. It was to the sea that the great Russian poet Alexander Pushkin (1799-1837) devoted his famous lines when leaving Odessa:

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Brief History

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From the Founding of the City and up to the Revolution (1794-1917)

Odessa is comparatively young and was founded at the end of the 18th century, but the history of the north-west coast of the 81ack Sea on which the city is situated goes much further back.

In the 1st millennium 8.C. and the beginning of the first century A. D. the steppes along the Black Sea coast were inhabited by the Cimmerians, Scythians, Sarmatians and other tribes.

in the 6th century B.C. the Greeks began to colonise the lands that now form part of the Odessa region. Part of their settlements were subsequently turned into large fortified towns specializing in crafts and trade. The best known of these is Tyras on the Dniester River (see the trip to the town of 8elgorod-Dnestrovsky).

In the 1st to 3rd centuries A D. the north-west coast was invaded by Roman legions.

In the 3rd century, according to written sources, the Goths moved to the Black Sea coast from north-west, and at the end of the 4th century the territory had been overrun from the east by the Huns.

The first Slavonic settlements appeared in the 3rd. 6th centuries A.D. and in the 8th century Alani-Bulgarian tribes settled in the area between the Dniester and the Danube and were subsequently assimilated by the Slavs.

Ancient Russian manuscripts reveal that the steppelands which now form part of the Odessa region, especially the lands between the Dniester and the Danube, played an important role in the life of the Slavs in the days of Kievan Rus (9-12th centuries). Slavs set. tied in the lower reaches of the Dniester, Prut and Danube; in the beginning of our era, and this gave them an outlet to the Black Sea, which sparked off the establishment of many Russian townships, including present day BelgorodDnestrovsky. When the area was captured by the "MongolTartar hordes in the mid-13th century, the ties between the steppe-lands and the lands

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where the Slavs originated were disrupted.

The Mongol-Tartar'rule left the area devastated. However, in some places a permanent Slav population remained. During the 14th century and in the beginning of the 15th, following the division of Kievan Rus into smaller principalities and the Slav population into Russians, Byelorussians and Ukrainians, the north-west coast of the Black sea began to be settled by Russians and Uk. rainians. One of their settle. ments which was sited pn the territory of present-day Odessa was the port of Kachibey.

The exact date of the founding of the settlement is unknown, and even its name changes depending on the source of information. The dif. ferentnames seem to be variations of one theme: Kachibey, Kotsyubiyevo, Katsyubeyev, Khadjibey, Gadjibey and Adjibey.

It is first mentioned in 1415 in the manuscripts of the Polish chronicler Jan Dlugosz and by that time it was already a comparatively big port.

In the sixties of the 14th century and for almost one hundred years this territory was ruled by the Lithuanian Kingdom.

in the mid-fifteenth century, following the disintegration of the Mongol State, the Crimean Tartars won independence and for a time they took over the northern Black Sea coastal area. After the Ottoman Empire captured the Crimea in 1475, the Crimean Tartars became vassals of the Empire and the northern coast of the Black Sea became in effect a springboard for attacks on neighbouring lands.

In an attempt to consolidate their position in these captured lands, the Turks strengthened the existing fortresses Ochakov, Bendery, and Akkerman (BelgorodDnestrovsky), and built one large new fortress on the Danube, Izmail, and several smaller ones. One of them was built in 1764 on the sheer cliffs of the Khadjibey 8ay (now the Bay of Odessa), on the site of the present-day Primorsky Bulvar. This fortress was named Yeni-Dunya (New World), but was also often called by the name of the nearby settlement Khadjibey.

The fortress occupied the territory between the presentday Palace of Pioneers up to the Potemkin stairway and stretched inland to the present-day Krasnoflotsky Pereu10k. The fortress was surrounded by a high wall with round towers and embrasures (crenelles). The main tower which was square with a conical roof and also the gates, were in the middle of the wall facing the sea.

The capture of the north

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ern coast of the Black Sea first by the Golden Horde and then by the Turks, meant that Russia was cut off from the Black Sea for a long time.

The Russo-Turkish wars of the second half of the lBth century were the continuation of Russia's struggle against Turkish and Tartar aggression, for an outlet to the Black Sea, and for the return of the northern coast which had been captured in the 13th century.

During the Russo-Turkish war of 1768-1774, Russian armies moved towards the Danube. in the summer of 1770 the Russian fleet destroyed the Turkish Fleet in the battle in the Bay of Chesmen in the Black Sea. Under the 1774 Kuchuk-Kainarji peace treaty, Russia received an outlet to the Black Sea through the area between the mouths of the Dniester and the Yuzhny Bug. The Crimean Khanate no longer depended on Turkey and was joined to Russia.

Turkey's attempts to regain the lost lands led to another war with Russia In 1787-1791, a war that ended in victory for the Russian forces.

It was during this war that the Russian army led by General ivan Gudovich and ViceAdmiral Josef Deribas, together with a unit of Cossack troops, laid siege to the Turkish fortress Khadjibey. On September 14th, the fortress was captured, and in December, 1790 the Izmail fortress, the largest on the Danube, was stormed.

In December, 1791, Ottoman Turkey was forced to sign the Jassy peace treaty under which Russia consolidated its hold on the Crimea and the entire northern coast of the

Black Sea (from the Dniester to the Kuban, and the primordial Slav lands between the Yuzhny BU9 and the Dniester, including the greater part of the present-day Odessa reo gion). Russia's long struggle for an outlet to the Black Sea was crowned with Success.

This outlet was of immense economic; political and military significance for Russia.

The country got down to settling the area and one after another new towns and ports were founded; Kherson (1778), Nikolayev (1789) and Tiraspol (1793).

Astute statesmen of those days immediately recognized the excellent facilities offered by the Bay of Khadjibey and decided to build a fortress and port on that site.

The great Russian military commander Field-Marshal Alexander Suvorov (1730-1800) was very active in the settlement of the new lands. It was he who directed the construction of the fortress and build ing work in the new town, so he is quite justly regarded as the founder of Odessa.

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The new fortress, designed to defend the town from enemies coming from the sea, was built in 1793 not far from the ruins of the old Turkish fortress. Star-shaped with five bastions, it was surrounded by a moat and earthen mounds. The new garrison was com. prised of 2,000 men with 120 cannons. Soon, however, the fortress lost its military significance and was turned into a medical quarantine area. It stood on the spot where today the Shevchenko park lies, and all that remains now is part of the stone wall with seven archways and a round watch tower.

On Suvorov's initiative, the military ,engineer Franz Devo. Ian drew up plans for the harbour and town of Khadjibey.

In his report he stressed the excellent facilities of the bay, noting that shipping would be possible "all year round regardless what wind blew". The harbour would provide excellent shelter for the fleet in times of war, and for trade in times of peace.

His report and plan were submitted to the Empress Catherine the Great and on May 27th, 1794, orders were given to build the town.

The first piles of the port were sunk on August 22nd (September 2nd new calendar). 1794. This day has become the birthday of Odessa.

In the beginning it was called Khadjlbey, but from the beginning of 1795 the name Odessa can be found in official documents.

There are many legends about the origin of the name. The most likely version said that the town owes its name to the ancient Greek colony of Odessos, once situated on the north-west coast of the Black Sea. When Odessa was founded no one knew exactly where that colony had been, but it was believed to be somewhere on the shores of the Khadjibey Bay. This prompted the renaming of Khadjibey into Odessa. Today, however, it has been definitely established that the ancient Odessos lay where the present-day Bulgarian port Varna is sited.

Another legend says that when it was suggested to Catherine the Great that Khadjlbey be re-named Odessa she replied, "Let Khadjibey bear the Greek name, but in the feminine gender, let it be known as Odessa."

The new town grew and developed rapidly. From the very beginning it was well planned, taking into account the relief of the terrain. Some of Russia's best architects worked in Odessa such as Avraam Melnikov, Jean Thomas de Thomon, as well as Franz Boffo, Georgi Torichelll, Felix Gonslorovsky, Alexander 8ernardacci, and Fyodor Nes

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turkh. As you walk through the city you will notice that its streets are straight and wide (the main thoroughways are 30.32 m), its squares spacious and its architectural ensembles elegant.

At the end of the 18th century and beginning of the 19th, work on the harbour contino ued, while in the vicinity dwelling houses, warehouses and shops were built.

Odessa owes its rapid growth chiefly to geographical factors; the deepness of the Bay of Odessa, the fact that it freezes very rarely, and the closeness of the mouths of the big navigable rivers, the Dniester, Dnieper and Danube. Because of this, there was always a very big cargo flow through the Odessa port. Some fifty odd years after its foundation, in 1850, Odessa with its population of 100,000 ranked as the third iargest town in Russia.

Odessa was built mainly by Ukrainians and Russians and they made up the majority of its population, but from its very inception the town. also served as a haven for refugees fleeing the countries enslaved by the Ottoman Empire: Bul. garians, Greeks and Albanians, as well as people from many parts of multinational Russia seeking a new and better life. This accounts for the variety of nationalities inhabiting Odessa.

From the very first years of its existence Odessa became a centre of revolutionary and na. tional-liberation movements. The names of many of the first Russian revolutionaries (those who took part in the 1825 December uprising against the Tsar) are linked with Odessa; Pavel Peste I, the Muravyev.

