The Italians of Odesa were an ethnic minority that once resided in Odesa, a city in southern Ukraine on the Black Sea. Italians of Odesa, whose ancestors were Italians who emigrated to Odesa during the Italian diaspora, are mentioned for the first time in documents of the 13th century.[1] The influx of Italians in southern Ukraine grew particularly with the foundation of Odesa, which took place in 1794.[1] In 1797 there were about 800 Italians in Odesa, equal to 10% of the total population.[2] For more than a century the Italians of Odesa greatly influenced the culture, art, industry, society, architecture, politics and economy of the city.[3][4][5][6][1] Among the works created by the Italians of Odesa there were the Potemkin Stairs and the Odesa Opera and Ballet Theater.[1] At the beginning of the 19th century the Italian language became the second official language in Odesa, after Russian.[1]
Until the 1870s, Odesa's Italian population grew steadily.[3] From the following decade this growth stopped, and the decline of the Italian community in Odesa began.[3] The reason was mainly one, namely the gradual integration into the Slavic population of Odesa, i.e. Russians and Ukrainians.[3] Surnames began to be Russianized and Ukrainianized.[3] The revolution of 1917 sent many of them to Italy, or to other cities in Europe.[5] In Soviet times, only a few dozen Italians remained in Odesa, most of whom no longer knew their own language.[7] Over time they merged with the local population, losing the ethnic connotations of origin.[8] They disappeared completely by World War II.[8]
History
Italians of Odesa are mentioned for the first time in documents of the 13th century, when on the territory of the future Odesa, a city in southern Ukraine on the Black Sea, the anchorage of the Genoese commercial ships was placed, which was called "Ginestra", perhaps from name of the broom plant, very common in the steppes of the Black Sea.[1]
In 1789, during the Russo-Turkish War, Giuseppe De Ribas, an officer in the service of the Russian prince Grigory Potemkin, with his troops conquered the village of Khadjibey,[1] inhabited by Tatars.[6] In this place, Giuseppe De Ribas, having understood the importance of the presence of a new port in Ukraine on the Black Sea, founded Odesa in 1794 with the approval of the Russian Empress Catherine the Great.[1] In Russia, during the winter, the ice made the ports located in the north unusable.[1] With the founding of Odesa, which was located in the south of the Russian Empire, the country had a port that operated year-round.[1]
The influx of Italians in southern Ukraine grew particularly with the foundation of Odesa, which took place in 1794. All this was facilitated by the fact that at the helm of the newly founded capital of the Black Sea basin, there was a Neapolitan of Spanish origin, Giuseppe De Ribas, in office until 1797.[1] Once Odesa was founded, there was a need to populate it with new inhabitants, among whom there were many Italians, given the place of origin of Giuseppe De Ribas.[1]
Odesa is predominantly Italian. The sky, the sun, the architecture of the buildings, the painting in the churches, the names of the streets - "strade" and "stradelli", the first ships from Naples and Messina, the first shopkeepers, the first grocery stores, the first wine cellars, pasta, the first tomatoes and the first operas were the reflection and echo of blessed Italy. It is no coincidence that Alexander Pushkin (the great Russian poet) who loved and understood all beautiful things, called the Odessites - the children of happy Ausonia.
