A variant of this article appears on the Internet at http://www.rtrfoundation.org/Odessa.html.

The State Archives of the Odessa Region (GAOO), one of the large-scale archives in southern Ukraine, holds 13,110 fonds (collections) with 2.2 million files, the majority in Cyrillic. Others are in English, French, German, Yiddish and Hebrew. Documents cover the period from the end of the 18th century through the present. A number of unique fonds reflect the Jewish history not only of Odessa and the Odessa region, but also of southern Ukraine (the former Novorossiia (New Russia) in the vicinity of the Black Sea). Many record the history of the Jews of the region.

Prior to the Russian Revolution in 1918, documents of Jewish institutions (organizations, schools, societies, and so forth) were not concentrated in one place because a consolidated system of state archives did not exist yet. The government issued the Decree on Reorganization and Centralization of Archives in Russia in 1918, inaugurating the state archival system.

Founded in 1920 as the Odessa Historical Archives (GAOO), it began with 22 fonds and collections taken from various organizations, agencies and churches that had discontinued their archival activities following the Revolution. The primary fonds of the pre-revolutionary period came from the Novorossiia and Bessarabia Governor-General Administration; Odessa city chief; Odessa city council; Guardianship Committee for Foreign Settlers in Southern Russia; the Odessa Office for Foreign Settlers in South Russia; Odessa police office; commercial courts; banks; Odessa port offices and customs; Novorossijsky University and other colleges and schools, cultural societies, churches and other organizations. Various Jewish records were filed in separate parts of these fonds and/or within the general records.

The Jewish section of the Odessa Archives was created in 1931. From the middle of 1920 through 1940, the archives impounded 33 fonds from such Jewish institutions as the Odessa Affiliate of the Committee of Society for the Spreading of Learning among the Jews in Russia; the private banks of Ashkenazi and Barbash; Odessa city rabbinate, Talmud Torah, College for Artisans of Society “Trud” (labor), KOMZET, ORTVERBAND, Odessa Pedagogical Jewish College and others, for a total of 33 fonds.

As researchers soon began to demonstrate a considerable interest in the collections, a research room was opened in 1927 that provided wide access to the documents. The first Odessa historians working with Jewish records were S. Borovoj (subject: “Jewish Colonies in Novorossiia. 1830–1840”), L. Strizhak (“Economic State of the Jews in the Ukrainian Steppe”), A. Buzhevich (“Jewish Commissions, 1882”), D. Rishman (“History of the Jews in Novorossia”) and A. Reminnik (“Jewish Theatre”). Academician M. Slabchenko prepared for publication the materials of Zhaporozje Sich Kosh (Cossaks) and found Jewish records among them, but it was left to Saul Borovoj to create a full description of the collection. In 1940, Borovoj defended his doctoral dissertation on the subject “Studying the History of the Jews in Ukraine, 16th–18th Centuries.”

With the start of World War II and the German-Romanian occupation of Odessa in 1941, a major portion of the pre-Revolution records were evacuated to Stalingrad. In 1942, when the war reached that city, the Archives were evacuated to Uralsk in the western region of Kazakhstan. Documentation of the Soviet period was left in Odessa, and City Chief Alexianu ordered liquidated “all Soviet garbage.” Fortunately, the archives staff disobeyed the order, and valuable documents were salvaged.

Nevertheless, dislocations and evacuations led to irrecoverable loss: more than one million files (half of the total) were lost or destroyed during the war. Jewish fonds suffered, and some are irretrievably lost, including fonds from the Odessa city rabbinate (320 of 819 files lost), Odessa Affiliate of the Committee of Society of the Spread of Learning among the Jews in Russia (462 of 495 files lost), Odessa House of Jewish Culture (82 of 84 files lost) and others.

In April 1944, after the liberation of Odessa, the archives resumed its work. After the war, new archival documents on the history of Jews in the Odessa region were acquired. Most important are 887 fonds of the German-Romanian occupying administration and various institutions (1941–44). They include information about the Holocaust in the Odessa region: creation of 139 concentration camps and ghettos in Transnistria, lists of the Jews imprisoned and the policy of genocide.