Apostol brothers, Sergei and Mikhail, Sergei Volkonsky, etc.

It was in Odessa in 1814 that the secret revolutionary society of Greek patriots "Philiki Eteria" was founded; this society played a big part in preparing the Greek national liberation revolution of 1821.1829.

In the middle of the 19th century Odessa became one of the centres of the Bulgarian social and political movement. The Bulgarian poet and revoiu. tionary Georgi Rakovsky lived and worked in Odessa, the national hero Christo Botev studied there, and many other prominent figures in science and culture lived in the town.

In the 1850's an organization of democratic emigrants was founded, "The Bulgarian colony", which later became the centre of Bulgarian social and cultural movements.

The Italian revolutionary Guiseppe Garibaldi visited Odessa several times.

Odessa grew into an industrial and cultural centre of Russia, in addition to being a trading

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center. In 1817 The Riche. lieu Lyceum was opened, the forerunner of the University. This was followed in 1829 by the opening of one of the first public libraries in the country. Earlier, in 1809, the city theatre began performances and shortly after local newspapers started publication and bookpublishing began.

In the 1870's, the working class of Odessa, like in other industrial centers of Russia, launched its revolutionary struggle. The first strikes were held at factories and the first workers' groups were formed. In May 1875 the first workers' revolutionary organization in Russia was set up. It was known as the "South-Russian Workers' Union". Its organizer and ideological leader was Yevgeny Zaslavsky, a student who linked his destiny with that of the working class.

Members of the organization carried out revolutionary work among the workers, they organized strike action and disseminated and publicized revolutionary literature.

Zaslavsky set up a print shop, where apart from legal literature, he organized the printing of manifestos and leaf. lets, not only for Odessa, but also for other towns in Southern Russia. The Union maintained ties with many other Ukrainian towns. Although the organization did not exist for long, it left its mark on the revolutionary movement in the country.

1898 saw the organization of the Odessa Committee of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party on the basis of existing social-democratic circles and groups.

Odessa Communists are particularly proud of the fact that their delegate to the third Congress of the RSDLP in London in 1905 was Vladimir Lenin. The struggle of the Odessa working class during the years of the first Russian revolution (1905-07) was a glorious page in the history of the revolutionary events in the city, and in. eluded the first mutiny in the Russian Navy, the battleship Potemkin. In June, 1905, the battleship entered the port of Odessa flying the Red Flag. The tsarist authorities sent a naval squadron against the Potemkin, but its sailors refused to fire at it and the government was unable to suppress the mutiny. "The most it has been able to achieve so far,"

Lenin wrote at that time, "is to hold back the fleet from ac. tively going over to the side of the revolution. Meanwhile the armoured cruiser Potemkin reo mains an unconquered terri. tory of the revolution. "1

V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, v.8, p.p. 561-562, Progress Publishers, Moscow, 1974.

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Throughout the second half of the 19th century Odessa continued its advance in the fields of culture and education while the face of the town also changed. The theatre, burnt out by fire, was replaced by a new building, ranking among the best of that time. A stock exchange was built, as well as banks, hotels and shops. Villas and other holiday homes went up along the coastal strip and improvements were made in the streets as new pavements and roads were laid. The town began to get its drinking water from the Dniester, and the first horse-drawn trams were introduced.

The opening in 1865 of the University, initially known as the Novorossiisk University, was a major event in the life of the city. The University Professors founded a number of scientific educational societies and institutions. 1871 saw the opening of the Odessa Astronomical Observatory, while somewhat earlier, in 1866, the bacteriologist ilya Mechnikov founded the first bacteriological station in Russia.

The theatre, music, literature and art played an important role in the city's cultural life, and the Museum of Fine Arts was opened in 1899.

The Establishment of Soviet Power (1917-1920)

Following the 1917 February revolution and the overthrow of the tsarist regime in Russia, dual power reigned in Odessa, as elsewhere in the country; the Soviets of workers', soldiers' and sailors' deputies represented the power of the people, while the Public Committee, the organ of the bourgeoisie, represented the Provisional Bourgeois government. The situation was complicated by the activities of the nationalist counter-revolution led by the so-called Regional Rada (Council), the local body of the bourgeois nationalist Ukrainian government which laid claim to power in the city.

In October, 1917, the working people of Odessa rejoiced at the news of the victory of the Great October Socialist Revolution in Petrograd (October 25th old calendar, November 7th new calendar). The workers insisted that all power should pass into the hands of the Soviets. However, Soviet power could not be established in Odessa either in October or November, 1917, because of the resistance of the local counter revolutionary forces.

Because of this the Bolsheviks in Odessa started to prepare

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an armed uprising and they set up a Military-Revolutionary Committee to lead it. Their forces were made up chiefly of units of the Red Guards and units of Rumcherod, the Executive Committee of the Soviets of Soidiers' and Sailors' Deputies of the Romanian Front, the Black Sea Fleet and the Odessa military garrison.

The military-revolutionary committee set the date of the uprising for the night of January 13th (26th), 1918. It began exactly as planned. Units of the Red Guard and units of revolutionary soldiers and sailors captured without bloodshed the most important buildings in the city, the military headquarters, the railway station, the postal headquarters, the telephone station, the bank, the arsenal, and they also arrested a number of leading counter-revolutionaries.

On January 14th (27th), 1918, a joint meeting of the Soviets of workers', soldiers' and sailors' deputies proclaimed Soviet power in Odessa.

The counter-revolutionlary forces, however, wanted to prevent the consolidation of Soviet power and on the very next day they went into action.

Bitter fighting continued in the city for three days, until the enemy capitulated. The January uprising ended in victory and a message was sent to Lenin in Petrograd announcing the establishment of Soviet power in Odessa.

However, Soviet power in Odessa was unable to hold out for long. March,1918, saw the beginning of the intervention of fourteen countries against the young Soviet republic. Austro-German troops called in by the Ukrainian bourgeois nationalists invaded the Ukraine, and Odessa was occupied. The Bolsheviks went underground and continued their struggle. German occupation lasted until November 1918 when the revolution in Germany forced the withdrawal of Austro-German troops from the Ukraine.

But one Jot of invaders were replaced by another and at the end of November, Odessa was occupied by the forces of the Entente-French, British, Italian and others and another reign of terror began.

All those suspected of being sympathetic to the Bolsheviks and Soviet power were seized, tortured and killed. However, even in those extremely difficult conditions the working people of Odessa continued their struggle against the invaders. The struggle was organized by the underground regional committee of the Communist Party (Bolsheviks) of the Ukraine under the leadership of a professional revolutionary Ivan Smirnov (Nikolai Lastochkin).

A special underground organisation

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was set up and was known as the "Foreign Coilegium", it included French, Poiish, Romanian, Serbian, Greek and British groups. Members of the organization conducted revolutionary propaganda among foreign soldiers and sailors, distributed newspapers, leaflets and proclamations that were published in the underground printshop set up in the catacombs. One newspaper for French sailors, Communist, was published in French and Russian.

The members of the "Foreign Coilegium" inciuded the Communist Jeanne Laborbe, a French woman, sent especially from Moscow to work with the Odessa underground, the Romanian A. Zalik, the Serb Stoiko Ratkov, the Poles Helena Grzelakowa and Jan Wimut-Grzelak, and many others. It was the speeches of Jeanne Laborbe that made the greatest impact on French soldiers and sailors.

The invaders succeeded in capturing and killing the leaders of the "Foreign Collegium" and the Bolshevik under ground, but the seeds they had Sown bore fruit among the foreign soldiers and sailors. There were a number of mutinies on the foreign ships and military units refused to obey orders and demanded their return home.

Fearing a revolutionary uprising in their own forces and under attack from the underground and advancing Red Army units, the governments of the Entente were compeled to evacuate their forces from the south of Russia, and In April, 1919, the invaders left Odessa.

The peaceful respite did not last long. In August, 1919, troops of the White Guards under General Denikin entered the city. His reign of terror surpassed in brutality anything attempted by the foreign invaders, but even in these conditions the Bolsheviks continued their active work underground, organising the revolutionary forces and preparing an uprising.

On February 7th, 1920 the armed workers took to the streets, and heavy street fighting ensued. At the same time Red Army units were approaching the city and in the evening when they entered Odessa it once and for all became a Soviet city.

Socialist Construction Between the Two World Wars (1920.1941)

Almost three years of battle and repeated Occupation had brought Odessa to the brink of economic disaster. Most of the factories and the

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port were at a standstill and 95% of the merchant fleet had either been sunk by the invaders or taken away.

Through "immense effort and selfless work, the workers gradually brought back to life the factories and transport sys. tem, they salvaged and repaired ships, and re-buiit the wharfs, warehouses and refrigerators. In November, 1923, the port was already able to receive thirty-two foreign ships and one hundred and one coastal ships.

In 1925 industrial output amounted to only 60% of the 1913 figure, but by 1928 it had surpassed it by 8%.

The working people of Odessa got down to implementing the Communist party's policy of industrialisation, and as a result of the pre-war five year plans, Odessa became a major industrial, culturai and holiday center, and a big Black Sea port with a population of over 600,000.

By 1940 industrial output exceeded the 1913 level eight times over. Old enterprises had been re-built and enlarged and new ones had gone up. New industries appeared, with engineering, metal.working, chemicai and food industries playing the main role. Odessa produced farm machinery, steel pipes, machine-tools, chemical fertilisers, cranes, excavators, etc.

