The whole history of Odessa is for those who are constantly running somewhere and who never have free time. continuation

A hundred years later, history showed that history teaches us nothing - humanity again turned out to be unprepared for the attack of small creatures - microbes! and of course, Odessa wasn’t ready either. continuation

These frames of the History are about that Odessa, which should come first to your mind, when we talk about this city, but for some reason main stories are about Mishka Yaponchik, a Jewish accent invented at the Moscow Film Studio, and a vulgar vantage point from the second hatch. continuation

This Timeline of history tells about famous people connected with Odessa. Oddly enough, but Odessites become very famous only after leaving Odessa forever. continuation

Drawings and photographs showing the history of Odessa through the years. continuation

Hello everyone! Any idea, why, we decided to create this project about Odessa History, instead of selling shellfish on the sea or boozing beer while watching Netflix?

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Pfff… Such a boredom… Who needs it, this history, who is happy about it? Rewriting history - that’s enough! They told us everything at school already! History teaches only one thing: that history teaches us nothing!

Stop! We could agree 100500% with the last thesis. Just as we are ready to agree that Odessa could become one of the world's financial leaders. She could, but unfortunately she didn't. Why? Apparently, it took to the wrong turn on it’s historical path. So what’s the reason. Perhaps someone jinxed it. Or maybe someone was plotting a worldwide conspiracy. Or should we blame the ordinary people, such as you and me in this fault? We are the ones who are creating this story right now, just like our predecessors created it before us?!

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In this project, we are trying to bring together the whole history of Odessa, using quite different tools for this. We are trying to understand, "How we have come to such a life and where we will go next!"

«Odessa History» is not only the history of Odessa, this is the history of any other city that, by the will of fate, ended up on the territory of the former Russian Empire, and then the USSR. Odessa history is the history that we never learned, and therefore we are doomed fall into the same trap until we finally learn the lessons from our past.


«Odessa History» is not a site for daily news, but a site of events and facts. This is a diary reflecting the life path that Odessa has gone through and is going through. Not everything that happened or will happen in our history (read - life) is something fateful or very important, but when it is, that’s recorded in the Odessa Diary. Step by step, like a mosaic, we will collect the history of our city (and not only ours, and not only the city) until we collect a more or less clear picture that will allow us to see all the bizarre biography of Odessa. To see and understand the reasons for our historical running on empty.

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Finding the past, we find the future being created in the present!
“Well said, damn it!”, as the old chap Sigmund Freud would probably say.

The odessahistory.net project is not only the history of Odessa, but exactly the chain of events in history that some people would react: “How did we come to such a life? - «But in normal countries…» Or vice versa: “Odessa is not just a city, Odessa is a state of mind!” Here we are trying to understand where the truth lies between these contrasting points of view. When Odessa was at peak of its glory, and when it descended into the violent chaos?


Although, perhaps, there have never been any extremes, but were the usual series of faceless events in the life of an unusual (as we all believe) seaside city? A city that was built by representatives of very many nationalities. A city that has absorbed culture, and as well the lack of culture in many, many generations. The history of Odessa is very similar to the history of any post-Soviet city or village. Unfortunately, many people have not drawn any conclusions from history so far, and without knowledge and understanding of the past, it is impossible to build not only the future, but also the present. Thus we read, study, understand, and perhaps together we will find that Odessa that romantic guides dream of with their fellow local historians.

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and here is the minute of gratitude

Youtube - Youtube is a source created by the same guys from Google. It doesn't need to be introduced, but it's important to note that YouTube has been able to revolutionize the way we think about how video should be used.

The site of the Odessa City Hall - site was conceived as the site of the city, and was even called Odessa.ua, but at the end was turned into the site of the city government, and lost its name. Anyway the digitalization of Odessa began long before they started talking about it in the capital. For many years in a row this site received awards as the best city site all over Ukraine, however, that was a long time ago.

Dumskaya is probably the best online news site in Odessa. For more than ten years, these guys have managed to create a really high-quality news service that always serves for sake of Odessa.

Domofoto is a unique architectural photobase covering the architecture of many post-Soviet cities. The guys have done, and are doing, a very important and very serious work, collecting information not only about modern houses, but also about buildings that no longer exist.

High Technologies Ltd - we thank the research and production enterprise "HIGH TECHNOLOGIES" and its director Vladimir Stadnikov for some truly unique old maps of Odessa.

Vikna Odesa is a unique site, the creators of which not only record the life of Odessa, but also create a unique catalog of Odessa photographs from different eras and times.

Unknown authors - we thank everyone who took photos of Odessa even when it was not the mainstream, and is doing them now. We thank everyone who continues to collect historical facts about Odessa in the archives, analyzes them and acquaints us with them. We thank everyone who continues to believe in Odessa even when even the majority of Odessites no longer believe in it.


And a special thanks to our local film historian Oleg Elagin. The titanic work done by him and presented in the section «Odessa Film Locations» gives a sense of deep respect.

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P.S.
The project is based on an idea that there was no one to peep from or steal, so we had to create everything from scratch, so for any possible random bugs or jambs - “Sorry, shit happens, guys!”.
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AND THIS IS NOT THE END OF THIS STORY AT ALL!

Russian-Ukrainian war on the map more

Film locations - frames from films shot in Odessa right on the map of Odessa. more

Photo locations — photos and drawings of Odessa directly on the map of Odessa. more

Infostat locations - objects and places of Odessa directly on the map of Odessa. more

History tape from photos and drawings of events in the history of Odessa directly on the map of Odessa. more