Since Ukrainian independence in 1991 and the reformation of the Communist party system, GAOO has accepted more then 6,000 fonds from the liquidated Archives of the Ukrainian Communist Party (Odessa Regional Committee). These valuable documents hold important information about the life of Jews during the Soviet period (1917–91). Some Jewish fonds are included, such as those from the Odessa region and the City Committee of Poalei-Zion, Odessa Region Committee of Jewish Communist Union of Youth, editorial office of the newspaper Kommunistische Stimme and others.

From 1945 until the beginning of 1990, no professionals did specific research on Jewish history. In spite of the fact that Jewish fonds were not secret or restricted, information about them was absent in the Guide to Odessa Archives published in 1961. Interest in this subject has revived since 1990. For the past 17 years, researchers from many countries have used the Jewish material at the Odessa Archives. Among them are M. Komissarov from Canada; T. Grill, G. Hausmann, A. Hillbrenner, A. Hoffmeister and T. Steinhoff from Germany; M. Vassilikou from Greece; J. Anchel, M. Beiser, I. Kotler, J. Priworotsky, M. Polishcuk and A. Waiss, from Israel; S. Kioko from Japan; K. Huzer from Switzerland; P. Herlihy and S. Zipperstein from the United States and others. Ukrainian historians, O. Demin, A. Dobrolyubsky, A.Misjuk, V. Oks, V. Shchetnikov, V. Solodova and local history specialists S. Luschik, A. Rosenboim, M. Belsky, R. Tsiporkis, R. Shuvalov, V. Charnetsky, T. Dontsova and V. Netrebsky have made substantial contributions researching extensive Jewish archival sources.

Settlement of Jews in Novorossiia:
Legislation and Daily Life

Many Jews came to Novorossiia (New Russia), where they had been permitted to settle since 1791, from Belarus, Lithuania and Volhynia. The migrations, arrangements and adaptation of Jews in Novorossiia is reflected in Fond 1 of the General-Governor Administration for Novorossiia and Bessarabia (Upravlenije novorossijskogo I bessarabskogo general-gubernatora), which includes documentation for 1803–04, more than 29,000 files. The collection includes sources on Jewish communities and individuals from all over the Black Sea region (Khersonskaya, Ekaterinoslav­­skaya, Tavricheskaya and Bessarabskaya guberniyas).

The most valuable sources are imperial ukazes (edicts) and directives of the Russian Senate regarding the general arrangement of Jewish life in Russia. Such juridical acts as the Regulation for Jews (1804, 1835 and 1844), regulations for box taxes (1839), rules that limited Jews’ industrial activity to towns, posads (settlements) and shtetls (1847)^[1] and others show the main thrust of Russian governmental policy concerning the Jews. Additional detailed information about the daily life of Jewish settlers in Novorossiia is found among the correspondence of officials concerning the formation of settlements and the provision of land and privileges to the Jews. Reports, opinions and decisions of the governors of guberniyas make interesting reading on such questions as settling Jews on private, landowners’ and state lands (1847–59);^[2] resettling Jews 50 kilometers from the Austrian and Prussian borders;^[3] liquidation of the kahals (Jewish communal organizations) and subordination of Jews to the general government management;^[4] order for the election and appointment of Jews to state and public posts;^[5] permission for Jews to buy lands in the Crimea; arrangement of hospitals, charitable institutions, Jewish schools, synagogues, benevolent societies and other facilities.

Archival documents also show government policies restricting Jews and discussions among officials concerning the relegation of Jews to special quarters in cities,^[6] prohibition of Jews to enter Moldavia,^[7] limitations of trade, provision to Jews of rights equal to Christians,^[8] and other topics.

In 1843, during one of the sporadic anti-Semitic campaigns, the Russian government sought to restrict the activities of foreign Jews in the empire. Novorossiia and Bessarabia Governor-General M. Vorontsov petitioned the authorities in Saint Petersburg to exempt Novorossiia from regulation. He argued that many of the bankers in Odessa were Austrian Jews whose departure would disrupt the city’s business. He expressed his opinion to the emperor in a special document entitled “As Regard Measures Offered for Reformation of the State of the Jewish People in Russia.”^[9] He urged involving the Jews in the productive industrial and agricultural life of the Russian Empire, an idea in part realized in Jewish colonization of the Black Sea region.