—Giuseppe De Ribas
In 1797 there were about 800 Italians in Odesa, equal to 10% of the total population: they were mostly traders and of Neapolitan, Genoese and Livorno sailors, who were later joined by artists, technicians, artisans, pharmacists and teachers.[2] From 1798 the consuls of Naples, Sardinia and Corsica were present in Odesa. Subsequently the consulate of Sardinia was transformed into an Italian consulate. The first Odesa policeman, who was hired in 1794, was Italian. Italians actively participated in local politics in Odesa, so much so that Italians were already present in the municipal council in office since 1797.[3] Trade with Italy started from the ports of Naples, Genoa and Venice.[3] From these ports, and due to Italian trading companies, tomatoes, which until then were unknown, were imported to Odesa for the first time.[3]
In Odesa the Italians also owned bakeries, pasta and biscuit factories, and later in the period 1794-1802, the first Italian-owned trading companies arose. Later Italians became owners of restaurants, cafes, pastry shops, casinos and hotels. Some of them operated until the beginning of the 20th century and were often highly prestigious activities that animated the social life of Odesa.[5] For example, the 'Casino del Commerce' was the only coffee shop in the city at the end of the 1830s[4] and the luxurious Fanconi café-pastry shop, founded in Odesa in the 1870s, gained enormous prestige. In the so-called "Italian casinos" you could listen to music, dance and play dominoes.[3] The main Italian trading houses with a turnover of four million rubles were the Cortazzi, Ralli families, and with a turnover of two million rubles, the Porro family.[4] Among the works created by the Italians of Odesa there were also the Potemkin Stairs.[1]
At the beginning of the 19th century the Italian community began to play an important role in the public and commercial life of the city. The Italian language began to spread and over time entered the sphere of communications of businessmen: bills of exchange, cheques, contracts, business correspondence, accounting – everything was written in Italian.[4] Furthermore, the need to know foreign languages – including Italian – led to the teaching of Russian, Greek and Italian in the first Odesa school founded in 1800.[5] At the beginning of the 19th century the Italian language became the second official language in Odesa, after Russian.[1] Some signs showing the names of the streets of Odesa were written in Italian.[3] The signs of institutions and shops, road signs, passports, price lists bore writings in both Russian and Italian.[3][6] The first Italian-Russian dictionary was written in Odesa by the Italian Domenico De Vivo.[3] Books and manuals written in Italian by the Odesa Italians and manuals gave the basic material for studying Italian throughout Russia.[3]
The contributions of the Italians of Odesa were also important in the industrial field.[1] The most important Italian entrepreneur was the Sicilian Arturo Anatra, who established the city's first aeroclub and who founded a company in Odesa that dealt with the construction of aircraft, the Anatra factory, which spread throughout the Russian Empire.[1] Anatra factory was founded in 1913 and manufactured aircraft until 1917. The factory began as a naval workshop producing foreign designs, and they constructed approximately 20 aircraft from 1909 through 1912. Anatra licensed designs by Farman, Morane-Saulnier, Nieuport, and Voisin, ultimately building at a rate of as many as sixty per month by 1917.[9] They also manufactured their own designs for the Russian army during World War I.[10] Both of its factories were taken over and operated by the Soviets, until eventually being closed in 1922, after having produced 1,056 aircraft in Odesa, and 50 at a second location they had opened 500km (310mi) away, in Simferopol, in Crimea.[11]
The Italians of Odesa were also owners of the city's food industries, where pasta, cured meats and sweets were mainly produced.[3] The largest food industry in Odesa, run by Italians, produced pasta.[3] Until the 1850s, bakeries run by Italians from Odesa were widespread.[3] The first printing house that appeared in 1804 in Odesa was founded by an Italian.[3] Italian jewelers, sculptors and marble workers were famous in Odesa from its foundation until the revolution of 1917. Even today, Italian surnames are often associated with architects. The Italian Francesco Boffo was responsible for the municipal technical office of Odessa from 1822 to 1844, and he was responsible for much of the neoclassical architecture of the city.[5] Many important buildings in Odesa were built by Italians;[1] and not only architects but also contractors, builders and carpenters played an important part. The Italians also played an important part in starting the Odesa Opera and Ballet Theater[1] and the Greek Orthodox Trinity Cathedral.[6] Italian actors who acted in the Odesa Opera and Ballet Theater were Tommaso Salvini, Ernesto Rossi and Eleonora Duse.[6] The orchestra director of the Odesa Opera and Ballet Theater was Italian maestro Luigi Ricci. Even today, looking at the repertoire of Odesa opera and ballet, the tribute to the Italian tradition is maintained.[1]
