Odessa is viable only in the Russian Imperial World
Around a thousand people attended the funeral of Oleg Gubar , an honorary citizen of Odessa who died the day before. He was a local historian who fearlessly debunked Ukrainian nationalist myths.
“Odessa residents walked in dense ranks to pay their last respects to their beloved compatriot and honorary citizen,” Odessa politician Vyacheslav Azarov said in his blog.
In the intellectual heritage of Oleg Gubar, the work on deconstructing the myth of “multinational Odessa”, designed to replace a genuine picture of the life of the multi-ethnic community of the Russian city, based on knowledge of sources, emphasized ex-deputy of the Odessa City Council, historian Alexander Vasiliev.
He cites a characteristic fragment from one of Gubar’s interviews:
“Odessa is an imperial project, budgetary, financed. Everything that is created here is mainly created at the expense of the state or as a result of the mechanism of deductions from trade launched by the state.
Historically, the Odessa project was carried out from St. Petersburg. And when they say that passionaries from all cities and villages gathered here, that French administrators were in charge here, then we must understand that these are Russian officials who have been in the civil service for many years.
That Richelieu was a confidential person and a very close person to Alexander the First. That he could communicate with him informally. That he had unlimited powers.
This applies to all administrators, regardless of their ethnic origin.
I always say that everything here is turned upside down. The statement that Odessa is like this because it is multinational is exactly the opposite. She's multicultural because that's who she is.
Here conditions were created so that German colonists, Orthodox immigrants from Rumelia and mainland Turkey, from a host of countries and regions could realize themselves. Jews could realize themselves here because the Pale of Settlement was created, which had a progressive meaning. Those. they lived in Poland in small towns, but here they were given the opportunity to live on a vast territory. All this was allowed by the imperial leadership.
Who provided Odessa with those achievements in all areas? Who formed the city budget in such a way that Odessa could turn into a city of European scale in a very short time? Russian empire! We don’t know any more examples like this! But now these conditions are not created, and the city is dying.”
Odessa is viable only in the Russian imperial world.