The port with its numerous wharfs and modern hydrotechnical equipment ranked among the country's best. It could receive big ocean-going ships, more than twelve thousand tons deadweight, and in passenger trallic it held first place in the country.

Great progress was made in the advancement of culture, the health service and science.

Before the First World War more than one third of the population had been iiliterate and there were only about 7,500 school pupils. Less than twenty years after the establishment of Soviet power, on the eve of the Great Patriotic War (1941-1945), Odessa had 55 new schools and the number of pupils had increased 20 times over. illiteracy had been eliminated completely, and all forms of education and medical aid were free of charge.

The number of hospitals, clinics and out-patient departments increased five-fold, six new maternity homes were opened and nineteen Women's Welfare Clinics.

There were forty two doctors for every ten thousand of the population. In 1941, 27,000 students were studying in Odessa's colieges and technical schoois. In addition there were twenty scientific-research institutes including the Ukrainian Research Institute of Eye Diseases, institutes of plant genetics, viticulture and

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health resort research institute. Odessa had more than fifty civic centers, a Palace of Pioneers, a Scientists' Club, museums, theatres and an Orchestra.

Although the years of peace were short, a great deal was done to improve the life of the people. Like the whole country, Odessa was going through a period of growth in the economic, socia-political and cultural fields. its prospects looked bright, but then the war interrupted the peaceful life of the Soviet people.

The Great Patriotic War (the Heroic Defense of Odessa, the Partisan Movement, the Liberation of the City)

On June 22nd, 1941, Nazi Germany attacked the Soviet Union in violation of the 1939 non-aggression Pact. By that time German imperialism had at its service practically the entire economic potential of conquered Europe, and it was out to rout the Soviet Union and wipe out the gains of the Great October Socialist Revolution. The Soviet people courageously met the onslaught of the fascist invaders, and the Great Patriotic war began.

From the very first days, Soviet troops were involved in

bitter and bloody battles along the vast line of the front which stretched from the Black Sea to the Barents Sea. At the same time the entire country was re-structuring its life to the needs of the war.

In 1941, however, the situation on the Soviet-German front was extremely unfavourable for the Soviet armies. With the material resources of practically ail of Western Europe to back it, and with a superiority in manpower and military hardware, fascist Germany increased the pressure, disregarding its immense losses.

The strategic importance of Odessa for the defense of the southern Ukraine was very great. The Nazis sought to capture Odessa and Sevastopol and thus end the domination of the Soviet Fleet in the Black Sea, in order to ensure the advance of their troops in the

Donets coalfields and the Crimea, to the Caucasus and Transcaucasus. Nazi Germany was counting on establishing its domination in the Black Sea by stepping up the pressure on Turkey and drawing it into the war against the Soviet Union.

The enemy was constantly throwing new reserves into battle and it continued to advance, despite the heroic efforts of the Soviet troops.

The systematic bombing of Odessa began. Between July

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22nd and October 16th, 1941, 316 bomb alerts were sounded in the city and enemy planes made 350 raids. The enemy was drawing its troops up for the capture of Odessa and the city prepared to defend itself.

The long and staunch defense of Odessa was of immense significance for the Soviet troops in the southern sector of the front and it played an important part in foiling enemy plans.

Among those who were closely' involved in planning the defense of the city was Brigade Commissar Leonid Brezhnev, as the representative of the special purpose group of the Military Council of the Southern Front. He arrived in Odessa and together with regional leaders studied the complex situation, visiting troops and army units, as well as the catacombs, which were later to become the base for the underground party organisation and the partisan movement.

The threat to Odessa increased sharply at the end of July-beginning of August. On August 5th, the Command of the Southern Front received orders from the High Command, "Odessa must not be surrendered. It must be defended as long as possible, using also the Black Sea Fleet." That hot August day went down in history as the first day of the seventy-three day long defense of the city. A state of siege was proclaimed in the town and its suburbs on August 8th.

Odessa was not a fortress in the proper sense of the word as there were no natural barriers to protect it. On one side was the sea, but on the other three sides there was a flat steppe-land interspersed in some places with low hills, and cut from north to south by planted belts of acacia and gieditschia.

The few and comparatively powerful long-range coastal batteries in the vicinity of Odessa had been designed for battle with enemy ships, not for the defense of the city from land.

Defense lines had to be built as quickly as possible. By the end of August, engineering forces helped by the population built three main and several secondary defense lines. The first was 20.25 km from the city, the second and main one 10-14 km away, and the fallback passed along the outskirts.

This defense system was augmented by barricades in the streets, anti-tank obstacles and firing points.

Odessa became a frontline town. It was hard to recognize its streets, which only a short while ago had been so busy and gay. Now shells of houses destroyed by enemy planes,

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artillery and the fires they caused, barricades and shelters could be seen. The streets scorched by the August sun were pockmarked by bomb craters and the grey banks of bomb shelters. Basements of big houses were also used as shelters. From early morning to late at night women, old people and teenagers carried paving stones and sandbags to the barricades to reinforce them, turned houses into fortifications, laid concrete around artillery units, and set up rails hedgehogs to stop tanks. Three lines of barricades and firing units encircled the port area, the center and the outskirts of Odessa.

Meanwhile the enemy had approached Odessa and a bitter battle was in full swing.

The German Command sought to speed up the capture of the city and the naval base. The Chief of the General Staff of the Land Forces of the Nazi Army, General Haider, noted in his diary that until Odessa had been taken they could not launch the operation for the capture of the Crimea.

The defense line was one huge flaming arc above the coast. The enemy concentrated twenty divisions and brigades, 300,000 men in all, around Odessa. The city was defended by the Maritime army of the Southern Front and ships from the Odessa naval base. But the Soviet troops were outnumbered, the enemy had six times more men and five times more artillery.

On August 19th the Supreme Command set up the Odessa Defense Area, including in it the Maritime Army, the Odessa naval base and warships from the Black Sea fleet. The Military Council of the Odessa Defense Area became the supreme command for operations. This was a very timely and highly important measure, since the Maritime Army was cut off from the main forces of the Southern Front and the Soviet command found it difficult to direct operations of the land troops defending Odessa. The success of the defense operation depended on manpower reinforcements and supplies of arms, ammunition and food and all this the besieged city could receive only by sea. With the formation of the military council with powers over the Black Sea Fleet, the necessary unified command was formed. Rear-Admiral Gavriil Zhukov, an experienced commander and organizer, was appointed its head.

Some parts of the coast were isolated by limans, and

25

these hindered the interaction of troops, so three comparatively independent sectors were set up on the defense line; the Southern, Western and Eastern.

The efforts of the merchant seamen and the port workers were vital to the defense of Odessa. The equipment of industrial enterprises and the evacuees and wounded were taken out by the sea route, and it was in this way that the besieged town received much needed manpower, armaments, ammunition and food. The merchant seamen made 911 trips to Odessa. The route from the Crimea to Odessa was known at that time as the "lifeline".

Transport ships and caravans carried out their voyages in immensely difficult conditions. For example, several dozen locomotives were marooned in Odessa, as the railway lines around the city were blocked. Somebody suggested that they be sent out by sea, by adapting a floating dock for this purpose. So 26 locomotives with a full supply of fuel were loaded onto the dock and were accompanied by fifty-two locomotive crews. The dock successfully completed the voyage to Nikolayev and from there on the same evening the locomotive and their crews pulled 26 trainloads to the east.

The besieged town lived, worked and fought. Factories that before the war had produced civilian goods now switched to military production. One hundred and thirty-four types of military goods were produced and sent straight to the front and this included armored trains, armored tractors, mine and flame throwers, hand grenades and anti-personnel mines, etc. The factories also took over repairs of artillery guns, machine-guns, tanks and so on.

On Ordjonikidze Street (Ulitsa Ordjonikldze) (it can be reached by the No.8 trolleybus) the tourist can see one of these armoured tractors standing on a pedestal. The people of Odessa lovingly called it their "tank". In reality it was an ordinary caterpillar tractor enclosed in ship steel and supplied with a rotating tower on which a light gun or machine gun was installed. Because of the terrific clatter it made when it stormed enemy positions it usually created a panic among enemy troops. The drivers of these armoured tractors joked, "We scare the enemy to death", and among

26

themselves they called it the Scare Tank. The name stuck, so that eventually even in official documents it was referred to as the Scare Tank.

Describing the atmosphere of those days, the well-known Soviet writer Konstantin Paustovsky wrote: "During the Great Patriotic War the people of Odessa, by nature a noisy and fun-loving people, fought for their city quietly and fiercely, but always with the invariable joke, they showed such courage and selflessness that even the enemy was amazed.

"Old fishermen and those seamen who could not find room on the ships fought desperately, because behind them lay Odessa, the city where work had always been interstice with laughter, a town always bustling, noisy as the roar of the Black Sea."

Even metal lipstick tubes were made to serve the war. The people crammed them with explosives and used them as fuses for anti-tank mines. For them too a loving name was quickly found; LAF, lipstick also fires, and these capsules were always known by their first letters, even in official documents.

Tin cans were turned into mines, and mine and flame throwers were made out of pieces of oil pipes. All this was done when nearly all the equipment had been evacuated, when supplies of raw materials and fuel were strictly limited, and when most of the skilled workers had left to fight the enemy or been evacuated to the East.