Jewish Colonies

At the beginning of the 19th century, in the complicated social stratification of the Russian Empire (nobles; military; clergy; first, second and third guild merchants; petty bourgeois; and peasants), a new category of population appeared: that of foreign colonists. Bulgarians, French, Germans, Greeks, Mennonites, Poles, Serbians, Swedes and Swiss came from Europe to southern Russia at the invitation of a Russian government that hoped to create a high-level economic and social structure in the lonely and unsettled Black Sea steppes.

Governor’s archives include materials on surveying lands for Jewish colonies and applications of Jews from Grodno, Podolsk and Vitebsk guberniyas regarding resettlement in Kherson guberniya;^[10] permits from Russian authorities for the delivery of passports for entering Russia; statistical information about the economic state of colonies;^[11] exemption from military recruitment for 50 years; delivery of loans; size of the Jewish population and measures for improvement of management.^[12] Official records also reflect problems and disagreements among the colonists, great poverty and failure to succeed in farming, some Jews fleeing from colonies because of an unwillingness to engage in agriculture, searching for Jewish colonists living in cities without passports and permits, and delivering them back to their colonies.

Some of the Jews supported the government’s agricultural colonies experiment. An example was the project to establish the model Jewish colony of Michailsdorf in Bessarabia, named in honor of the Grand Duc Michail, the Emperor Nicholas I’s brother, Michail.^[13] The project was created in 1840 by three tradesmen, first guild merchant D. Zelensky from Kremenchug, third guild merchant I. Rabinovich from Pavlograd and J. Goldenveizer, a settler in Uman. With capital and free from military obligations, the men intended to purchase land to create a rich Jewish colony with a high level of agricultural production. Their goal was to refute the negative opinion and prejudices of the native Russian population, mainly peasants, concerning the million-and-a-half Jews, primarily small tradesmen, who were coming to Russia from Belorussia, Courland and Podolia. Lodging an application with Governor M. S. Vorontsov, Goldeveizer, Rabinovich and Zelensky expressed their viewpoint regarding the failure of the government’s plan for Jewish colonies in Russia. They cited the absence of experience among Jews with farming for more than 19 centuries, great religious and cultural differences between the native and Jewish populations and, as a result, the perception of Jews as non-working “wheeler-dealers,” who derive advantage by deception and money-grubbing. That utopian project was not realized because the Bessarabian governor did not allocate free land to the model colony.

Material on Jews appears in a record group, called “About Jewish Colonies in Novorossiia Guberniyas” (Fond 1, Opis 2, 1837–47, 101 files). These documents include directives and reports of the central and local authorities on the financing of homebuilding; applications of Jews from Grodno, Kovno and Minsk, Mogilev, Podolia and Vitebsk guberniyas regarding resettlement in Novorossiia; delivery of passports; and valuable information about economic and social development of the Jewish colonies of Bobrovy Kut, Sejdemenukha (Bolshaya and Malaya), Nagartav (Bolshoj and Malyj), Inguletz, Izluchistaya, L’wowa, Yefengar, Novyj Berislav, Kamenka, Israilevka, Novopoltavka and Sagajdak.

Similar information may be found in Fond 6, Guardianship Committee for Foreign Settlers in Southern Russia (Popechitel’nyj komitet ob inostrannyh poselenzah Yuzhno gokraya Rossii), which holds materials about Jewish colonies for the years 1799–1876 compared to other foreign colonies (Bulgarian, German, Greek, Mennonite Swiss and Swedish). Statistical tables on welfare, medicine, demographical movement, establishment of schools, organization of elections of headmen, (assemblymen or aldermen), voting lists, decisions of colonist meetings are the typical documents found in Fond 6.