The Odesa Opera and Ballet Theater were not an exception; many buildings in the historic center of Odesa were designed by Italian architects.[3] There were also numerous sculptors, artists, musicians, painters, university professors, high school and music school teachers of Italian ethnicity.[3] Italian sculptors, in particular, who worked primarily with marble.[3] In particular, the music and singing teachers were predominantly Italian.[3] The famous Neapolitan song "'O sole mio" was composed in 1898 while the two authors, Eduardo di Capua and Giovanni Capurro, were in Odesa.[5] Also noteworthy was the street music, which was also performed in the markets and courtyards of the historic center of Odesa.[3] It was performed almost exclusively by itinerant Italian accordion players, who had as their repertoire the musical compositions of the most famous Italian musicians such as Giuseppe Verdi, Vincenzo Bellini, Gioacchino Rossini and Gaetano Donizetti.[3] In the evenings these players performed their music in Odesa's nightclubs.[3] The widely practiced teaching of the Italian language contributed to the appearance of a series of manuals and school texts and it can be said that Odesa provided not only for Ukraine but also for Russia the means of studying the Italian language.[5]
In 1850 the city had around 3,000 Italians in Odesa.[6] Until the 1870s, Odesa's Italian population grew steadily.[3] From the following decade this growth stopped, and the decline of the Italian community in Odesa began.[3] The reason was mainly one — the gradual integration into the Slavic population of Odesa, i.e. Russians and Ukrainians.[3] Surnames began to be Russianized and Ukrainianized.[3] In the census carried out in 1900, there was a strong decline in the Italian community in Odesa, as it numbered only 286 people.[6] The revolution of 1917 sent many of them to Italy, or to other cities in Europe.[5] In Soviet times, only a few dozen Italians remained in Odesa, most of whom no longer knew their own language.[7] Over time they merged with the local population, losing the ethnic connotations of origin:[8]
In Odesa there is only one man left in possession of an Italian passport: he is an Orthodox priest of Italian-Russian blood. As for Italians of origin, there were about three hundred of them here; about a third have left. The others remain quite confused with the Russian population, for fear of reprisals.
Odesa is the third most populous city and municipality in Ukraine and a major seaport and transport hub located in the south-west of the country, on the northwestern shore of the Black Sea. The city is also the administrative centre of the Odesa Raion and Odesa Oblast, as well as a multiethnic cultural centre. As of January 2021, Odesa's population was approximately 1,010,537. On 25 January 2023, its historic city centre was declared a World Heritage Site and added to the List of World Heritage in Danger by the UNESCO World Heritage Committee in recognition of its multiculturality and 19th-century urban planning. The declaration was made in response to the bombing of Odesa during the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which has damaged or destroyed buildings across the city.
Admiral José de Ribas y Boyons, known in Spanish as José Pascual Domingo de Ribas y Boyons, in Italian as Giuseppe de Ribas and in Russian as Iosif (Osip) Mikhailovich Deribas, was a Spanish military officer under the Spanish held Kingdom of Naples, in Russian service. In recognition of de Ribas' famous victory at nearby Khadjibey, the future city's most famous street, Derybasivska, was named after him. José de Ribas was one of the principal figures on the monument of Catherine the Great in Odessa and there is a small personal monument to him at the beginning of Derybasivska Street.
The Potemkin Stairs, Potemkin Steps, or, officially, Primorsky Stairs are a giant stairway in Odesa, Ukraine. They are considered a formal entrance into the city from the direction of the sea and are the best known symbol of Odesa.
The OdesaNational Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre is the oldest theatre in Odesa, Ukraine. The Theatre and the Potemkin Stairs are the most famous edifices in Odesa.
Anatra (Анатра) was an aircraft manufacturer founded by Artur Antonovich Anatra at Odesa, Ukraine, then Russian Empire in 1913 which manufactured aircraft until 1917. Artur Anatra had previously helped fund the purchase of the first aircraft to arrive in the Russian Empire, in 1909.
The culture of Odesa is a unique blend of Russian, Yiddish, and Ukrainian cultures, and Odesa itself has played a notable role in Russian and Yiddish folklore.
Aleksander Osipovich Bernardazzi was a Russian architect best known for his work in Odesa and Chişinău.
The Odesa International Film Festival is an annual film festival held in the middle of July in Odesa.
The First Odesa International Film Festival was held in Odesa (Ukraine) from 16 to 24 July 2010.
The following is a timeline of the history of the city of Odessa, Ukraine.
Moldovans in Ukraine are the third biggest minority recorded in the 2001 All Ukrainian Census after Russians and Belarusians. Unlike many other minorities, Moldovans often live in the countryside (71.5%) rather than in a city (28.5%), the majority in the northern and southern historical region of Bessarabia. There is an undergoing identity controversy among the Romanian speakers of Ukraine over whether self-identified Moldovans are a part of the larger Romanian ethnic group or a separate ethnic group.
