Odessa Oblast

Odessa Oblast Одеська область Odes’ka oblast’
Oblast
Flag Coat of arms
Country	Ukraine
Administrative center	Odessa
Government
• Governor	Mikheil Saakashvili
• Oblast council	120 seats
• Chairperson	Mykhailo Shmushkovych
Area
• Total	33,310 km2 (12,860 sq mi)
Area rank	Ranked 1st
Population (2015[1])
• Total	2,396,442
• Rank	Ranked 6
Time zone	EET (UTC+2)
• Summer (DST)	EEST (UTC+3)
Postal code	65000-68999
Area code	+380-48
ISO 3166 code	UA-51
Raions	26
Cities (total)	19
• Regional cities	7
Urban-type settlements	33
Villages	1138
FIPS 10-4	UP17
Website	www.odessa.gov.ua

Odessa Oblast (Ukrainian: Одеська область, Odes’ka oblast’, Russian: Одесская область, Odesskaya oblast’) is an oblast or province of southwestern Ukraine located along the northern coast of the Black Sea. Its administrative center is the city of Odessa. Population: 2,396,442 (2015 est.)^[1]

The region is the biggest in Ukraine by area making it as big as either Belgium or the Netherlands.^[2] The length of sea and estuaries coast reaches 300 km (190 mi), while the state border – 1,200 km (750 mi).^[2] The region has eight sea ports, over 80,000 ha (200,000 acres) of vineyards, and five of the biggest lakes in Ukraine.^[2] One of the biggest one is Yalpuh Lake which is as big as the city of Odessa itself.^[2]

Its administrative center Odessa is the third biggest city in Ukraine and known in Ukraine as the Black Sea Pearl or the Southern Palmyra.^[2] The cities of Odessa was the first city in Ukraine that saw a car with the internal combustion engine that was brought to the city back in 1891 by Vasiliy Navrotskiy, the chief editor of Odesskiy Listok.^[2] The cobblestone on vulytsia Deribasivska was made out the Vesuvius volcano lava and was brought to Odessa from his native Naples by the founder of Odessa Jose de Ribas.^[2] Under that street stretch out the Odessa catacombs, the area of which is bigger than catacombs of Paris or Rome.

History

Evidence of the earliest inhabitants in this area comes from the settlements and burial grounds of the Neolithic Gumelniţa, Cucuteni-Trypillian and Usatovo cultures, as well as from the tumuli and hoards of the Bronze Age Proto-Indo-Europeans. In the 1st millennium B.C. the Milesian Greeks founded colonies along the northern coast of the Black Sea, including the towns of Olbia, Tyras, Niconium, Panticapaeum, and Chersonesus. The Greeks left behind painted vessels, ceramics, sculptures, inscriptions, arts and crafts that indicate the prosperity of their ancient civilisation.

The culture of Scythian tribes inhabiting the Black Sea littoral steppes in the first millennium B.C. is represented by finds from settlements and burial grounds, including weapons, bronze cauldrons, other utensils, and adornments. By the beginning of the 1st millennium A.D. the Sarmatians displaced the Scythians. In the 3rd–4th centuries A.D. a tribal alliance, represented by the items of Chernyakhov culture, developed. From the middle of the first millennium the formation of the Slavic people began. In the 9th century the Slavs became united into a state with Kiev as its centre. The Khazars, Polovtsy and Pechenegs were the Slavs' neighbours during different times. Archeological evidence of the period of the 9th–14th centuries survives in materials from the settlements and cities of Kievan Rus': Belgorod, Caffa-Theodosia, and Berezan Island.

In 1593 the Ottoman Empire set up in the area what became known as its Dnieper Province (Özü Eyalet), unofficially known as the Khanate of Ukraine.^[3] Russian historiography refers to it as the Ochakov Oblast.^[4] The territory of the Odessa oblast passed to Russia in 1791 in the course of the Russian southern expansion towards the Black Sea at the end of the 18th century. Subsequently the Russians colonized the area intensively, establishing new cities and ports. In less than a hundred years the city of Odessa grew from a small fortress to the biggest metropolis of New Russia.

After the February Revolution of 1917 in Russia the area became part of the Ukrainian People's Republic (1917-1918), but soon succumbed first to the Russian Volunteer Army (part of the White movement and then to the Russian Bolshevik Red Army. By 1920 the Soviet authorities had secured the territory of Odessa Oblast, which became part of the Ukrainian SSR. The oblast was established on 27 February 1932 from five districts:

1. Odessa Okruha
2. Pervomaisk Okruha
3. Kirovohrad Okruha
4. Mykolaiv Okruha
5. Kherson Okruha

In 1937 eastern portions of the Odessa Oblast were split to create the Mykolaiv Oblast.

Odessa Oblast was enlarged in July 1940 as a result of the 28th of June 1940 Soviet Ultimatum sent to the Kingdom of Romania and the 40 hours later invasion of Bessarabia. Northern and Southern parts of Bessarabia were given to Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic.