The city's difficulties were complicated still further by a serious. water shortage, as the enemy had captured the waterworks on the Dniester River from which Odessa got its drinking water. A desalination unit was installed, and urgent steps were taken to drill new wells and repair old ones that had fallen out of use. In just a few days fifty-eight wells were put into operation. Their water was slightly bitter and salty,' but even so it was rationed to no more than five liters a day per person.

In mid-September the fighting on the approaches to Odessa became particularly bitter as the city defenders only held a strip of coast 30 km wide. From the Dophin heights in the north-east, the Nazis were able to systematically shell the town and port, while their aircraft bombed the coast and town.

It was at this critical moment that the defenders of

27

Odessa dealt a serious counter-blow to the enemy. It went down in the history of the war as the Grigoryevka landing. A new infantry division had arrived in the town and on the night of September 21st, while troops of the eastern sector launched a strong counter-attack, a marine unit trained in Sevastopollanded near the village of Grigoryevka and at the same time a unit was parachuted in.

As a result of this operation enemy troops were pushed back and shelling of the city, port and ships from the northeast was stopped. The conditions improved for deliveries of supplies to the city and Hitler's plan for the blitz capture of Odessa was foiled.

The heroic defense of Odessa was, however, only a part of the great battle fought by the country. Nazi forces were advancing on Moscow and Leningrad, they had captured Kiev and invaded the Donets coalfields and the Crimean peninsula. Because of the threat posed to the Crimea, the Supreme Command, for strategic reasons, decided to evacuate the troops from Odessa on September 30th and to use them to reinforce the defense of the Crimea.

The decision to leave Odessa was prompted by the overall strategic situation, and was not taken because of pressure from enemy forces besieging the city.

The evacuation continued for two weeks, from the 1st to the 16th of October. The first to be evacuated were women, children and the wounded, followed by the army logistic units. Strict precautionary measures were taken to shroud the evacuation, major counter-attacks were undertaken, rumours were spread about the redeployment of forces, and the impression created was that the city was preparing for a winter siege. The enemy was misled.

At dawn on October 16th the last caravan of ships left Odessa for Sevastopol. It carried more than 35,000 rearguard troops plus their equipment.

To this day old fishermen and sailors in Odessa will tell you that when the caravan sailed, it was accompanied by a vast flock of sea-gulls, they too left the port.

Between the 1st and 16th of October an 86,000 strong army and 15,000 civilians were evacuated from Odessa to the Crimea and the Caucasus, as well as large quantities of military and civilian equipment.

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Five divisions tempered in battle and with a great deal of experience in waging war were rebased in the Crimea where they greatly augmented the forces of the defenders of Sevastopol, who staunchly held out for two hundred and fifty days.

The troops that had defended Odessa for seventy three days had accomplished their mission, they had kept a 300,000 strong enemy army at bay and had greatly weakened it.

* * *

The fascist armies entered the city left by the Soviet forces towards the evening of October 16th and the dark days of occupation began.

Right from the start the occupation authorities issued orders depriving the local population of all civil rights. They were forbidden to leave their homes without special passes, a night curfew was imposed, they were forbidden to keep Soviet printed books, were not allowed to sing Russian and Ukrainian songs, and so on. Spies and agents were busy seeking out communists and members of the underground. Gallows appeared in the streets and squares, and thousands of people were sent to the concentration camps set up in the region.

A regime of terror and violence reigned in occupied Odessa, but no atrocities, no threats could deter the people's determination to resist the occupation. From the first to the last day the invaders were subjected to frequent partisan attacks and suffered heavy losses.

There are no forests around Odessa, and no hills. The only place where the partisans could hide were the catacombs, a vast underground labyrinth of corridors, several storeys high, stretching for 2,000 km. These catacombs became an underground city. To spend even a short time in the catacombs is difficult, yet the partisans lived there and also carried out their raids.

There were five partisan units and forty-five underground patriotic groups oP/ erating in-Odessa and its environs. Before the evacuation an underground party regional committee was formed and six district committees, to guide the struggle against the invaders. About 6,000 people operated in the underground.

The partisans killed more than 3,000 occupants, derailed thirty-two trains carrying

29

enemy soldiers and military equipment, and they saved thousands of people from death and from being sent to Germany as slave-Laborers. Their activities forced the invaders to keep 16,000 officers and men in the town and surrounding villages, thereby preventing them from taking other duties.

The most successful partisan units were those commanded by Vladimir Molodtsov (Badayev), Vasili Avdeyev-Chernomorsky and Nikolai Geft.

Molodtsov's unit was based in the catacombs of the nearby village of Nerubayskoye, where premises had. been equipped as living quarters, staff headquarters, bakery, sauna, dining hall, kitchen and even a club room. There were also wells which supplied drinking water. This unit collected military and political information about the enemy,

distributed anti-fascist leaflets and Sovinformbureau reports on the situation at the fronts, destroyed enemy forces and their weapons, and derailed military trains.

On May 9th, 1969, a Memorial Partisan Museum was opened in Nerubayskoye catacombs. Each year more than one million people make a pilgrimage to the museum (more information can be found in the description of the bus trip to the Memorial Partisan Museum).

Vasili Avdeyev-Chernomorsky was sent to Odessa with a small group to bring to gether the different partisan units and groups, to expand the struggle against the invaders, and to help Soviet troops approaching Odessa. The group accomplished its mission, but its leader was arrested and died a hero's death.

Slovak antifascists fought side by side with Soviet partisans in the catacombs. There were about 180 soldiers from the first Slovak Division who crossed over to the partisans. One of them, Jan Pavlik, who was killed on the day of the liberation of the city, is buried in the Alleya Siavy (Alley of Glory).

Nikolai Geft's group dealt mainly with sabotage at the ship-repair docks, and carried out a number of acts which resulted in repaired ships blowIng up at sea. Nikolai Geft was killed in Poland in 1944.

Other partisan units and underground patriotic groups also fought courageously against the invaders.

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Then came March, 1944, when Soviet forces were movin9 indomitably to the West. After the defeat at Stalingrad and then on the Kursk Salient, the German troops were rolling back. They still made attempts to launch the odd counter-offensive, but the days of Hitler's fascism were nearly over.

The job of liberating Odessa fell to the 3rd Ukrainian Front commanded by the General of the Army, Radian Malinovsky, who had himself been born in Odessa.

The operation to liberate the city began on March 24th. Troops of the 3rd Ukrainian Front smashed large enemy forces and in the morning of April 9th reached the line from which the storming of Odessa was about to begin. The soldiers knew that the Nazis would fight to the last, because they could only retreat into the sea. The soldiers also knew that all the best buildings in the city, schools, hospitals, theatres, factories and port installations had been mined, and that the invaders were continuing to plunder and shoot the population. The Nazis intended, if faced with the prospect of defeat, to destroy the city and its population, turning Odessa into a wasteland. The Soviet Command therefore decided to take the city without any preJiminary artillery shelling and without bombardment from the air, so as to preserve it.

The partisans proved of great help to the attacking armies. They came out of the catacombs, engaged the enemy in battle, and destroyed the groups sent to blow up the city. The partisans were able to prevent the blowing up of the dam across the Khadjibey Liman and thus saved a large part of the city, the Peresyp district, from flooding. They also prevented the blasting of the port, Scientists' Club, Science Library, Opera and other buildings and installations, and cut off the road of retreat for the Nazis.

By the morning of April 10th the city had been cleared of enemy troops. That same day Moscow, according to the war-time tradition, saluted the troops that had liberated Odessa with twenty-four volleys fired from three hundred and twenty four artillery guns, and twenty-seven military units were named the Odessa units.

The liberation of Odessa was of great military and

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significance. An important railway junction and sea port were returned to the country, and the Black Sea Fleet was able to strike out against enemy communication lines and ports. Soviet troops could now begin to help the people of Bulgaria, Romania and Yugoslavia to rid themselves of Nazi occupation.

The rapidity with which the invaders were pushed out of Odessa foiled their plans for destroying the city, but they had badly damaged the port, many factories, schools, libraries and homes. The water works and power station had been destroyed and the total damage inflicted on Odessa was estimated at more than 2,500 million roubles (in the prices of those days). More than a quarter of a million people, 280,000, lost their lives in the Odessa region during the Nazi occupation.

Odessa honours the memory of those who defended it in 1941, those who fought the enemy during the years of occupation, and those who liberated it in 1944.

The courageous fight put up by the defenders of Odessa, like those of the other hero-cities, helped the Soviet Army to foil Hitler's plans for a blitz war and build up the necessary reserves for the subsequent offensives which led to the rout of the Nazi armies on the Soviet-German front, and the liberation of Eastern and Central Europe.

The country honoured the defenders and people of Odessa with the institution of a special medal "For the Defence of Odessa". The city it. self was awarded the title of hero-city and the highest Soviet decoration, the Order of Lenin and the "Gold Star" medal, for its outstanding services to the country, and for the courage and heroism displayed by the troops and the population in combatting the Nazi invaders.

Today a 60.km-long Green Belt of Gloryhas been created along what had been the main line of defense in 1941, with obelisks, stelae, sculptural groups and memorial mounds marking the main battlefields.