Especially interesting is a document about the appointment of Germans and Mennonites to Jewish colonies as model householders, headmen and managers. The records demonstrate the often complicated and intricate relationships inside that mixed, multinational world of colonists. Apart from official records and reports, complaints from colonists open a view into the inner world of the communities and individuals. An example is the investigation of a conflict between the Jewish community of Zlatopol in Kherson guberniya and its headman (schulz), the Mennonite Jacob Dyck.^[14] The colonists accused Dyck of cruelty and rudeness, describing occasions of his beating them with sticks for their unwillingness to do “back-breaking” work. The schulz lodged a counterclaim describing the Jews as “slackers” and “idlers” who avoided necessary, everyday agricultural labor.

Jews in Odessa:
Economic, Social, Educational and Cultural Life

The stream of immigration carried Jews into Odessa in large numbers. Eventually Odessa amassed one of the largest concentrations of urban Jews to be found anywhere in the world. During the period 1815–61, the Jewish population rose from fewer than four thousand to well over seventeen thousand individuals. In 1854, Odessa had seven thousand Jewish citizens, while six thousand additional Jewish residents officially were considered to belong to other Russian towns.

At the end of the 18th century, some three hundred Jewish families, mostly from Galicia, settled in Odessa. This began a steady flow of emigrants from Galicia and Brody, in particular. Joachim Tarnopol, a leading Jewish scholar in Odessa, wrote in 1851 that the Jews from Brody combined the virtues of industriousness with commercial skill. Many became bankers, merchants and brokers. He wrote, “The Jews form the largest portion of the foreign population…. A few are very rich and engage in the banking business. Many make large purchases of imported goods from the foreign merchants and sell them retail in their own shops.” Two passages above were copied from Odessa, by Patricia Herlihy, Cambridge, 1986, p. 124. The period of time is 1815–61; see the beginning of the first passage.

Jewish Odessa is reflected in the records of urban institutions. The most important and diverse are found in Fond 4, Odessa City Council (Odesskaya Gorodskaya Duma), 1796–1873, and Fond 16, Odessa City Administration (Odesskaya Gorodskaya Uprava), 1873–1920, which together hold 678,181 files. The primary duties of these local governmental organizations were financial, domesticity and building and trade questions. The organizations also involved themselves in donations and the activity of societies that permitted the remodeling of various aspects of Jewish influence on the economic, social and cultural life of Odessa during the entire pre-revolutionary period, 1909–17.

In addition to general record management, documentation of the Jews also is concentrated in the Jewish desk (Opis 107, 108, 109, 110, 124 part 2, 1824–1920, 1534 files). The primary documents concern:

• Inclusion of the Jews in Odessa’s merchant guilds (first, second and third) and petty bourgeois
• Acceptance of Russian citizenship
• Delivery of passports, certificates and resident permits
• Allocation of lots for building houses
• Indication of the capital possessed by merchants in annual lists
• Information about the recovery of taxes
• Establishment and activity of trade firms
• Participation in benevolent actions
• Information about well-known persons
• Report on the state of the Jewish hospital, Jewish cemetery, orphanages, synagogues and prayer houses.

Especially interesting is correspondence regarding the registration of Jewish atheists and individuals who were omitted from synagogue birth registers. Also noteworthy are indexes of military recruits.

Special documents reflected the process of integration of the Jews into the complicated social stratification of the Russian Empire. The higher estates of the noble, clergy and military were closed to Jews by Russian legislation (with rare exceptions). The merchants offered a real possibility for Jews to climb from the third merchant guild to the privileged first guild and (after 1832) to obtain the higher status of “honorary citizen” for special service to the country. A separate family register of Odessa honorary citizens for the period 1854 to 1897 includes 102 Jewish families (out of a total of 304) with such famous names as Brodsky, Rafalovich, Efrussi and Gessen—M. Rabinovich M. Gurovich, S. Brodsky, A. Rafalovich, S. Pinsker, I. Efrussi, XI. Gessen, A. Zederbaum and others. ^[15]

Fond 2, Odessa City Chief Office (Kanzelyariia Odesskogo Gradonachal’nika), 1802–1917, 21,690 files, contains materials about the Jewish community in Odessa in the documentation of several of its bureaus.

