Imperial Odessa

It was very common for journalists to describe Ukraine as ‘split down the middle’ during the Orange Revolution. Such an analysis is something of an oversimplification but it is true that the political events of last year aroused passions all over the country.



Everywhere, that is, except for Odessa, the Black Sea port city that dominates the country's embryonic international tourist trade. With a reputation for big city adventure, sunshine, laughter, and sophistication, much of the local population looked at the unfolding drama with indifference and even a little scorn.

This comes as no surprise given the fact that locals have always considered themselves Odesssites first and Russians, Soviets or Ukrainians second. Odessa is one of Ukraine's youngest cities, having been founded as recently as the late 1700s, but it is nevertheless one of the most distinctive and well-loved. While Odessa may not have been around for long, there are few cities in this country where you will encounter such a sense of local pride.

Ukraine’s Most Independent City

What is it that makes Odessa so specific? Some say the answer lies in the city's celebrated cosmopolitan mix of nationalities, which has historically seen large Jewish, Greek, Russian, Moldovan, and Ukrainian populations mixing freely with any number of sailors and visitors from around the world. Fashions and foreign goods have always been more plentiful in Odessa than elsewhere in the Slavic world, and this has helped foster something of an 'Odessite' identity among locals. In the nineteenth century while the rest of the Russian Empire trundled on under a backward and oppressive administration Odessa always played the role of colourful window on the world, and the city has maintained an air of freedom about it to this day. Even the town's first governor was a Frenchman, and until the revolution Odessa attracted its fair share of European aristocrats as well as a healthy mix of playboys and international scoundrels. None are more celebrated than Grigory Potemkin, that emperor of rascals who bedded Katerine the Great as well as ruling her southern domains for her. The Russian literary giant Pushkin fell famously in love in Odessa, and the most moving and celebrated of all Soviet-era films, Sergiy Eisenstein's 'Potomkin Steps' was shot on location here.



Other fans of Odessa lore have pointed to the very real communal spirit generated by the fact that almost ninety percent of the adult population have historically been employed in some shape or form at the port, which spreads its tentacles out through Odessa and links most Odessites in some way. Whatever it is that lies behind that specific Odessa identity it remains a very real phenomenon that guests to the city will soon pick up on. They even have their very own distinctive local accent and dialect, something that very few cities in the former Soviet Union can claim!

The Soviet Capital of Humour

Laughter, or to be more precise sharp-wittedness, is something of an everyday obsession in self-proclaimed humour capital Odessa. The giggles reach a crescendo at the annual 'Yumorina' comedy festival, which brings hundreds of thousands of visitors to Odessa from across the old USSR every April Fools' Day. For example last year's 'Yumorina' saw the unveiling of a spoof 'Duke in Jeans' monument, which depicted the founding governor and local icon the Duc de Richelieu in a pair of denims. Many of the most famous comedians of the former Soviet Union hail from Odessa, including the double act Illchenko & Kartsev and the controversial Mikhail Zhvanetsky, who was banned during Soviet times but enjoyed enormous popularity through the black market and continues to raise laughs across the former USSR although now well into his seventies. Perhaps having a wife less than half his age helps him keep in such remarkably good humour! Even the character Ostap Bender, that bungling but loveable scam artist who starred in numerous literary and cinematic comedies during the Soviet era is said to be based on an Odessa personality who was an acquaintance of authors Ilf and Petrov.



Much of this reputation for originality and wit is tied in with the port city's famous Jewish connection, and the multitude of set-piece jokes involving the ubiquitous 'Rabinovych' and thousands of more convoluted Jewish anecdotes still enjoying huge popularity.

A City with a Criminal Folklore

Locals are fond of calling their hometown 'Odessa Mama'. This affectionate little handle originates from an underworld phrase which also labelled the fellow Black Sea port of Rostov as 'Papa Rostov'. The street-level culture of these twin ports has always been legendarily criminal, especially during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and this reputation lives on today. Indeed, Odessa's criminal credentials could hardly be better, with everything from millions of anecdotes to high brow literary works dedicated to the theme of the Odessa underworld. With so many strangers to cheat, con and rob and so much contraband to steal, it is little wonder that over the years 'Odessa Mama' has bred a superior kind of criminal. Port cities across the world have always been notorious for breeding an active criminal class, but few outside of Odessa have ever been celebrated by literary greats. Most infamously Russian writer Isaac Babel's novel 'Odessa Tales' focused on the real-life Odessa criminal mastermind Benya Krik, turning his exploits into the stuff of legend and in the process creating a folk hero who remains a local icon today.



Babel also brought the whole Odessa underworld to life through his literary probings, describing in colourful detail the criminal culture of Moldovanka district and the 'Starakoni' flea market. Tourists can now enjoy specialised tours of underworld Odessa, taking in all the spots made famous by Babel and other writers while offering juicy little bandit anecdotes up for you to share later with friends over a beer.