The Ukrainian mafia is a collective of various organized crime related elements originating in Ukraine. Such organizations are regarded as one of the most influential types of organized crime coming out of the former USSR, including also the Russian mafia, the Georgian mafia, the Chechen mafia, the Armenian mafia and the Azerbaijani mafia. Ukrainian criminal organizations are involved in a significant number of illegal activities. Although Ukrainian criminal organizations are for the most part independently operating enterprises, they are sometimes connected with Russian mafia organizations, such as the case with Semyon Mogilevich.
The Odesa Museum of Regional History is a historical museum in Odesa, Ukraine. It is dedicated to the regional history of Odesa.
Novorossiya is a historical name, used during the era of the Russian Empire for an administrative area that would later become the southern mainland of Ukraine: the region immediately north of the Black Sea and Crimea. The province fell largely within a slightly wider area known in Ukrainian as the Stepovyna and in Russian as the Stepp "Steppe Land", or Nyz "Lower Land". The name Novorossiya, which means New Russia, entered official usage in 1764, after the Russian Empire conquered the Crimean Khanate, and annexed its territories, when Novorossiya Governorate was founded. Official usage of the name ceased after 1917, when the entire area was annexed by the Ukrainian People's Republic, precursor of the Ukrainian SSR.
Eugene Lavrenchuk is a Ukrainian opera and drama director, producer and teacher. Director, co-founder (2002), and artistic director of the Polish Theatre in Moscow (2002–2014) and the School of acting and directing. Chief director of the Odesa National Opera House (2018–2021). Rector of the First Ukrainian School of Theater and Cinema (2018), Founder and Head of the Expert Council of the All-Ukrainian Opera Forum. Has staged more than 30 plays (performances-list). Makes productions and also carries out active teaching work in Ukraine, Poland, Germany, Lithuania and Israel. The author of the methodology of teaching acting skills and directing. Merited Artist of Ukraine (2021).
Monument to the founders of Odesa, also known as the monument to Empress Catherine II of Russia and her companions, was a monument located in Odesa, Ukraine, on Katerynska Square.
The Odesa Funicular serves the Ukrainian city of Odesa. Running alongside the Potemkin Stairs, it connects the Prymorskyi Boulevard with the Port of Odesa.
Odesa Oblast, also referred to as Odeshchyna (Одещина), is an oblast (province) of southwestern Ukraine, located along the northern coast of the Black Sea. Its administrative centre is the city of Odesa. Population: 2,351,382.
The history of the Jews in Odesa dates to 16th century. Since the modern city's founding in 1795, Odesa has been home to one of the largest population of Jews in what is today Ukraine. Odesa was a major center of Eastern European Jewish cultural life. From Odesa sailed the SS Ruslan which is considered the mayflower of Israeli culture. They comprised the largest ethno-religious group in the region throughout most of the 19th century and until the mid-20th century when the Jews were massacred by Romanian forces occupying the city or deported to be later killed during the Holocaust.
1 2 3 4 Brandes, Detlef (1993). Von den Zaren adoptiert: Die deutschen Kolonisten und die Balkansiedler in Neurußland und Bessarabien (1751-1914) (in German). Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag. p.252. ISBN978-3486560145.
1 2 3 Father Pietro Leoni to Pietro Quaroni, 21 September 1944 (ASMAE, Italian embassy in Russia, 1861/1950, b. 321).
↑ Gunston, Bill (1993). World Encyclopedia of Aircraft Manufacturers. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press. p.1. ISBN978-1557509390.
↑ Gunston, Bill (1993). World Encyclopedia of Aircraft Manufacturers. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press. p.24. ISBN978-1557509390.
↑ Durkota, Alan; Darcey, Thomas; Kulikov, Victor (1995). The Imperial Russian Air Service — Famous Pilots and Aircraft of World War I. Mountain View, CA: Flying Machines Press. p.338. ISBN978-0963711021.
Further reading
Gallon, Silvano; Giacchetti Boico, Giulia; Canetta, Edoardo; Altomare, Tito Manlio; Mensurati, Stefano (2012). Gli Italiani di Crimea. Nuovi documenti e testimonianze sulla deportazione e lo sterminio (in Italian). Rome: Edizioni Settimo Sigillo. ISBN978-88-6148-100-8.
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