Documents from the regulatory and economic bureaus (opis 1, 1a, 1b, 3) contain permits delivered to individuals for opening businesses; information about the state of manufacture, factories and trade firms; and applications of businessmen on various questions. Materials describe including Jews among Odessa’s merchants and petty bourgeois, establishment of trade firms and houses, enterprises such as the foundation of the A. Rafalovich’s firm (1850),^[16] the shipping companies of Rappoport and Kossodo^[17] and others.

Information about religious life appears in such sources as the registers of 63 synagogues and houses of prayer in Odessa, including addresses and an indication of the dates of their establishment, lists of members, information about election of synagogue staffs and Odessa rabbis (Schwabacher, Kreps and others).^[18] Materials about religious conflicts between the Jews and Christians, activity of London-based missionaries in converting Jews to Christianity, formation of the Society for the Jews Converted to Christianity^[19] and other similar materials promote understanding of some aspects of the coexistence of various religious persuasions in the Russian Empire. Other documents record the establishment of medical institutions such as the Jewish Hospital in Odessa (1832);^[20] Iosif Valtuch’s Orthopedic Institute (1888);^[21] Klara Veinberg’s Medical Center for Vaccination against Smallpox (1893);^[22] and the private clinics of Gurovich, Mering and Polukher.^[23]

Other documents record the development of the publishing trade, for example, the prohibition to the merchant Aksenfeld to open a printing house in Odessa (1852);^[24] program of the first magazine for Jews in Russian, Rassvet, edited by O. Rabinovich and Tarnopol (1860); plus information about the newspaper, Hamelitz, edited by A. Zederbaum (1867).^[25] Philanthropy within the Odessa Jewish community is reflected in materials on the establishment of the Odessa Jewish Charity Society (1866); Jewish Hospice (1880); donations from well-known merchants, A. Brodsky, R. Khari, O. Khais, M. Morgulis, M. Rabinovich, Rafalovich, Katzen, Luisa Aschkenazi and others to benefit orphans (1866–98), poor pupils, students and homeless persons. Charitable activities of successful people for the public benefit also are illuminated by documents about the establishment of S. Gurovich’s and R. Khari’s scholarships for talented pupils at the Odessa Commercial College (1888, 1892).^[26]

Fond 2 holds numerous files about the formation of many Jewish societies in Odessa such as Beseda (Converse) (1863);^[27] Druzhelyubije (Friendship) (1898); Trud (Labor) (1895–1901);^[28] Society for Bilateral Aid to the Jews’ Teachers in Novorossiia (1866);^[29] Society for Relief to Jewish Peasants and Artisans in Syria and Palestine (1888);^[30] assistance to Jewish woman, poor children, orphans, the poor of Slobodka-Romanovka and others.

Some documents illustrate a restrictive state policy and the relationship of the non-Jewish population regarding Jewish traditions and way of life, for example, a prohibition against Jews wearing special Jewish clothing (1851),^[31] requesting police office in day off (1852),^[32] wedding processions walking along the streets with music and lighted candles (1858),^[33] and Jewish women shaving their heads. ^[34]

Passport office files (opis 6) include documents for the period 1808–98 for entry into Russia from abroad and for departure abroad from Russia delivered to individuals: passports, certificates from foreign consulates, debentures with warrants and applications for residence permits. The documents include information about the purposes of trips, routes and migrants themselves (age, occupation, family members, description of appearances, etc.). These records are important sources for researching migration processes for 90 years.

The First All-Russian Census, 1897 (opis 8, 9, 10) is of great historical consequence and lists full information on each family, a total of three thousand files on 124,511 Odessa residents who indicated Hebrew or Yiddish as a native language. The census provides unique information about Odessa society at the end of the 19th century. The Jews were the second largest ethnic group after the Russians; Poles and Germans occupied third and fourth places, respectively. For each individual, the census registered full name, age, place of birth, citizenship, social state, education, religion, occupation and basis of income. The records provide facts about assimilation, mixed marriages and the loss of Yiddish or Hebrew as a mother tongue among the third- and fourth-generation Odessa Jews.