The Restoration of Odessa and Its Further Economic and Cultural Advancement

As soon as the enemy had been ousted from Odessa, the city got down to healing the wounds of war. The state allocated

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very large sums for the restoration of the town, and all the Soviet republics helped by sending building materials, machines and equipment, as well as specialists and workers. Between 1946 and 1950 Odessa received 1,200 million roubles for the restoration of industry and 1,000 million for the rebuilding of the port facilities.

In the autumn of 1944 the port was able to receive its first ships. The Opera and Ballet Theatre re-opened, schools and colleges started functioning again, the trams began running, and the waterworks started operating.

Hundreds of homes and administrative buildings were restored in a short space of time, and the ruined factories were rebuilt. By 1950 the warravaged economy had been restored and Odessa's industrial output surpassed the prewar level.

As the years passed, Odessa made another big step forward in its economic and cultural advancement. New in. dustries were built up as dozens of new factories started operating; these produced steel, presses, cables, hydraulic drives, etc. Industrial output today exceeds the level of 1940 many times over.

The face of the city has also changed. New housing estates, streets and entire districts grew up. The first new residential district, the YugoZapad began to go up in 1961.

Today it has a population of more than 150,000 and the city is continuing to sprawl out to the south. The Yugo-Zapad was followed by the Tairov district which houses about 100,000 people. Work is nearing completion on its exten sion, the Yuzhny district, where more than 80,000 people will live.

At the same time work continues on the Kotovsky district, 12 km to the north-east of the center of the city, where already more than 70,000 people have moved into new flats.

Building is not haphazard. It conforms with the Masterplan adopted in 1966 for a period of 25-30 years. This pian is all-embracing, covering every aspect of urban development and ensuring that in its new image modern architecture will blend harmoniously with the architectural monuments of the past.

The decades since the Great Patriotic War have consolidated Odessa's position as a major cultural and science center, and increased its popularity as a health resort and tourist center.

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Odessa Today

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Port of Odessa-the country's southern gates to the sea The seaport

The Southern Sea Gates of the USSR

The Port of Odessa always held an important place in domestic trade and is even more important in international trade.

Half the passenger traffic and about thirty percent of the cargo traffic of the country passes through the Port of Odessa. The port is a first

ciass highly-mechanised transport junction and is the base of the world's biggest shipping company, the Black Sea Shipping Line, which has been awarded the Order of Lenin. its transport fleet numbers about 300 cargo and passenger vessels. It encom. passes 11 ports (Odessa, Nikolayev, Kherson, Yalta and others) and has a total of some 80,000 employees.

The entire passenger fleet and practically all the shipping line's cargo ships are registered at Odessa, as well as research vessels for marine and space research, rescue vessels operating throughout the Azov and Black Sea areas and the hydrofoil boats. The passenger fleet includes modern luxury liners that are in great demand with foreign travel agencies.

The fleet of the Black Sea Shipping Line has been completely renovated. Modern ocean-going cargo ships, equipped with automatic machinery and new navigation instruments operate in its fleet, as well as ore-carriers, bulk carriers, container ships, etc.

The Black Sea Shipping Line has been awarded the international prize, The Gold Mercury, for its contribution to international trade.

Soviet trade ties through the Odessa port are increasing every year. At the beginning of the fifties it became obvious that the port could not cope with the mounting flow of cargoes. To the north the port is hemmed in by industrial enterprises, and to the south by health resorts. The only way out was to build a new port.

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The site for it was chosen in the vicinity of the Sukhoy Liman, a natural bay cutting deep into the coastline, 32 km south of Odessa.

The new port, lIichyovsk, was built with an eye to the future. It was opened on August 5th, 1958, and is much bigger than the Odessa port, its wharfs which are much longer and deeper enable it to accommodate the heavier and longer vessels.

Today Ilichyovsk ranks as the biggest port in the country. In its cargo turnover it has surpassed all the Black Sea ports, including Odessa. Forty percent of the Black Sea Shipping Line fleet are now registered at lIichyovsk. It is highly mechanised, with portal and floating cranes, and other machines and mechanisms that make the dockers' work much easier.

Ilichyovsk is the only Soviet port which can handle liquid goods. A number of enterprises have been built in the port vicinity, including the Ship-Repair Docks, named after the Fiftieth Anniversary of the USSR, which boast the world's biggest floating dock

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with a displacement of 100,000 tons.

In 1976 the first container plant was built in Ilichyovsk and also a special wharf to handle container ships.

In 1978 one of the world's largest ferries started operating between Ilichyovsk and the Bulgarian port of Varna. Two Bulgarian and two Soviet ferries replaced a whole fleet of smaller vessels. Each of the ferries can take on one hundred and eight fully loaded railway cars, i.e. two train loads. Loading and unloading takes only a couple of hours, compared to the two days needed for conventional ships.

The Soviet ferries are named after the heroes of Plevna and Shipka, and the Bulgarian after. the heroes of Odessa and Sevastopol.

The left bank of the Sukhoy Liman has been turned into one of the biggest fishing ports. It is the home port for the whaling fleet Sovetskaya Ukraina, the floating fish factory Vostok, and dozens of refrigerator trawlers and fishing vessels.

Work is underway on an other new port, Yuzhny. Its first section went into operation in 1978-79. Construction began in August, 1973. It lies 30 km to the north-east of Odessa on the western bank of the Grigoryev Liman, the relic of an ancient river that once flowed into the Black Sea.

A unique industrial-transport enterprise was built in a short space of time and combines a chemical production complex with a deep-sea port. The chemical plant itself produces 450,000 tons of ammonia a year, while the port facilities specialise in the handling of chemical cargoes. There are also storage facilities for the chemicals and processing plants. The port's first pier could be regarded as a continuation of the plant.

The port, however, can handle more than the plant produces, so additional produce is piped from other plants along the ammonia pipe-line from Togliatti to Odessa. The line from the Volga banks to the Black Sea is more than 2,400 km long and can handle 2,5 million tons of ammonia a year. It has no equal in the world inasfar as the diameter of its pipes, degree of automation and other technical facilities go.

The second part of port Yuzhny, on the eastern bank of the liman, is to be completed in .the years of the 11th five-year plan (1981-1985). It

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will handle are, coal, timber and other cargoes.

When completed Yuzhny will even outsize lIichyovsk. Its freight turnover will be twice as great as that of the lIichyovsk and Odessa ports taken together.

As the construction of industrial enterprises gets underway, the problems of environmental protection are kept well to the fore. A whole system of precautionary meaSures are taken to ensure that there will be no pollution of the sea or the flora and fauna. All chemicals, for instance, en route to the port or the ammonia plant, or in the port itself are transported by closed systems. Precipitation on the territory of the complex is collected by special drains and undergoes biological purification before being used for irrigation.

Not far from the port of Yuzhnya new township is going up for the seamen, port and chemical workers. It too is being built in two sections, the first for 25,000 people and the second for 50,000.

Almost 30% of the country's sea freight is handled by the Odessa port of Ilichyovsk

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A new town is being built for those who work at Yuzhny Port

Odessa as an Industrial Center

Odessa has a well-developed industry. Its branches in. clude the engineering and machine tool, metal-working, road and transport machinery, chemical, radio, light and food industry. Odessa is also an important ship-repair center of the Black Sea area.

The city occupies a notable place in the national economic complex. It produces metalcutting machine tools, forge and press equipment, cranes with pneumatic driven wheels, tractor ploughs, installations and equipment for gas.flame treatment of metals, farm ma. chinery, powerful cranes, hydraulic presses, machine tools with programme controls, refrigerator trucks and trail. ers, mining winches, refrigerator equipment, printing machines, electric weighing cars for loading of blast furnaces, electric cable, shipping containers, cameras, chemicals, clothing articles, champagne, wines, sugar, juices, tinned fish and fruit, baby food, etco'" Odessa exports its produce to eighty countries.

The construction of a nuclear power station has been started, and near it a township for the builders and workers. This township will have all the amenities of a modern town and will eventually house 25,000 people.

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Odessa as a Science and Cultural Center

The scientists of Odessa are making a notable contribution to many fields of science, technology and medicine, including plant selection and genetics, the biology of the southern seas and microbiol. ogy, chemistry, physics, astronomy and the social science.

Thanks to its highly-qualified science personnel, Odessa has become a major science center of the Ukraine. Since 1971 it has been the site of the Southern Science Center of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences coordinating the work of dozens of research institutes in the Odessa, Nikolayev, Crimean and Kherson regions.

The Odessa Research institute of Eye Diseases and Tissue Therapy was founded in 1936 by Vladimir Filatov and is named after him. It is a world-famous medical institution and the biggest eye hospital in the country.

The All-Union institute of Plant Selection and Genetics plays an important part in the city's scientific life and is one of the biggest agricultural research centers in the country. The varieties of wheat, maize, barley and other cereals developed by the Institute are widely used in the Soviet Union and many other countries of the world. The Institute also acts as the coordinating center for the CMEA countries in developing the theoretical background for plant and seed see lection, and high-yield breeds and hybrids of agricultural crops.

The institute has its own phytotron, an artificial climate station. It is one of the world's biggest and helps advance selection work greatly, since scientists can follow the behaviour of plants in different climatic conditions, etc.

