 Nearly
1700 years ago, an ancient Greek colony settled near the place where later
the city was founded. In the 14th Century, Crimean Tartars traded in
the Odessa region. During the Russo-Turkish War, from
1787-1791, the Ukrainian Black Sea Kozaks conquered the Tartar settlement
of Khadzhibei and the Turkish fortress of Eni-Dunai, near the city's
present-day location. The Frenchman De Ribas helped lead this
conquering. Odessa was officially founded in 1794 as a Russian naval
fortress on lands annexed from Turkey during the Treaty of Jassy in 1792.
The city was named after an ancient Greek colony Odessos (who
probably settled near Varna, Bulgaria), and in 1795 it was Queen Catherine
II's wish to use this name but in feminine gender, thus Odessa...From
1803-1814, a French politician. 
Duke de Richelieu, was nominated governor
of Odessa. He had served in the Russian army against the Turks.
He did much to promote the integrity and wellness of the city and is
considered one of the founding fathers of Odessa. During 1823-1824,
the Great Russian poet, Alexander Pushkin, lived and wrote in Odessa.
During the Crimean War from 1853-1856, British and French naval forces
bombarded Odessa. As trade grew, so did Odessa and she became the
largest grain-exporting port for Russia. In 1866, the city was
linked by rail with Kiev and Kharkov as well as Jassy, Romania. In
1905, Odessa was the site of a workers' revolution, supported by the crew
of the Russian battleship Potemkin and Lenin's Iskra.
Following the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917 during World War I, several
groups occupied Odessa, including the Central Powers, the French, the Reds
and the Whites. Finally, in 1920, the Reds took control of Odessa
and united her with the Ukrainian SSR, later becoming part of the USSR.
From 1921-1922, Odessites suffered from a great famine that occurred as a
result of the War. During the Great Patriotic War (WWII) from
1941-1944, Romanian and German forces occupied Odessa, and she suffered
severe casualties. Approximately 280,000 Odessites (mostly Jews)
were either massacred or deported. Some 30,000 Odessites defended
their city in honour from some 300,000 Fascist troops. The Soviet
army finally liberated Odessa in April of 1944. During the 1960's
and 1970's the city grew tremendously. In 1991, the city became part
of newly independent Ukraine, after the collapse of Communism.
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