Well written history of the Black Sea city of Odessa, a melting pot of cultures living in relative harmony but which was never going to last. ( )

My reason for selecting this book was personal. My father-in-law and once a member of this Temple came from Odessa to the United States when he was 19 years old-through Ellis Island. This would have been in the early 1900s. Very little is known about his life in Odessa for his first 19 years. It was known that he subsequently brought his brother and 5 sisters to the United States.

The History of Odessa, which was a seaport on the Black Sea, was once a part of Russia ruled by Catherine the Great. The subsequent years of Odessa's greatness produced music, poetry, movies, theatre and economic wealth. The 300 page book mentions the Jewish populations starting on page 100 and documents the life of Jews through the World War Il. Some years were without disaster, but the final years leading up to the current times describes the Romanian rule, pogroms, isolations and misery.

Statistics are as follows:
1762 - 1769 Reign of Catherine the Great of Russia
1830 beginning of large scale Jewish immigration to Odessa
1871 & 1881 were Anti Jewish pogroms
1897 Jews are 34 % of population (Russian census)
1914-18 First World War
1922 Soviet Union established
1936 Jewish citizens are 36% of population
1935-1945 Second World War
1941- 1944 Odessa occupied by Axis powers
1942 Romanian forces occupy Odessa and empty Jewish ghetto
1989 Jewish population is less than 4%
1991 Ukraine declares independence from Russia

The book skips to the NYC's description of Brighton Beach where a remnant of Odessa's immigrants still speaks Russian. The author, Charles King covers a tremendous amount of history of Eastern Europe. He is a professor of international affairs and government. The book is a vivid history of a great multi-cultural city and its remarkable resilience over two centuries.

- Betty

Good on events, especially on the “holocaust by bullets” that decimated the city’s Jews during the Second World War. But it does not give the reader much appreciation of what the city was really like and what, if anything, made it special. ( )

I read this because I've been nibbling on 'The Complete Works of Isaac Babel' for a couple of years now. He has such a distinctive voice, one I have never come across before. Could it be the translation? Could it be Odessa?
This is a fascinating history of a city from founding to now. The chapter on Pushkin was especially spirited. I found out there is a lot more to Isaac Babel than Odessa and a lot more to Odessa than a baby carriage going down a long flight of stairs. ( )

an excellent read of a city established to be a city of culture & commercial trade in the most oddest of places on the northwest coast of the Black Sea. Her history is captured through the eyes of participants both Jewish & Gentile as the world events ebbed & flowed around her only to survive them all. ( )