The Astronomical Observatory of the Mechnikov University is well known both in this country and abroad. For more than 30 years it has studied variable stars. In keeping with a decision of the International Astronomical. Union Odessa is one of the two world centers engaged in variable star observations and its scientists have compiled an Atlas of Variable Stars. They have also developed new types of telescopes.

The Institute of Physical Chemistry of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences plays an important role in the national economy. It developed a new

40

branch of chemistry for use in the chemical industry which led to the production of new substances and materials, catalysts, drugs, and effective means for combatting poliution of the environment.

The Ukrainian Research Institute of Viticulture and Wine-Making named after its founder A. I. Tairov is the first such institute in the country and is doing a big job in developing new varieties of grapes and new wines. Its coHection comprises more than ',600 varieties of grapes from different countries of the world.

The Odessa Department of the Kovalevsky Institute of the Biology of Southern Seas studies the Black Sea shelf (the shallow region to a depth of 150-200 metres) and notes how man's activities are affecting the seas and the oceans.

The institute has to its credit a number of important discoveries in the field of the bioiogical structure of the sea and the functioning of marine communities in contemporary ecological conditions.

It trailblazed the discovery and studies of neistens (communities of organisms in the near-surface layers of the sea), which play an important part in the reproduction of biological resources.

The Odessa Department of the Institute was the first to describe and explain the numerical explosion of monacell sea. weeds (red tides), medusae and other important biological phenomena in the life of the sea.

Odessa has given the country many talented people, inciuding quite a number of world famous scientists; such as the bacteriologist lIya Mechnikov, the physiologist Ivan Sechenov, the embryologist Alexander Kovalevsky, the physicist Nikolai Umov, the historians Fyodor Uspensky and Robert Wipper, the Siavist Victor Grigorovich, the mathematician Alexei Lyapunov, the physicist and meteorologist Alexander Klosovsky, the chemist Nikolai Zelinsky, and the bacteriologist Vladimir Khavkin.

There are fifteen higher educational establishments and twenty-six technical schools in the city with a student body of more than 120,000. They are tomorrow's teachers, engineers, singers, musicians, architects, agronomists, doctors, economists and ship navigators. The Mechnikov State University in Odessa is one of the oldest in the country.

As a major port, Odessa

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does its share in training young people for sea-faring careers. Its marine educational establishments have about 15,000 students.

* * *

The cultural life of Odessa is rich and varied. There is something to please everyone in the world of arts.

There are six museums and the Exhibition Hall of the Ukrainian Artists' Union, six theatres, a Philharmonic Society, a circus, a Sports palace, which is often also used as a concert hall, 55 workers' ciubs and Palaces of Culture, 20 cinemas (and in the summer another twenty open-air ones), and, finally, a big openair theatre in the Shevchenko Park.

Best known of all the theatres is the Odessa Opera and Ballet. The building is regarded as one of the finest in the world from the point of view of architecture and also of acoustics.

Very popular with the people of Odessa and visitors are the art festival White Acacia held every other year from the 1st to the 10th of June since 1979. Its programme includes ctassical music, opera, ballet and drama, recitals by singers,) actors, dancers, folk groups from the Ukraine, Russia, Moldavia, jazz and vocal-,instrumental bands, variety, etc.

Famous artistes, singers and, actors from Moscow, Leningrad, Kiev and other cities take. part, as well as such ensembles' as the Moldavian Dance group "Joq", the Orenburg Russian Folk Choir, and so on. The Festival performances take place on all the main stages of Odessa, as well as in other towns and district centers of the region.

Apart from Kiev, Odessa is the only other city in the Ukraine to have a film studio.

Two regional newspapers are published in Odessa, as well as a youth paper, an evening paper and one catering especially for seamen.

A very large number of artists, writers, poets, composers, architects and journalists work in Odessa.

The Cultural Center attached to the Travel Agency Intourist (14 UI. Rozy Luxemburg) operates from May to October and caters to the needs of foreign tourists by arranging get-togethers with their Soviet counterparts, and with members of Friendship societies, shows Soviet films

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dubbed in foreign languages, and sponsors theatre performances and concerts.

Odessa as a Health Resort

Odessa is the center of a big health resort area, stretching from the lower reaches of the Dniester River to the mouth of the Danube. Along the Black Sea coast there are curative facilities of ail types, mud-treatment, balneologic and climatologic.

The treatment is based on the mud of the limans and the beneficial properties of natural brine. Liman mud-treatment has proved beneficiai for disorders of the peripheric nervous system, for eliminating the after-effects of brain damage, restoring limb movement, and it has also been found to have a beneficial effect on certain gastrointestinal and gynecological diseases. As for the mineral waters, they are prescribed to peopie with digestive troubles, cardiovascular disease and skin disease.

The sea around Odessa provides excellent bathing facilities since 75% of the waves do not exceed one metre in height, and there are only three to four days in the whole summer when high waves of 3-4 metres occur.

The water near the sandy beaches is clean and transparent and special care is taken to ensure that it remains that way. Sewage waters have been diverted from the beaches, and in the port zone special oil and sludge coilector ships are constantly at work. No ship is allowed to discard either used water or solid wastes into the harbour area.

Until recently there were few beaches around Odessa convenient for bathing. This was the result of persistent landfails as the sea was graduaily biting out pieces of the coast. It has been estimated that about 700 hectares of coastland feil into the sea.

In recent years, however, steps have been taken to stop the landfails by building spur dykes and breakwaters, as weil as drainage systems, and land-based water removal installations. in addition, the coastal strip was levelled out and terraced, and trees were planted. Powerful pumps were used to carry sand from the seabed to the shore to form additional beaches, some of them 50-70 metres wide. To day they stretch for 40 km and

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cover a territory of about 200 hectares.

In the summer the sand on the beaches remains dry to a fairiy considerable depth and swimming is good as the incline of the seabed is gradual. All this attracts tens of thousands of holidaymakers from all corners of the country to Odessa. In its nine health-resort districts it has seventy sanatoria, holiday homes and tourist camps that can cater for 400,000 people a year.

Its health resorts and holiday facilities are constantly being expanded and improved. Two new centers are now being built, one on the banks of the Kuyalnik Liman, which has vast deposits of medicinai mud, and the other 60 km from Odessa in the Carolino Bugaz area, which is considered to have unique climatic conditions.

International Ties

Odessa is one of the many Soviet cities that belong to the World Federation of Twin Towns.

It maintains friendly ties with thirteen towns in different parts of the world-most of them being coastal like itself. They are Varna in Bulgaria, Segled In Hungary, Constanta in Romania, Split in Yugoslavia, Marseille in France, Yo. kohama in Japan, Oulu in Finland, Vancouver in Canada, Genoa in italy, Baltimore in the USA, Tripoli in Lebanon, liverpool in Britain, and Valencia in Spain.

As for the Odessa region, it has established twin ties with the Varna region in Bulgaria, the Constanta area in Romania, and the Chongrad area in Hungary.

Most fruitful of all are the ties with cities in the socialist countries. Fraternal cooperation, mutual assistance, exchange of experience, social. ist competition between enterprises, educational establishments, and scientific and cultural institutions aU form part of the special relationship between the twin towns. As for the rural area, ties of friendship link the collective farms of the Odessa region with their counterparts in the Varna and Chongrad areas.

Friendly ties are also developing and growing stronger with Marseille, Genoa, Oulu, Yokohama and other towns.

Twin Town festivals, whether a few days or a couple of weeks long, are a regular feature in the relationships with Varna, Segled, Marseille,

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and Genoa. Their programme includes exchanges of delegations and speciaHsed or gen. eral tourist groups, exchanges of exhibitions, photo and film shows, visits of theatrical com. panies and so on.

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That, in brief, is a picture of Odessa today. For the tourist on his first visit who wants to learn more about the history and present-day life of the city and its people, we can suggest several routes that will take him along the boulevards, give him a glimpse of famous buildings, a view of the sea and the chance to enjoy the hustle and bustle of "the pearl by the sea", as the people of Odessa lovingly call their city.

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Five Sightseeing Routes Through Odessa

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The Historic Center of the City

(First Tour)

Primorsky Bulvar-Ploshchad Kommuny-Ulitsa Lastochbna-Ulitsa Deribasovskaya-Ploshchad Sovetskoy ArmH-Ulitsa Sadovaya-Ulitsa Krasnoy Gvardii-Kamsomolsky Bulvarprlmorsky Bulvar.

This route, which does not Include visits to any of the museums, should take about two to two and a half hours.

Odessa was one of the few towns in pre-revolutionary Russia built in accordance with a plan which took into account the relief of the terrain. Drawn up in 1814, the plan kept to the main idea suggested by F. Devolan and approved by Field Marshal Suvorov, that the main thoroughfares should start from the sea front.

The numbering of the houses also starts from the sea-end of the street, with the uneven numbers on the left side and the even ones on the right. There is only one exception on Sovetskoy Armii (Soviet Army St.), the former Preobrazhenskaya Ulitsa. Legend has it that number 13 was allocated to the house of a rich merchant and he insisted that the rule about even and uneven numbers be changed. This is a likely explanation as any for the even numbers on the street being on the left hand side.

The initial period in the building of Odessa coincided with the flourishing of Russian classicism. A number of interesting buildings and entire ensembles were built at that time, including the Primorsky Bulvar (Promenade) with the Potemkin stairways, Ulitsa Pushkina (Pushkin St.), the building of the Museum of Fine Arts, and others.

