Odesa (Odessa in Russian) is the capital of Odesa oblast in Ukraine. It is a major seaport on the northwest coast of the Black Sea, 32 km (20 mi) from the mouth of the Dniester River (see a larger map). Its population is 1,100,700 (1991 est.). The city's name is derived from that of a nearby ancient Greek colony known as Odessos. Odesa has a mixed population of Ukrainians, ethnic Russians, and Jews.

Odesa is situated on terraced hills overlooking Odesa Bay, an inlet of the Black Sea that forms a natural harbor. From the central part of the city, a monumental stairway descends to the waterfront. It was made famous in the Soviet film "Battleship Potyomkin," directed by Sergei Eisenstein, which depicts the naval mutiny that occurred during the Revolution of 1905. The city has a relatively warm, dry climate, with January temperatures averaging -2 deg C (28 deg F) and July temperatures, 22 deg C (72 deg F). Precipitation totals 351 mm (14 in) annually. The moderate climate and coastal lagoons nearby have given rise to beach resorts famous for therapeutic mudbaths.

A diversified manufacturing center, Odesa produces a wide range of machinery and equipment, including machine tools, farm machinery, hoisting equipment, and refrigerators, as well as chemicals. Shipyards and a small petroleum refinery are important to the economy. Food processing in flour mills, stockyards, canneries, and sugar refineries is based on the city's proximity to rich Ukrainian farmlands.

During the Soviet period, Odesa flourished as one of the USSR's principal foreign trade ports, with traffic to and from the countries of the Mediterranean basin, Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. As the role of foreign commerce increased in the Soviet economy, the city developed two large outer ports whose volume of shipping came to overshadow that of Odesa itself. One of these, Ilyichevsk, lies southwest of Odesa. Ilyichevsk, which became a city in its own right in 1973, has a population of 52,000 (1987 est.). It is a general cargo port, with a container-handling terminal. The other harbor, Yuzhny, at the mouth of Grigoryevka lagoon to the east of Odesa, is designed as a specialized chemical terminal for exports of ammonia and imports of phosphates and phosphoric acid.

Odesa is a leading educational and cultural center, the seat of Odesa State University (1865) and Odesa Polytechnic University (1918) (formerly known as an "institute") and a number of specialized institutes. It also has an opera and both Ukrainian and Russian dramatic theaters. The Ukraine Experimental Institute for Eye Diseases and Tissue Therapy is also in Odesa. The city was founded in 1794 on the site of a Turkish settlement after the armies of Catherine II had wrested control of the Black Sea coast from the Turks. Odesa grew rapidly, especially in the latter half of the 19th century, when railroad construction in the southern Ukraine made it Russia's principal port for grain exports. Following the Russian (October) Revolution, the nation's economy turned inward and Odesa stagnated. Its development was also set back during World War II when it fell to German and Romanian forces in October 1941 after a 69-day siege. Growth resumed in the 1960s with the USSR's increasing stress on foreign trade. Since 1991 the city has been the principal seaport of independent Ukraine.


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