During World War II Romania occupied the oblast and administered it as part of the Transnistria Province (1941-1944). After the war the Soviet administration reestablished the oblast with its pre-war borders. Odessa Oblast expanded in 1954 to absorb Izmail Oblast (formerly known as the Budjak region of Bessarabia).

During the 1991 referendum, 85.38% of votes in Odessa Oblast were in favor of the Declaration of Independence of Ukraine. A survey conducted in December 2014 by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology found 2.3% of the oblast's population supported their region joining Russia, 91.5% did not support the idea, and the rest were undecided or did not respond.^[5] A poll by Alexei Navalny found similar results.^[6]

Geography

The country's largest oblast by area, it occupies an area of around 33,300 square kilometres (12,900 sq mi). It is characterised by largely flat steppes divided by the estuary of the Dniester river. Its Black Sea coast comprises numerous sandy beaches, estuaries and lagoons. The region's soils are renowned for their fertility, and intensive agriculture is the mainstay of the local economy. The southwest has many orchards and vineyards, while arable crops are grown throughout the region.

Points of interest

Akkerman fortress

• Odessa Opera
• Akkerman fortress
• Potemkin Stairs

Economy

Rapeseed field in Odessa Oblast.

Significant branches of the oblast's economy are:

• oil refining and chemicals processing
• transportation (important sea and river ports, oil pipelines and railway);
• viticulture and other forms of agriculture, notably the growing of wheat, maize, barley, sunflowers and sugar beets.

The region's industrial capability is principally concentrated in and around Odessa.

Demographics

The oblast's population (as of 2004) is 2.4 million people, nearly 40% of whom live in the city of Odessa.

Significant Bulgarian (6.1%) and Romanian (5.0%) minorities reside in the province.^[7] It has the highest proportion of Jews of any oblast in Ukraine (although smaller than the Autonomous City of Kiev) and there is a small Greek community in the city of Odessa.

Bulgarians and Moldovans/Romanians represent 21% and 13% respectively, of the population in the salient of Budjak, within Odessa oblast.

Age structure

0-14 years: 15.5% (male 188,937/female 179,536)

15-64 years: 70.7% (male 812,411/female 867,706)

65 years and over: 14.0% (male 116,702/female 218,808) (2013 official)

Median age

total: 38.4 years

male: 35.4 years

female: 41.5 years (2013 official)

Religion

Religion in Odessa Oblast (2015)^[8]

  Eastern Orthodoxy (84%)

  No religion (8%)

  Unaffiliated Christian (6%)

  Roman Catholicism (0.5%)

  Protestantism (0.5%)

  Undecided (1%)

The dominant religion in Odessa Oblast is Eastern Orthodox Christianity, professed by 84% of the population. Another 8% declares to be non-religious and 6% are unaffiliated generic Christians. Adherents of Roman Catholicism and Protestantism make up 0.5% of the population respectively.

The Orthodox community of Odessa Oblast is divided as follows:

• Non-denominational - 46%
• Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate - 31%
• Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyivan Patriarchate - 21%
• Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church - 1%
• Unknown - 1%

Administrative divisions

The Odessa Oblast is administratively subdivided into 26 raions (districts) and 7 municipalities which are directly subordinate to the oblast government - (Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi and Chornomorsk), (Izmail, Podilsk, Teplodar, Yuzhne and the administrative center of the oblast, Odessa).

Detailed map of Odessa Oblast

• Note: An asterisk (^) indicates the two municipalities and nine raions which previously constituted Izmail Oblast until that former oblast's merger with Odessa Oblast on 15 February 1954; these areas lie to the west of the Dniester River, and formerly constituted the territory known as the Budjak (southern Bessarabia).
• Note: Asterisks (*) Though the administrative center of the rayon is housed in the city/town that its named after, cities do not answer to the rayon authorities only towns do; instead they are directly subordinated to the oblast government and therefore are not counted as part of rayon statistics.

Personalities

One of the most famous Odessits is Sergei Utochkin who was a universal sportsman exceling in cycling, boxing, swimming and played football for the Odessa British Athletic Club (OBAC).^[2] Utochkin had challenged a steam-powered tram while running, on a bicycle he beat a galloping horse, while on roller skates he was passing a bicyclist.^[2] The next stage for him was to conquest skies.^[2] Utochkin managed to buy an airplane from a local banker and completed dozens of exhibition flights.^[2] Eventually, he managed to assemble his own Farman-type airplane.^[2] In Kiev, Utochkin was demonstrating his piloting skills in front of some 50,000 people, among which was a future creator of helicopters Igor Sikorsky.^[2]

In the Southern Palmyra were also born a poet Anna Akhmatova, former NASA scientist Nicholas E. Golovin who worked with the Apollo program, as well as the founder of jazz in the Soviet Union Leonid Utyosov.^[2]

See also

• Subdivisions of Ukraine
• Kherson Governorate
• Budjak

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Odessa Oblast.

• Odessa regional administration homepage
• Maps of Odessa oblast Cities, Towns and Villages

Coordinates: 47°00′N 30°00′E / 47.000°N 30.000°E / 47.000; 30.000