This route begins with Odessa's first boulevard-the Primorsky bulvar (Promenade). Originally, this area was a huge wasteland crisscrossed by gullies, where the ruins of the old Turkish fortress stood. Work on the boulevard began in 1820 with the landscaping of the territory and the planting of trees.

The boulevard which stretches from the north -west to the south-east follows the contours of the steep cliff on which it stands. At each end there is a small square. Facing the square at the beginning of the boulevard is the Palace of Pioneers and Schoolchildren, named alter the young hero of the war-time underground Yasha Gordiyenko.

The Palace was built in 1826 to 1827 by the architect F. Boffo in the style of Russian classicism. It used to be the official residence of Count

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M. Vorontsov, the Governor General of the Novorossiisk Area, of which Odessa was then the center, and which included the steppe-regions of the Ukraine, the Crimea, Bessarabia and part of the North Caucasus.

The covered colonnade of the Palace stands separately and was placed by the architect at the very edge of the cliff; it remains to this day one of the architectural symbols of the city. The colonnade consists of 20 Doric columns placed in an arc and linked together by a wide entablature with two triangular gables one facing east, the other west. This spot probably provides the best view in Odessa of the entire bay and the busy port. It is a favorite with the people and at any time of the year they enjoy standing there and gazing at the splendid view it offers.

Today when you stand there you will see on the opposite shore of the bay, the new residential district, the Kotovsky district.

The palace itself is not very big but is compact. Each facade is different, although a unity of style is preserved. The side turned to the boulevard has a flat portico with Ionic columns, whereas the side facing Primorsky Boulevard.

the sea is divided into five planes, each edge decorated by Ionic columns, three-quarters of which protrude from the wall, whilst the entrance side has a portico with Doric columns.

The palace is regarded as the masterpiece of F. Boffo, who in the forty years he spent in Odessa (1818-1857) built more than 50 public and residential buildings.

As an architectural and historical monument the palace has been placed under the protection of the state. In 1917 it housed the headquarters of the Red Guards, and in March of that year the first Soviet of Workers' and Sailors' Deputies met in the building.

In 1936 the palace was turned over to the only privileged class in this country, the children, and it became their Palace. More than fifteen hundred children take part in the various hobby-groups such as photography, radio and electronics; music, singing, dancing, etc.

Odessa is closely linked not only with the sea, but also with the sky, aviation and cosmonautics. The first Russian flyers Mikhail Yefimov and Sergei Utochkin took off for their maiden flights from Odessa, and also the pioneers

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of Soviet cosmonautics, Sergei Korolev and Valentin Glushko, as well as the cosmonauts Georgy Dobrovolsky and Georgy Shonin spent their youth here.

Odessa is the home port for several of the vessels involved in tracking space flights, i.e. the Academician Sergei Korolev, the Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin and the Cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov.

That is why the square at the beginning of the Primorsky Bulvar, open to the sea and the skies, was chosen as the site for the bronze bust sculpted by A. Kovalev of Valentin Glushko, the father of Soviet rocket engines, twice Hero of Socialist Labor.

Chestnut and linden trees line the boulevard. Most of its buildings went up in the first half of the 19th century including those that form the ensemble of its central part which is a semi-circular square with two concave buildings at the end and the monument to Due de Richelieu, Odessa's first Mayor, in the middle. The Duke emigrated from France during the Great French Revolution and was appointed Governor-General of the Novorossiysk Area.

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He did a great deal for the development of Odessa and his monument was designed in 1826 by Ivan Martos, a talented Russian sculptor, who also designed the first secular monument in Russia, that of the national heroes Kuzma Minin and Dmitri Pozharsky which stands on Moscow's Red Square.

The bronze figure of the Duke and three bronze bas-reliefs symbolizing agriculture, justice and trade were made from the models of Martos by I. Yefimov. The iron cannon ball wedged in the pedestal has a history of its own, but more about that later. For more than 150 years the bronze duke has stood at the sea gates of the city and welcomed ail visitors. A giant stone stairway leads from the monument to the beach.

The idea of an architectural ensemble with a broad flight of stone steps leading to the sea which links the high bank with the low shore and provides a gateway to the city, belongs to the well-known St. Petersburg 19th century architect Avraam Melnikov. However, the idea was only fully completed in our time when the passenger port was built at the foot of the stairs.

In keeping with A. Melnikov's plan, the symmetrical buildings on either side of the square were built in the style of the Russian empire. The right hand building (if you stand with your back to the sea, house No. 7) has five open arches with white Ionic pilasters two stories high. An intricate balustrade in white stone lessens the sharp contrast between the dark massive cornice and the lighter tones of the sky.

The two upper stories are decorated with bas-reliefs, but their form and proportions remain simple. They define the overall image of the building which was completed in 1827.

It was this building that housed the first public library in Southern Russia (today it houses the Gorky Science Library. Later the building housed the law courts. A memorial plaque to the left of the entrance notes that it was in this building that the Tsar's military court sentenced to death the revolutionary Grigory Kotovsky. His sentence was later commuted to convict Labor for life, but after the revolution he was set free and became one of the legendary heroes of the Civil War.

At present the building houses the Odessa Office of

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"Soyuzvneshtrans", the organization dealing with foreign trade transport operations.

The building on the left side (house No. 8) was built in 1829-1830, and could be regarded as a mirror image of the one on the right, with only a few minor differences, but its classical style was changed considerably during the second half of the 19th century when it was adapted as a hotel and balconies were added to its facade.

During the Second World

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Young Pioneers' Palace and the separate, covered colonnade in front of it

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War the building was destroyed, but was restored in 1948. Today it houses the Passenger Service of the Black Sea Shipping Line.

A memorial plaque on the building tells us about some of its famous visitors when it was known as the St. Petersburg Hotel. In 1846 the great Russian critic, publicist and revolutionary democrat Vissarion Belinsky (1811-1848), and the famous Russian actor Mikhail Shchepkin (1788-1B63), stayed there when Shchepkln brought Belinsky to Odessa for treatment for his tuberculosis.

The famous Potemkin stairs leading from the square to the sea and Uiltsa Suvorova (Suvorov St.) was designed in 1825 by F. Boffo. The actual construction lasted from 1837 to 1841. Initially the steps were built out of a greenish-grey sandstone brought especially for that purpose from Trieste, but as the years passed erosion took its toll and in 1933 the sandstone was replaced by rose-grey granite and the landings were covered with asphalt.

The height of the stairs between Ulitsa Suvorova at the bottom and the boulevard at the top is 27 m, their total length being 142 m. Looking down from the top, the steps themselves become invisible, only the landings can be seen. On either side of the stairs there is a stone parapet and the two appear to run parallel. This, however, is an optical illusion, because in reality the width of the stairs of the bottom flight is practically double that of the top flight; 12.5 m at the top and 21.6 m at the bottom.

To appreciate fully the architect's vision, a walk down these steps to the seafront is a must. On both sides a park has been laid out. There are 192 steps, and from each one

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there is an excellent view of the Richelieu monument and the two concave buildings. Looking at the stairs from below one can see no landings at all.

Originally there were two hundred steps, but eight of these were lost under the sand when the port was being extended.

It was at the foot of the Potemkin stairway that the first piles for the future port were driven in by Suvorov's soldiers. This is commemorated by the plaque on the wall of the passenger Sea Terminal. It reads: "The first installations, from which began the construction of the port and city of Odessa were laid here on August 22nd (September 2nd), 1794."

The Potemkin stairway has witnessed many events. On the evening of June 14th (27th), 1905, the battleship Knyaz Potemkin-Tavrichesky entered the Odessa harbor proudly flying the Red Flag. Meanwhile in the city the workers were on strike and there was fighting at the barricades. Despite the repressions, the working people of Odessa gave an enthusiastic

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Monument to Valentin Glushko The scientific research ship, Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin

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welcome to the revolutionary vessel that had hoisted the Red Flag. Port workers supplied the vessel with coal, food and medicine while police and troops were called out to disperse the vast crowds that had gathered in the port and on the boulevard. No sooner had the police scattered the crowd, it re-formed again.

When the sailors from the Potemkin brought ashore the body of Grigory Vakulenchuk, one of the leaders of the uprising who was killed by an officer, the workers of Odessa gathered to pay their last tribute to the hero. Suddenly there were cries of, "Fire! The port is a blaze!" The crowd stampeded in panic and at that moment the troops opened fire. The authorities fearing the turn the revolutionary events were taking had instructed agents-provocateurs to set fire to the warehouses in the port and when panic set in, the authorities used the pretext of fighting the fire to launch a bloody massacre. Hundreds of people lost their lives on the night of June 15th, some were killed, some wounded, others perished in the flames or were drowned in

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the sea. The stairs, wharfs and streets were stained with blood.

The Potemkin had to leave Odessa and make its way to Constanta but the people honored the memory of the heroes. The stairs were named the Potemkin stairs and have become a symbol of the city. The eminent Soviet film producer Sergei Eisenstein commemorated this page in history with his famous film "The Battleship Potemkin ".

In 1970 an escalator was built on the left side of the stairs. To continue our excursion, let us ride up to the boulevard again (a ticket costs three kopecks).

