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An Odyssey
Feb. 25th, 2021 08:49 pmBook Review: Odessa - Genius and Death in a City of Dreams, by Charles King
Unusually, Odessa is a relatively modern settlement, being developed only in the eighteenth century as Catherine the Great marched south to the Black Sea. The coastal area had been intermittently settled since Classical times but with no significant centre. Perhaps that is not so surprising, as early problems for the city and its surroundings included repeated bouts of plague and swarms of locusts.
Being such a construction, it has always been more cosmopolitan than most places, with Russian, French, German, British and Jewish influences amongst others. Reaching a peak in the late nineteenth century, the city enters decline as regular pogroms and violence descend on the Jewish community in particular, and in the Second World War the city was occupied by Romanian forces, liberators for some from the Soviet authorities but deadly for others.
I found this book informative, but the discussion of the twentieth century felt quite narrow. The pre-war Soviet period gets a little attention, and the post-war period is something of an afterthought, with the narrative largely transferring (following a Jewish exodus) to New York state. Whilst an important aspect of the city's story, it does seem that in King's history this is to the exclusion of other stories that must have happened in that time.
Unusually, Odessa is a relatively modern settlement, being developed only in the eighteenth century as Catherine the Great marched south to the Black Sea. The coastal area had been intermittently settled since Classical times but with no significant centre. Perhaps that is not so surprising, as early problems for the city and its surroundings included repeated bouts of plague and swarms of locusts.
Being such a construction, it has always been more cosmopolitan than most places, with Russian, French, German, British and Jewish influences amongst others. Reaching a peak in the late nineteenth century, the city enters decline as regular pogroms and violence descend on the Jewish community in particular, and in the Second World War the city was occupied by Romanian forces, liberators for some from the Soviet authorities but deadly for others.
I found this book informative, but the discussion of the twentieth century felt quite narrow. The pre-war Soviet period gets a little attention, and the post-war period is something of an afterthought, with the narrative largely transferring (following a Jewish exodus) to New York state. Whilst an important aspect of the city's story, it does seem that in King's history this is to the exclusion of other stories that must have happened in that time.