Odesa: history and propaganda in the identity of a Black Sea port city

Odesa: the port nobody can fully claim

Founded by a Spaniard in 1794, Odesa has become a symbol of the clash between competing historical narratives. The fact defies the story: the city was conceived by José de Ribas, a Spaniard in the service of Catherine the Great – a German born in Pomerania. Neither Russian nor Ukrainian in origin, the Black Sea port was wrested from the Ottoman Empire, and its identity has been rewritten several times since.

The Spanish founder and the German tsarina

The founding of Odesa is not an argument exclusive to either side. Those who defend its Russian character point out that it was built under the Russian Empire; those who uphold its Ukrainian identity note that the founder was not Russian and that the city had a cosmopolitan population from the start, with a strong Jewish and Greek presence. In fact, in 1917 more Jews lived in Odesa than Russians.

USSR borders: the Bolshevik stroke of the pen

The central argument of the pro-Russian position rests on the thesis that Ukraine's current borders are an artificial product of the Soviet era. Odesa was incorporated into the USSR in 1922 as part of the Ukrainian SSR, but earlier, in 1920, the Bolsheviks had already taken it. Later, Stalin added Polish, Hungarian and Romanian territories, and Khrushchev transferred Crimea in 1954. Vladimir Pilingui has called those lines a "product of Bolshevism" and insists they do not match historical reality.

The Crimea precedent and the military standoff

Crimea, part of the Ukrainian SSR since 1954, was annexed by Russia in 2014. For some, Odesa trinc the same pattern: a majority Russian-speaking city that Moscow considers its own. However, the Russian advance towards Odesa, as noted in the discussions, is moving slowly – "they are 10 years away from getting there" – which leaves the claim in the historical rather than the military realm.

Against this backdrop, the question of whether Odesa "was always Russian" remains open. What the debate shows is that history, more than a science, is an arsenal where each side seeks the weapons that serve it best.

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