• Military Menu                       

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Industry
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• WMD
• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

Odessa 46°28'00"N 30°44'00"E

In Odessa is the home of the Naval Base “Pivden” (“South”) headquarters. Odessa is a warm-water port. The city of Odessa hosts both the Port of Odessa and Port Yuzhne, a significant oil terminal situated in the city's suburbs. Another notable port, Chornomorsk, is located in the same oblast, to the south-west of Odessa. Together they represent a major transport hub integrating with railways. Odessa's oil and chemical processing facilities are connected to Russian and European networks by strategic pipelines. Passenger ships and ferries connect Odessa with Istanbul, Haifa and Varna. The sea port of Odessa is used to transport grain and sugar and coal.

Odessa is sometimes called the "pearl of the Black Sea", the "South Capital" (under the Russian Empire and Soviet Union), and "Southern Palmyra". Odessa is the administrative centre of "Odessa" and surrounding areas. This city is located on the North-west shore of the Black Sea and the fourth largest city in Ukraine with a population of 1029000 (2001 Census). The city covers an area of about 5.5% of the area of Ukraine.

The city of Odessa was founded by the Decree of Empress Catherine the great in 1794. From 1819 to 1858 was Odessa a free port. During the Soviet era was the most important port of trade in the Soviet Union and Soviet naval base. On 1 January 2000, local authorities announced that the port of Odessa a free port and free economic zone for 25 years.

In the 19th century the city was the fourth largest city in the "Russian Empire", after Moscow and Saint Petersburg and Kiev. Art architectural style was heavily influenced by French and Italian. Some buildings are built in a mixture of different styles, including Art Nouveau, Renaissance weklasisist.

Odessa port on warm waters, but the military is of limited value. The city of Odessa hosts two important maritime ports: Odessa itself weiogn (an important oil port), and is located on the outskirts of the city.Aodisia is one of the first four Soviet cities awarded the title of "heroic city" in 1945.

On the territory of Odessa was an ancient Greek colony, remnants have been found directly beneath the current Primorsky Boulevard. Antiques attest to the existence of links between Odessa and the Eastern Mediterranean. In medieval times, while various nomadic tribes (bichinigs, bolovtsi), the Golden Horde "Crimean boxes", the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Ottoman Empire controlled the territory of Odessa

The first written reference about aodisia was returning to the year 1415. The city was founded in the late 14th century by the Emir of "Vytautas of Lithuania". Been subjected to the direct rule of the Ottoman Empire after 1529, the city was also part of the region known as yedisan.

In the 19th century the city flourished as a trading port. Thanks to exports of cereals, Odessa has become one of the most important trade centres in the country in the 19th century. The city is the fourth largest city in the "Russian Empire" (after St. Petersburg, Moscow and Kiev). Odessa was to damage and many casualties. It's also one of the first four Soviet cities awarded the title of "heroic city" in 1945.

During the 1960s and 1970s the city had grown huge growth. In 1991, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the city became part of newly independent Ukraine. Today Odessa is home to more than 1 million people. The city's industries include shipbuilding, oil refining, chemicals and mineral and food processing. Odessa is also a Ukrainian naval base and home to the fishing fleet. It is famous for its huge outdoor "market" the seventh kilometer, the largest market of its kind in Europe.

Overlooking a small port, the city lies approximately 31 kilometres (19 miles) North of the estuary of the Dniester River, and some 443 km south of the Ukrainian capital Kiev. The city has a temperate climate and dry with average temperatures in January trivialization of 2 degrees Celsius (28 degrees Fahrenheit) and July of 22 Celsius (72 degrees Fahrenheit). Average annual rain fall is 350mm.

The primary language used is Russian, while Ukraine is used mainly for official purposes. The city is a mix of many nationalities and ethnic groups, including Armenians, Bulgarians, Georgians, Germans, Greeks, Jews, Moldovans, Russians, Koreans, Turks, Ukrainians, and many others.

Odessa was the first city in the "Imperial Russia" steam tramways since 1881. Elnaqa system is currently represented in Odessa tram and bus trolibos (marshrotka). Taxis (it also has cable and cable method of Odessa and recreational ferry service serving the international airport and Odessa with major airlines, including Ukrainian, Ukraine International, Austrian Airlines, Czech Airlines, Turkish Airlines and provides and other airlines flights to numerous locations in Europe and Asia. commuter connection between Odessa and believes in Warsaw, Prague, Bratislava, Vienna, Berlin, Moscow and St. Petersburg and cities of Ukraine and many other cities of the former Soviet Union bus services available between cities Odessa to many cities in Russia (Moscow, Rostov, Krasnodar, Pyatigorsk) and several cities form and in Greece (Thessaloniki and Athens), Bulgaria (Varna and Sofia) and Germany (Berlin, Hamburg and Munich).

The Odessa Museum of Western and Eastern Art is arguably Odessa's most important museum; it has large European collections from the 16–20th centuries along with the art from the East on display. There are paintings from Caravaggio, Mignard, Hals, Teniers and Del Piombo. Also of note is the city's Alexander Pushkin Museum, which is dedicated to detailing the short time Pushkin spent in exile in Odessa, a period during which he continued to write. The poet also has a city street named after him, as well as a statue. Other museums in the city include the Odessa Archeological Museum, which is housed in a beautiful neoclassical building, the renowned Odessa Numismatics Museum, the Odessa Art Museum, the Odessa Museum of the Regional History, Museum of Heroic Defense of Odessa (411th Battery).

The Odessa Steps is a giant stairway in Odessa, which is considered the formal entrance into the city from the direction of the sea, and its most famous symbol. Constructed between 1837 and 1841, the Odessa Steps were designed by Italian architect Francisco Boffo and Russian architects Avraam Melnikov and Pot’e. They serve as a formal entrance to the city from the harbor side, and originally had 200 steps. A renovation in 1933 reduced the number to 192, with 10 landings. The stairway is also a carefully constructed optical illusion. It is designed so that a person looking down the stairs see only the landings, while a person looking up sees only the steps.

The Soviet silent film Battleship Potemkin, directed by Sergei Eisenstein and released in 1925, stands as a milestone in the history of cinema, its montage editing techniques ahead of its time. The film presents a dramatised version of the mutiny that occurred in 1905 when the crew of the Russian battleship Potemkin rebelled against its officers and the public protests that followed in the city of Odessa in Ukraine.

One of the most famous scenes from Battleship Potemkin is near the climax, which depicts Czarist soldiers massacring the civilians of Odessa on the steps. The moment, when a mother pushing a baby carriage falls to the ground dying and the carriage rolls down the steps amid the running crowd, is one of the most iconic scenes in movie history. The sequence was famously paid homage to in Brian De Palma’s The Untouchables, also inspiring such films as Terry Gilliam’s Brazil, Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather, and even Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith. Despite its symbolic status, this massacre is thought to have never happened in real life, the film essentially being a dramatized propaganda.