Synopses & Reviews
Italian merchants, Greek freedom fighters, and Turkish seamen; a Russian empress and her favorite soldier-bureaucrats; Jewish tavern keepers, traders, and journalists--these and many others seeking fortune and adventure rubbed shoulders in Odessa, the greatest port on the Black Sea. Here a dream of cosmopolitan freedom inspired geniuses and innovators, from Alexander Pushkin and Isaac Babel to Zionist activist Vladimir Jabotinsky and immunologist Ilya Mechnikov. Yet here too was death on a staggering scale: not only the insidious plagues common to seaports but also the mass murder of Jews carried out by the Romanian occupation during World War II. Drawing on a wealth of original source material, Odessa is an elegy for the vibrant, multicultural tapestry of which a thriving Jewish population formed an essential part, as well as a celebration of the survival of Odessa's dream in a diaspora reaching all the way to Brighton Beach.
Review
"In his elegant history, Charles King, a professor of international affairs at Georgetown University and the author of histories of the Caucasus and the Black Sea, contemplates the origins of the city. Odessa was the proudest creation of an empire that was breaking the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, mastering the Cossacks of Ukraine, and driving Ottoman armies to the south. All of this made room for a New Russia on the steppe and seacoast that is today chiefly southern Ukraine. The chief architect of this New Russia was Catherine's favorite, Governor-General Grigory Aleksandrovich Potemkin, a forceful and clever man who understood that facades can be foundations." Timothy Snyder, The Wilson Quarterly (Read the entire Wilson Quarterly review)
Synopsis
A colorful account of the transformation of one of Europe's foremost Jewish cities, told through the stories of its geniuses and villains.
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About the Author
Charles King lives in Washington, DC, where he is a professor of international affairs and government at Georgetown University. He is the author of five books on Eastern Europe and a frequent commentator on events in the region for television, radio, and the press.