The city rethinks what to do with its uncomfortable past while the pro-Russian population leaves or remains silent
When the russian invasion of Ukraine, the mayor of Odessa It took five days to rule on the aggression, five eternal days to condemn the massive bombing that served as a lethal umbrella for the incursion of Kremlin troops into Ukrainian territory. “He chose to wait to see what happened & rdquor ;, now says the opposition councilor Petro Obukov in one of the parks of the so-called ‘Pearl of the Black Sea’, historically the most cosmopolitan, literary and slut of the Ukrainian cities. “Like the governor of the region, she thought that the Russians could take kyiv in a few days and then she feared the reaction of a good part of her electorate, who at that time felt a strong affinity with Moscow”. Not in vain, in the last municipal elections (2020) the pro-russian parties they won almost half of the seats in the council.
That mayor, the veteran Gennady Trujanovended up openly condemning the invasion and surviving in office, unlike the governor, politically beheaded by President Volodímir Zelensky on the seventh day. But his story illustrates the initial attitude towards this war of a significant part of the citizens of Odessa, a city of identities crusades Y loyalties polygamous, Russophone to the core and as proud of her European miscegenation as of her russian imperial heritage until Putin launched himself to dismember the country with blood and fire. An ongoing disaster that has not only forced the city to rethink what to do with its past, but has also sent some of its inhabitants into a kind of inner exile while upsetting the plurinational affections of others.
“The Russian language and culture they are an integral part of many of us, but since this horrible war began we have been living in great turmoil. How do you break with something so deeply rooted in your identity? & rdquor ;, asks Kateryna Yergueva, a Ukrainian who has worked for a decade in the Literature Museum of the city, dedicated for the most part to Russian authors. Pushkin lived in exile in Odessa and others like Chekhov, Tolstoy, Mayakovsky either Akhmatova They visited her regularly. “Russian literature has become a awkward inheritance& rdquor ;, he acknowledges. “We have to find a new way to talk about it because high culture is not responsible for what the Putin regime is doing. It is world heritage & rdquor;.
Statue of Catherine the Great
A group of Ukrainian historians has asked that Russian authors be banished from the museum, something similar to the more than 25,000 signatures that have demanded that the City Council dismantling of the statue dedicated to Catherine the Great, the Russian empress who founded Odessa moderates after conquering the Ottomans in 1794 the military garrison that then occupied her space. And although it would be a salad bowl of French, Jews, Italians, Greeks, Ukrainians or Armenians who gave the city its character, that would be the beginning of more than two centuries of Russian domination –and later Soviet- from Odessa. Today under the pedestal of the haughty empress you can read a graffiti crossed out with the word “Assassin & rdquor ;.
The derussification underway, which actually started in 2014, divides the city. Or at least the thickness of the brush with which to obfuscate the past. “Visually I adore the monument & rdquor ;, recognizes the historian Babich Oleksandr referring to the statue of Caterina II from the former offices of her travel agency. They have been converted into a logistics center where groups of volunteers collect donated material for the ukrainian army. Next to his desk is a photograph of Putin with a crosshair pointed at his head. “For a long time I was happy to gloss over our common history, but as a Ukrainian I now consider that we should cut the umbilical cord with Russia. It’s like cutting open a living body, that’s why it’s being so painful & rdquor ;.
Real-estate market
What has indeed disappeared from Odessa are the Russians who monopolized a substantial part of its tourism and its real-estate market. From homes to hotels or businesses of various kinds. “There are no reliable statistics, but most of it was sold after the annexation of crimea in 2014. All transactions are now frozen & rdquor ;, says Iryna Kolodko, a businesswoman in the sector. Kolodko explains that while Russians with residence and family in Ukraine are technically still allowed to sell, notaries they do not process the operations for fear that there are figureheads behind them. “The sector lived its golden days before 2014. Odesa was for the Russians like Saint Petersburg. They bought very expensive mansions and apartments & rdquor ;, he adds from a cafeteria. It was also the playground of his mafia bosseswho arrived in the city in private jets.
Nothing remains of either heated political debate that one day was freed in its streets, from which the bulk of the fortifications that were raised after the invasion, when it was believed that the Kremlin would try to storm the city. No one considers that goal abandoned, but at the moment it is clear that Russia is not in a position to attempt it. “The pro-Russian population It has not manifested itself since the beginning of the war, it is too dangerous for them & rdquor ;, explains Councilor Obukov. “Some have changed their position upon understanding who the real aggressor is. Others have fled the country and many remain silent & rdquor ;.
And then there are others who were not necessarily Kremlin-affiliated, but Russian-Ukrainian who have been emotionally devastated by the war. With his identity shredded. “Inside me I feel devotion for the russian motherlandbut I am very disappointed politically & rdquor ;, assures Angelika Ihnatenko, a real estate agent born in Russia, married to a Ukrainian military man and resident in the country for three decades. “I feel tremendous pain, even on a physical level, every time one of these horrible attacks occurs. Every day I dream that the nightmare is over to get up again with this torment. It’s lasting too long & rdquor ;, says this 51-year-old woman.