From Gogol to Zheliabov: a historical portrait of Odesa through the eyes of a researcher

We talked to historian and writer Ihor Stambol about the image of Odesa in the nineteenth century as an infrastructure and trading city where many people lived and were united by work. Watch the full version of the exclusive interview and read the shortened version about bilingual theater, Gogol, planning an assassination attempt on the tsar, good politicians, and texts by Ivan and Yuriy Lyp.

There is still a lot of talk about the image of Odesa and its past. Tell us about what this city was like in the nineteenth century, what was interesting, popular, and important?

What was going on here? A lot of people. On the one hand, this is a big plus, but on the other hand, it's a problem, because there are different people. Thanks to trade, the economic potential of Ukraine, agriculture, and bread production, Odesa has been actively developing.

As a result, all Ukrainians have returned to it, most of them Europeans, Muscovites as well. That's why we see that on the one hand it is an average city of the Russian Empire, and on the other hand it has been experiencing tremendous economic growth.

We always want to go for economic growth, then and now. But it happens that you can't keep up with it all, so it's called gangster. Because not all of this could be controlled. It seems to me that nowadays the image of Odesa has less and less of this gangster theme. There were a lot of weapons on hand, a lot of strange people who were solving certain issues. And so on.

The image of the city, I would say, is a little bit disordered, definitely focused on trade, not even industry. That is, this is what the Bolsheviks were trying to ban. And how can you ban it in Odesa if it was actually built on this idea that you can really make money here?

And I'll tell you that even today, if we compare it with other cities in Ukraine, it seems to me that the tradition has been preserved here. You can't find such prices, for example, as at Privoz. And you can't buy something of such poor quality, but for the lowest price. I have a personal impression that when you order something from Odesa today, it will come to you with certain specifics. And this specificity is not always pleasant. In my opinion, there is more of a tradition here that I remember from the 90s, for example.

In the nineteenth century, this city was definitely a maritime city. It is definitely about different nationalities, but united by one goal. Not by culture, but by trade, by monetary gain. And I like the fact that Mark Twain came here, for example, because there is a story that he goes on almost the first cruise around the world in history.

And they came to Odesa for some reason, even though they hadn't planned it. He saw the image of a tramp here, which he later used to draw Huckleberry Finn. And it's very interesting, actually. It shows our inclusion.

Odesa is still famous. This is its happiness and its curse. I don't really know what the World Club of Odessans is, but what are their visions? Or those who are trying to promote the idea of some kind of Odesa, or a diverse or multinational Odesa in the world. I think they are very often harming the city now. They want multiculturalism without noticing Ukrainians.

But on the other hand, not many cities in Ukraine, for example, are on the map of America. There is Odesa, with two s's, in Texas, after all. It's great as a brand, but it's very difficult to bring it back into the Ukrainian context.

Why return to the Ukrainian context? Because any other context will not protect us. Only the Ukrainian context will protect us. If we build a strong identity, no Muscovite, let alone any other enemy, will want to come here, because they will know that they are not welcome here.

This should be built around the Ukrainian idea, whatever it is. Whether it is the idea of new meanings or the idea of values, for example, European values.

On the European values of Odesa at the time

Odesa seems to have joined them in the nineteenth century. This is exactly the same as free trade, a free port, goods, and foreigners who traded here. But if we talk about culture, we will recall Mykhailo Komarov, who says that there are so many printing houses. In fact, Odesa had more bookstores than any other city. In Kyiv, there were almost half as many.

Ihor Stambol. Photo: Intent/Natalia Dovbysh

Why is this? The population is large. Accordingly, the only way to disseminate information is to print it. Komarov says that this is not some kind of highly cultured thing. It's also about trade and advertising. But at the same time, there may be a cultural page.

That's why Komarov and others publish some notes on social or cultural topics. And it's very interesting if you look at how the theater has shown itself in Odesa. Ukrainian theater of coryphaei. I think this is a page that should be discussed more.

They visited Odesa, lived here for whole seasons. And they had the best time performing here. Why? There was a demand, obviously. In addition, there was a more loyal censor and governor at a certain point in the late nineteenth century. And it worked out that they lived here. Komarov established himself as a theater critic, but he was quite lenient in terms of his attitude towards Ukrainian topics.

Bilingual theater

It is very interesting about bilingualism as such. All the discussions about bilingualism come from people who don't want to know Ukrainian, they only want to know Moscow. But if you look at bilingualism in the world, Canada is a classic example, when their prime minister has to speak in two languages at a meeting, for example, French and English.

The topic of bilingualism was clearly visible in the theater. The government forced the Ukrainian theater to perform Ukrainian plays and at the same time to perform equally in Russian. And there is evidence that there were full houses for Ukrainian performances, but much less excitement for Russian ones, or it was impossible to get a hall at all.

The critics have an explanation that it wasn't a worse performance, but there was just not such a big demand, because there was a demand for Ukrainian culture. What does this mean? That, first, there were Ukrainians who wanted to see something about themselves, about their own. And secondly, that the theater was of such high quality that foreigners, i.e. other nationalities, including Muscovites, were interested in it.

We are not mentioning here, for example, visiting poets or other figures, although it seems to me that in Odesa an even better cult of Gogol's presence could have been formed than that of Pushkin's. Because Gogol is still more profitable in our context, because he is, you know, the most famous Ukrainian writer abroad. It's harder to find someone else.

On Zheliabov and the design of the tsar's assassination

This is also an interesting context, and we could talk about it more now. Ukrainians are very cautious about terrorism. Our national movement is about education. We will enlighten everyone so much that they will stand and be with us in our circle. But terrorism has rarely happened in our history.

Ihor Stambol. Photo: Intent/Natalia Dovbysh

And for me personally, for example, I know him only through Ivan Lypa, who studied at the same gymnasium as Zheliabov in Kerch. Andriy Zheliabov studied not only in Kerch but also at Odesa University.

The Ukrainian community, somewhere in the period after the Valuev Circular and the Ems Decree and before these easings, also actively communicated with him. Who is Zheliabov? He is the main architect of the plan to assassinate the Russian Tsar, Alexander II. He hardly professed a purely Ukrainian view there. That is, it was something anti-imperial, for socialist benefits, perhaps liberal freedoms, and so on. But he was, you know, born in our region and studied in Odesa.

It seems to me that this figure would be interesting to bring back into the information space. The only thing is that he was too noble, he didn't throw that infernal machine, as it was called back then. He was just designing it. He failed. And then those who continued his work succeeded. And Zheliabov said that I should be involved in this court case, and that's why he was convicted and hanged.

Марія Литянська