At the top let us stop at house No. 9 the Seamen's Palace of Culture named after Maxim Gorky. It used to be a private residence, built in 1829.1830 and also designed by F. Boffo. During the war the building was damaged, but it was restored and rebuilt inside in 1949-1951.

At the end of 1917 and the beginning of 1918 the building served as the headquarters of Rumcherod, the Executive Committee of the Soviets of Soldiers' and Sailors' Deputies of the Romanian Front, the Black Sea Fleet and the Odessa Military Region, which played an important part in the struggle for Soviet power in Odessa in January, 1918.

Since 1924 the palace has belonged to the seamen. This is where they and their families can spend the evening, relax, watch a film or a performance of amateur groups, including the dance group "Black Sea" known far beyond the confines of Odessa. Exhibitions are organized here, and get-togethers of crews from different ships. There is one permanent exhibition of maritime flora and fauna brought back by the sailors from their trips and this is open on Saturdays and Sundays from 12 to 17 p.m., admission free. The

Seamen's Palace is also responsible for cultural and educational work among the

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Monument to Armand Richelieu Potemkin Stairway

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Seamen's Palace of Culture Museum exhibits "Gifts from Seas and Oceans" Hotel Odessa Room in the Hotel Odessa

crews of the Black Sea Shipping Line.

The building next to the Seamen's Club is the Hotel Odessa (house No, 11) which can accommodate a hundred and fifty visitors. Built in 1893, its architect Yuri Dmitrenko took pains to make it blend with the general ensemble of the boulevard. The entrance takes the form of an open loggia. The facade is in the style of the early Renaissance, with three vertical projections and balconies on the two top stories. The windows of the upper stories have arrow-shaped frames. The entrance hall is decorated with double Ionic columns of red marble with gilded capitals, and a white marble staircase leads to the upper floors, its banisters decorated with bronze sculptures. The summer restaurant, shaded by three huge plane trees in the inner courtyard is a favorite spot with visitors for a drink in the summer. The Odessa is considered the best hotel in the city and it is run by the Odessa Department of the Intourist Travel Agency.

Those who like quiet and solitude can take a stroll in the park on the slopes and explore the majestic artificial cave. During the time when the paths led right down to the sea

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this bit of coastline was known as Swimmers' Beach.

But to continue our walk along the boulevard. At the end of the street, next to a huge plane tree stands the monument to Alexander Pushkin. In 1820 he was exiled to the south of Russia for his freedom-loving verses, first to Kishinev, then to Odessa, where he spent 13 months from July 3rd, 1823 to August 1st, 1824. He was posted as archivist

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to the office of the Governor-General Mikhail Vorontsov. Their relations were far from good, Vorontsov hated Pushkin and finally got him removed from Odessa. The poet was forced to move to his father's estate, Mikhailovskoye, in the Pskov region.

The Odessa period was very fruitful for Pushkin. It was here that he completed his poem "To the Fountain of Bakhchisaray", started work on the poem "The Gypsies", and wrote two-and-a-half chapters of Eugen Onegin, and more than 30 poems, including "Farewell to the Sea", and "Night".

Pushkin spent only one year in Odessa, but is remembered in many ways. Apart from the monument, one of the streets bears h is name, and in the house where he lived there is now a museum.

The monument was unveiled in 1888, a year after the 50th anniversary of the poet's death. Pushkin lived near the boulevard and used to walk along it of ten. Perhaps this is why it was chosen as the site for his monument The sculptor Janna Polonskaya achieved a very close likeness and this monument is considered one of the best ever erected to the poet The bronze bust stands on a high rectangular pedestal of rose-grey granite, with a lyre and star in its upper section. The dates 1820-1824 at the bottom of the lyre refer to his exile in the South while the inscription "To Pushkin from the people of Odessa" indicates that the money for the monument was collected by the population without any contributions from the authorities. On the other side of the postament is the date of the unveiling, 1888.

What lends this monument a special charm are the fountains that stream from the mouths of bronze dolphins into iron basins at the corners of the plinth.

We have completed the journey along the boulevard and reached its south-east end which joins onto Pioshchad Kommuny (Commune Square), a fine square lined with elegant old buildings, which always attracts visitors to Odessa.

Initially the square was known as the Birzhevaya (Stock-Exchange) since it was here that the building of the stock-exchange was built in 1834. When the stock exchange moved in 1899 to a new and more palatial building

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Monument to Alexander Pushkin

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on Ulitsa Pushkinskaya, its old premises were taken over by the city authorities and the square became known as Dumskaya (City Council). Its present name was given to it in Soviet years.

The dominating building on the square is house No. 1. It now houses the City Soviet of People's Deputies and flies the flag of the Ukraine. The building is both an architectural and historical monument. It was constructed in 1829-1834, and designed by F. Boffo in the style of Russian classicism. In 1871-1873 the architect F. Morandire designed it and based on his design the building was restored from the ravages of the war. Initially the house had two wings, one at either end of the central part which formed an open courtyard separated from the square by a double line of Corinthian columns. This, however, was subsequently closed in by a wall to create a big entrance hall and other services. Later another three-storey wing facing the sea was added.

Steps the entire width of the colonnade lead up to the entrance over which is displayed the town's coat-of-arms.

In the top part of the shield there is a profile of the Battleship Potemkin flying the Red Flag, the symbol of Odessa's revolutionary history, and also the Gold Star, the symbol of the hero-city. The lower part of the shield portrays anchor, the symbol of a port town.

Over the balustrade stands a sculptural group, two figures, Day and Night, symbolizing the passage of time. The clock on the building chimes the melody "Odessa, my town" from the favorite operetta of the people of Odessa White Acacia by the Soviet composer Isaac Dunayevsky every half hour. Alcoves in the main facade hold the figures of the Ancient Roman Goddess Ceres, the Goddess of Fertility, and Mercury, Protector of Commerce, a reminder

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Odessa City Soviet of People's Deputies Portion of the City Soviet building Cannon captured during the Crimean Wars, 1853-1856

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of the initial purpose of the building.

The sculptures are by the Italian sculptor Luigi lorini, a member of the Garibaldi movement, who spent years of his life in Odessa.

It was in this building that Soviet power was proclaimed in town on January 14th (27) 1918. A memorial plaque to the right of the entrance commemorates this event.

To the left of the City Soviet facing the sea stands an ancient cannon on a wooden gun-carriage. It was mounted on a granite pedestal in 1904 to mark the 50th anniversary of the defense of the town during the Crimean War. The inscription on the side facing the sea reads, "This cannon is a war trophy. It weighs 250 poods (4 tons) and its cannon ball, 2 poods 16 pounds (38.5 kg)". A second inscription, on the boulevard side, gives the cannon's history.

During the Crimean War,

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1853-1856, when Russia battled against Turkey, the Black Sea coast of Russia was blocked by the fleet of Turkey's allies, Britain and France. A squadron of British and French ships, thirty-two in all, sailed to Odessa on April 8th (20th), 1854, and issued an ultimatum to the local authorities which demanded the surrender of the city and of all the ships in the harbor. No answer was given to this ultimatum. At dawn on April 10th (22nd) all three hundred fifty guns of the naval squad ran opened fire on the port. Although the defending garrison was not very big and had only forty-eight small-caliber cannons, the allies were unable to land their forces.

The defenders of Odessa replied to the enemy barrage with a barrage of their own. The battery commanded by ensign Alexander Shchegolev did particularly well for six hours its four guns fought a duel with nine warships and forced them to move away from the coast. The squadron discontinued its barrage and moved out to sea leaving three ships to patrol the area. One of these was the British steam frigate Tiger, one of the two of the best British naval vessels of those times. On the misty morning of April 30th (May 12th) the Tiger ran aground near Arkadiya (about 10 km south of the port) and was shelled by coastal batteries. The crew were taken prisoner and the frigate was set on fire, as the other patrolling vessels made it impossible to refloat the frigate.

A copy of the shell that hit the Richeiieu monument during the barrage from the allied was later imbedded in its pedestal.

Another building that dominates the square is that of the Archeological Museum of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences. It was founded in 1825 and was the first museum in Odessa.

Initially the building built by the architect G. Toriccelli in the 1830's housed the Museum of the Society of History and Antiquity. Soon, however, the museum proved too small and to hold the collection and in 1863 under the guidance of the architect F. Gonsiorovsky it was re-built as it stands today. The style is strictly classical. The main entrance has a portico of four Corinthian columns resembling that of a Roman church, with the landing of the two way stone steps serving as the floor of the portico.

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Archeological Museum

Because of the steep incline of the terrain, the museum premises are asymmetrical, though visitors scarcely notice this thanks to the large hall that occupies the center.

The stone grave memorials which stand on either side of the entrance and were used by the nomadic Polovtsy tribes in the 12th-13th centuries, indicate what visitors can expect in the museum itself.

In front of the museum stands a white marble sculptural group, the "Laocoon", a copy of the sculpture created by Polydorus, Athenodorus and Agesander in the 1st century B.C. and which now stands in the Vatican. On a sunny day with the background of the blue fir trees it is a sight worth seeing.

The museum itself is one of the oldest in the country and in the republic, and is a major center of archeological excavation in the south-west of the Ukraine. The eleven halls with more than 150,000 exhibits provide an excellent illustration of the history of the North Black Sea coast from the first appearance of man up to the emergence of the ancient Russian state, Kievan Rus.

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