Southern Belles with a Reputation

Like everything else in Odessa, the local ladies are also considered quite exceptional and not at all like other Ukrainian women. They local lore here runs that when the town was first settled by aristocrat adventurer and lover of Katherine the Great Grigory Potemkin, he personally made sure that the finest prostitutes and courtesans of the imperial court were sent down in a bid to attract immigrants. A more sober judgement would suggest that the international mix of nationalities is at the root of the local ladies’ flambouyant charms, but it is not nearly as interesting a story, and so would no doubt hold little appeal to yarn-spinning Odessites.
With the city so used to foreigners there are inevitably more and more scam artists operating around town, and as the numbers of tourists continue to rise, so do incidents of robbery or trickery. Needless to say these incidents more often than not involve attractive young ladies and hapless older foreign men. There is no particular need for caution above and beyond the kind you would no doubt exercise in Kyiv or anywhere else in the former Soviet Union, but nevertheless do not be too quick to be taken in by the undoubted charms of those parading Odessa girls.

Navigating a Path to Odessa

Getting to Odessa by car is an option but there are times when making this particular road trip can prove particularly problematic. Drivers will find that they can make the trip in seven or eight hours, because although the route used to be a much quicker affair at the moment extensive reconstruction and enlarging works are being carried out on the Kyiv-Odessa highway, reducing traffic to a crawl for long stetches.

Odessa is one of the few Ukrainian cities to boast regular international flights, and it is also an easy destination to reach by rail and road. More adventurous types might favour a cruise, but you would need plenty of free time to be able to write off the seven to ten days that it would take you to sail down from Kyiv.

A new visa regime, introduced to Odessa in 2003, allows visitors to purchase a seven-day single entry visa upon arrival at the airport, and this has been one of the main reasons for the modest increase in numbers of tourists over the past two summer seasons. Odessa is actively pursuing the tourist dollar, both in the shape of the city administration and on an individual basis. Local businessman Oleksandr Pavlovsky, the man behind Odessa's popular 'Mick O'Neill's' Irish Bar, has been instrumental in setting up a tourist infrastructure and has also turned the traditional annual 'Yumorina' April Fools' Day celebrations into a well-organised citywide festival that attracts hundreds of thousands. His most recent idea, the eye-catching Odessa Body Art festival, might prove an even bigger pull.

As well as introducing those new visa regulations, city officials have also lent their support to a number of attraction-grabbing tourism promotions. Most striking of all is the annual 'Miss International Tourism' beauty paegant, held every July in the city's cavernous port building. Organised by famous Odessa beauty Tetyana Savchenko, this international beauty show features girls from all over the world, and media coverage is dominated by images of these global beauties playing around against a backdrop of Odessa's many tourist attactions and landmarks.

Speaking of landmarks, the Odessa Opera House was once upon a time a commanding landmark in its own right, rated as one of the finest of its kind in the world, and ranked in the same league as the Vienna Opera House and other pearls of European architecture. In 1996 the building was shrouded in scaffolding for on-going reconstruction works with the great 'opera remont' becoming a running joke. Today the Opera House has been restored to its former glory and once again compares favourably with any in Europe. The splended classic facade is testament to Odessa’s classical past and is a must-see for any visitor to the city.

The Spendour and the Squalour

Once you're in town getting around central Odessa is remarkably easy. The city was laid out in the late 1700s and early 1800s along the lines of the model being employed at the time by the newly-independent Americans, with streets lined up at right-angles to each other to form a grid pattern. As a result much of downtown Odessa can be easily navigated, block by block, with everything stretching out from the city's central strip, Deribasovskaya. This famous street has featured in a thousands of books, films and songs, and remains one of the most celebrated in Ukraine. Odessites are passionate about Deribasivskaya, and a trip to town cannot be complete without at least an hour spent strolling here and taking in the world around you. Indeed, such is the local pride in this little pedestrian stretch that when Kyiv's central street Khreschatyk was resurfaced in 1998 and the explanation given was that the country should have an impressive main street, there were hoots of derision from Odessa where the locals already knew that the country's main street was in fact their very own Deribasovskaya!

Make sure you keep an out for street names as you stroll round town, as the names of Odessa's roads reflect the city's cosmpopolitan roots. You can find French boulevard, Italian boulevard, Jewish street and Greek square around the city centre, to name but three. This in turn has spawned an international outlook quite at odds with the insular attitudes fostered by the Soviets.

Odessa’s main stretch Deribasovskaya may well be a remarkable street, but Odessa's roads are generally in a shocking state of repair, and will have you thinking of nineteenth century back passages in small rural towns. One of the first things you will notice if you fly in and have to take a car from the airport will be the sheer number of pot-holes and craters that litter the route. Other low-points include the large number of incredibly miserable-looking exotic creatures held hostage on Derebasivska for photo opportunities with visiting tourists, but on the whole there is little to dampen the spirits in this seaside treasure of a town.

Ukraine's tourism industry is still trying to find its feet and Odessa is currently far and away the most developed destination. Kyiv is fast catching up with her southern neighour but for now Odessa remains the best bet for a weekend away in Ukraine. With the facilities in place but the international crowds yet to catch on to the potential of this fine destination, summer 2005 might well be the perfect time to visit Odessa!

Text: Boleslav Malinovsky with special thanks to Lora Osipenko