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ODESSA REGION

Odessa region is located in the far Southwest of Ukraine and borders on Vinnitsa, Kirovograd, and Nikolaev regions, as well as on the countries of Moldova and Romania. The region occupies the territory on the Northwest Black Sea coast, from the river Danube delta to the Tiligoulskiy estuary (300 kilometres of coastline), and 200-250 kilometres from the Black Sea to the north. Odessa region is largest in Ukraine: its total area is 33,300 square kilometres (an approximate size of Belgium or the Netherlands) which is about 5.5% of Ukraine's territory. The capital city of the region is Odessa, situated on terraced hills overlooking Odessa Bay, an inlet of the Black Sea that forms a natural harbour. The city is among the largest ones in Ukraine; it serves as the southern gateway of the state. It is an important agricultural, transportation, industrial, scientific, cultural, and resort centre, with a population of about 2,300,000.

The coastline position of the region on the international border is economically important. The wide outlet into the basin of the Azov and the Black Seas and into large rivers (the Danube, the Don, the Dnieper, and the Dniester) defines the advantages and transportation means. The effective sea and river waterways allow the economic relations to extend to Eastern and Central Europe (via the river Danube). Odessa sea port and other ports of the region are situated at the junction of intensive international sea and river transport connections; this defines a great distribution potential of the ports.

Natural Resources

Distinctive features of the regional natural resources are the favorable climate, the sea, curative mud and salted water of the estuaries, sand beaches, and mineral water springs. Along with historical and cultural monuments, these resources form a great and diversified recreational and spa resort potential.

Minerals discovered in the region and attracting practical interest today are used as raw materials for construction. Mining of sea sands, sandstone-shell mixture for industrial use, construction and agriculture is carried out on the Black Sea shelf.

Odessa region employs intensive steppe agriculture and developed irrigation network. The natural conditions are favourable for cultivation of winter wheat, corn, barley, soy, millet, and sunflowers.

A diversified manufacturing centre, Odessa produces a wide range of machinery and equipment, as well as chemicals. Shipyards and an oil refinery are important to the economy. Food processing in flour mills, stockyards, canneries, and sugar refineries is developed due to the proximity to rich Ukrainian farmlands.

Odessa today

Many roads lead to Odessa, for this city is hospitable, cheerful, and picturesque. Every year many tourists visit Odessa, attracted by its boulevards and Potyomkinsky stairs, beautiful beaches, numerous new structures and the unusual architecture of old Odessa.

Odessa's reputation as a health resort dates back to the 1920's. Therapeutic ingredients in the muds along with the mild climate and beautiful beaches attracted vacationers and patients seeking a cure from various ailments: from arthritis to tuberculosis to skin disorders.

Today numerous resorts, beauty spas, and sanatoriums dot a 50-mile stretch of coast from the village of Fontanka north of Odessa to Lebedivka to the south. They attract hundreds of thousands of vacationers and medical patients yearly who seek health and beauty in hydro and mud treatments.

Odessa is renowned for its artistic and cultural life. The city has an Opera and Ballet Theatre (claimed among the world-best architectural monuments), a philharmonic hall, numerous museums and theatres, a public library, and an astronomical observatory. Odessa is the site of the oldest cinema studio in the former Soviet Union. The city has been a centre for publishing numerous literary works. Odessa is constantly hosting exhibits, symposia, and conferences. It is the site of consulates and trade commissions of many countries, and dozens of branches of friendship and cultural exchange societies are active in the city.

HISTORY AND CULTURE OF ODESSA

The history of Odessa is deplete with numerous historical events, which are captured in the names of the city's 1400 streets, squares, prospects, boulevards, and historical and cultural monuments.

Numerous monuments of antiquity confirm the links between this territory and the Eastern Mediterranean. In the middle ages, these lands were, successively, a part of the Kiev Rus, Galich and Volyn Principality, the Golden Horde, the Great Lithuanian Principality, the Crimean Khanate and the Osman Empire. In the course of Russian-Turkish wars these lands were captured by Russia at the end of the 18th century.

Tsar Peter the Great opened a ‘window’ to the West for Russia when he built St. Petersburg in the swamps bordering on the Baltic Sea. Catherine the Great wanted a window to the South. In 1764 the Empress formed the territories newly acquired in the southwest of her empire into a province called Novorossiya.

In the war of 1787-91, Don Josef de Ribas, a soldier of fortune born in Naples of Spanish and Irish stock and one of many adventures in Catherine’s service, stormed the fortress of Yeny-Dunai at Khadzhibei. Catherine the Great apparently considered making the port of Ochakov, near the mouth of the Boh river, the effective capital of Novorossiya. But Ochakov lacked a good natural harbour. On the other hand, de Ribas and a close collaborator, a Dutch engineer named Franz de Volan, recommended Khadzhibei as the site of the region’s principal port. Its harbour was deep and nearly ice-free. Breakwaters, on the model of those found at Naples, Livorno and Ancona, could be cheaply constructed and would render the harbour safe even for large fleets.

In 1794, Catherine gave her approval for de Ribas and de Volan to build a harbour. This new settlement was given the name of Odessa. The city name came about as a result of an error. It was meant to be named after the ancient Greek city of Odessos or Ordissos, which was believed to have been founded in the vicinity. Actually, it was somewhere near the present day town of Varna in Bulgaria. But Catherine the Great liked "Adyessa" – as it is pronounced by the Russians and Ukrainians.

The unique position of Odessa – a vital trade link between the West and the East, and the growth in importance of Russia’s external trade through the Black Sea in the 19th century made way for the establishment of a big trade port centre and the development of Odessa into an advanced European city. A crucial event in the trade policy was the declaration of a free port regime in Odessa in August 1819, establishing a customs border in the vicinity. It was aimed at overcoming scarcity in the domestic market, by the attraction of investment capital. It was also done because of the absence of Russia’s trade fleet in the Black Sea.

During the free port period in Odessa (1819-1858) there was a huge discussion between supporters and opponents of the privileged tax regime. Free trade influenced negatively the development of manufacturing in the region. Local products could not compete in quality with goods from overseas.

Odessa grew rapidly, especially in the latter half of the 19th century, when railroad construction in the southern Ukraine made it Russia's principal port for grain exports. Within a short period of time the city, with its beautiful harbour on the Black Sea, has become "Ukraine's southern window to Europe".

By its hundredth anniversary (1894), Odessa occupied the 4th place in the Russian Empire in size and economic power – after Saint Petersburg, Moscow, and Warsaw. Odessa inhibitors were noted for their wonderful spirit of freedom, which allowed them to achieve great success in the field of science, education and the arts.

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