Court files (opis 4) consist of documents on court decisions concerning bankruptcies, claims against estates and protection of merchants’ heritage.

Opis 7 holds records from the bureau that dealt with societies. Jewish societies were founded in Odessa at the end of the 19th- and beginning of the 20th century with the goal of maintaining national traditions, contributing to youth and making life more informative and interesting. Many received moral and monetary support for musical parties and various organized performances.

Fond 5, Provisional Odessa Governor-General (Vremennyj Odesskij general-gubernator), 1879–89. This fond of 2,068 files also holds information about the Jews. It holds reports on the state of the Jewish population in Novorossiia,^[35] collection of money for synagogue and prayerhouse construction,^[36] compiling the statute of the Jewish hospital, complaints of poor Jews against oppression by merchants and the situation of the Jews in Bessarabia. Very special are documents concerning revolutionary activity and criminality among the Jews. Thus, for example, we find material about state surveillance of Doctor Shohr, linked with the revolutionary group headed by Vera Figner (1885),^[37] and the investigation of Doctor Pinsker, who “incited the Jews to emigrate to America and Palestine” (1886–87),^[38] plus indexes of “politically unreliable persons.”

The criminal life of Odessa Jews was reflected in numerous journal articles and became a main subject of some writers, including the talented Isaak Babel. Much documentary confirmation is found among the official papers of the courts; the Governor-General; City Chief, Prosecutor’s, Police and Customs offices. Thousand of files describe various forms of criminality in which Jews participated as specialists, such as smuggling, illegal import of foreign goods, making and transferring of counterfeit money, speculation, robbery and business activities connected with supplying women to houses of prostitution and to brothels in Constantinople, Turkey, and elsewhere abroad. Fond 5 also contains documentation about Jewish evasion of military service, self-mutilation and the criminal activity of Jewish doctors injuring the recruits.^[39]

One file is named “On accusation of the Jews from the town of Rezina, Orgeyevskij uyezd, Bessarabian Oblast, in the torture and robbery of the Gypsies” (1885–87). Investigative material reports the conflict between these two ethnic groups, both of which were oppressed in the Russian Empire on religious and economic grounds.

In addition to the general collections described above, some documentary collections are especially useful for researching specific aspects of Jewish life.

Genealogy

Some fonds are particularly important for the determination of family links and relationships. One is Fond 39, Odessa City Rabbinate (Odesskij gorodovoj ravvinat), 1846, 1854, 1875–1920, (499 files). This collection consists exclusively of metrical books with birth, marriage, divorce and death entries. Documents for 1835–74 were lost during World War II. This is a basic source for genealogical research and biographies. Odessa was the birthplace of the world-renowned founder of New Zionism, Vladimir Zabotinsky, writer Isaak Babel (Bobel originally) and violinist David Oistrakh. Their birth records are preserved in the Odessa Archives.

Unlike the documents of other religious institutions (Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Evangelical Lutheran, Armenian Gregorian and other churches), Jewish records include divorce registers. In the metrical books of Fond 39, researchers find information not only about Odessa Jewish merchants or petty bourgeois (meshchanin), but also about Jews who came to Odessa from various other places, mainly from Podolia, Kiev guberniya, Belorussia and Poland. Although living in the city, often for a long time, they remained registered in the places of their origin. That is why the Odessa metrical books include entries for persons from Kamenets-Podolsk, Shklov, Vinnista and Zhitomir, who married, gave birth to children and died in Odessa.

