Saving Odessa's fine cultural heritage sites

Catherine decreed that Odessa, Pearl of the Black Sea, would be the most mo­dern maritime gate­way in the Empire. But her role in the founding of modern Odessa has suddenly become con­tro­ver­s­ial. A dr­aft de­cision before the UNESCO vote that desc­ribed Em­press Cat­h­­er­ine as hav­ing founded the city prompt­ed cr­it­ic­ism from Ukr­aine; Ukr­ainians ob­jected to what it viewed as a pol­iticised de­scr­ip­tion of the city. Moscow pointed to the glorious historical past of Odessa as part of Russia, describing the city’s imp­erial history in defence of its mod­ern an­nex­at­ion. They insisted the main threat Odessa fac­ed was from Ukraine’s nationalist regime which took down some monum­ents. Good grief Russia, ruining monuments  doesn’t compare to tragic bombs :( 

 

Ukraine’s Culture Minister and Od­essa’s mayor both con­­­tested the Rus­sian view in an open letter seen by Agence France-Presse, saying Od­essa th­­rived long be­fore Catherine’s arrival, right back to the C15th. So in Dec, Ukr­ainian authorities pulled down a towering Cath­erine II st­atue as part of its efforts to de-Russify the city’s central square. Good grief, Ukraine :(

Under the World Heritage Convention (1972), the 194 States Parties of the Convention had committed not to undertake any de­liberate step that might have damaged a World Herit­age site and to assist in its protection. It was ratified by Russia and Ukraine in 1972! Yet this strategic port city, with cosmopolitan hist­ory and ar­c­h­­it­ecture, has been the target of Russian bombing sin­ce the inv­as­ion began in 2022. Was Odes­sa a special target of the Russian mi­litary be­cause of its ac­cess to the Black Sea? Or has Odessa been signif­ic­ant to indep­end­ent Uk­raine’s identity.

Ukrainians tried to protect Odessa’s monu­m­ents and buildings with sand­bags and barricades. Bombs on the city dest­r­oyed part of the Od­essa Museum of Modern Art so UNESCO funded its re­pairs. UNESCO also fin­anced efforts to digitise art­works and prov­ide protective equip­ment in the Odessa Museum of Fine Arts which housed 12,000+ works pre-war, collected and hidden away by staff. The Organ­isation also funded the docum­entary coll­ect­ion of the Odessa State Archives. Equipment was funded to protect the buildings and the open-air art works. See the other amazing cultural institutions, still intact. 

An inscription of Odessa’s hist­oric facilities was quickly prepared on the list. By mid 2022, UNESCO linked inter­national and Uk­rain­ian exp­er­ts to prepare a formal UNESCO nomin­at­ion, with the sup­port of Italy and Greece. Pres Zelensky officially submitted the city for consider­ation in Oct 2022, in an online speech to UNESCO. Because of the war, the World Heritage Comm­it­tee used an emergency procedure pr­o­v­ided for just such a crisis. The evaluation bodies examined the nomin­at­ion ov­er the following weeks, allowing for a review at an emergency World Heritage Committee meeting in Paris.

The world heritage committee’s 21 member states approved the desig­nation with 6 votes in favour, 1 against and 14 abstentions. Rus­sia tried to delay the vote and denounced the eventual decision, saying the main threat to Odessa came from the national­ist regime in Uk­r­aine. And Russia’s foreign ministry accused a group of western coun­tries of pushing through what it called a pol­itically motivated dec­ision in violation of standard procedures. Only 6 countries voted in favour, Russia said; the process was prepared hast­ily, without resp­ecting the current high stand­ards of UNESCO. [Russia’s opp­osition was coun­t­erproductive!! If Russia ever controls Odessa again, it would want all the beautiful old Russian cultural institutions saved].

In Jan 25 2023, The United Nations’ cultural agency formally ad­ded the His­t­oric Centre of Odessa to its list of endangered World Herit­age sites. See the Historic Centre of Odessa described and listed.