Sometimes people changed their religion, and archived records help explain why it happened. The marriages of Christians to Jews were allowed only if the Jew converted to Christianity. Thus, in such fonds as Kherson Orthodox Consistorium (F. 37), St. Paul Evangelical Lutheran Church Parish in Odessa (F. 630), and Odessa Roman Catholic Church (F. 618) are numerous entries documenting the conversion of a Jew to Christianity. Often the converts suffered both from a negative relationship with his/her former co-religionists as well as a lack of support from Christians. As a result, the Society for Assistance to the Jews Converted to Christianity was formed in 1893. Its chief, the archbishop Iustin, Vice-Head G. Marazli (Head of the Odessa City Council) and board members S. Znamenskij, Father Sergij and M. Ozmidov organized financial and moral support to the converts, delivering loans and work to help them.^[40]

Some Jews converted for pragmatic reasons, that is, to avoid exclusion from Odessa institutions due to percentage quotas for Jews. One example is the investigation of circumstances connected with the deeds of Gershon Korik, a student at Novorosijski University, who converted from Judaism to the Anglican religion before entering the university, but who returned officially to Judaism afterward.

Archival documents also reflect the issue of children who were born out of wedlock; they are omitted from the official synagogue birth records in Fond 39. Resolutions of the Odessa City Council deal with the determination of birth dates for such individuals and the delivery of a birth certificate to them. Supplements to resolutions usually are applications from parents to legitimize their children with explanations of previous circumstances of the case, confirmations from the midwife and indexes of the children.

Fond 359, Odessa Petit-Bourgeois Authority, Jewish Division. Odessa Board for Small Business. Jewish Desk (Odessakaya meshchanskaya uprava. Evrejskoye otdeleniye), 1894–1918, (44 files) include 4,505 family registers of Odessa petty bourgeois (meshchane). Each register includes date of compilation, family, full name of the head of family, names of wife and children, sons and daughters, their ages or birth dates, notes regarding fulfillment of military service, address of the permanent residence in Odessa or other places, and signature of the head of family. In 2002, a name index of the 4,505 heads of Jewish families and their addresses was compiled as a database and published in Russian.^[41]

Fond 315, Odessa City Office for Recruits (Odesskoye gorodskoye po voinskoj povinnosti prisutsvije), 1884–1920, (1,022 files) holds lists of military reservists and their birth certificates, personal files of recruits, and correspondence about induction into the Russian Army or deferment of military service. Material on the Jews appears among the general documentation.

Economic Life

Fond 18, Odessa Commercial Court (Odesskij kommercheskij sud), 1808–1920, (5,072 files), contains proceedings of meetings, materials about commercial transactions, delivery of valuation sheets on houses, collection of commercial taxes, real estate, reports on merchants’ capital and properties, evidence and court cases on bankruptcies, claims of merchants against defaulters and more. The fond also includes trade firms’ registration in Odessa and suburbs for the years 1836–43. Materials about Jews are among the general documentation and in separate files on certain trade firms such as F. Shpolyanski, I. Dreifus, F. Rafalovich and Co., M. Ashkenazi, Valtukh, brothers Moriz and Yacov Galpern, Leon Rabinovich, brothers Fabrikant, I.G. Elikman and son, Puritz and Rubinstein, Vainstein and Levin, Lifshitz and Gammerman, Spivakov and Flaks, Tarle and Landau and many others.

Fond 17, Odessa City Magistrate (Odesskij gorodovoj magistrate), 1795–1839, (180 files). The magistrate was founded in 1795 and had administrative and court functions related to merchants and petty bourgeois, primarily for foreigners. Its records contain important materials, including delivery of commercial certificates, licenses, valuation sheets, probate of ownership, references, decisions on complaints and applications, bankruptcies and others. Registers of merchants, organizations of merchant guilds, information about capital reported by merchants and their estates are included. Jews, among the first businessmen in Odessa, played key roles in the formation of the economic structure of the city. Among them were M. Medyanik, Levi and Aron Pibergod, Solomon and Abel Gershkovich, Gilel Manusovich, Leiba Krakovski, Gezel Friedental and others. Very important is “the Alphabet of Jews” for 1811, the first special list of Odessa Jews.^[42]

Fond 35, Chief Notary of the Odessa District Court (Starshij notarius Odesskogo okruzhnogo suda), 1869–1920, (32,404 files). This file holds notary acts of sales, donations, wills of real estate and other movable and immovable property, files on guardianships, materials related to investigations of claims and applications by individuals and firms, including Jewish ones in Odessa and the Odessa, Ananjev and Tiraspol uyezds (districts) of Kherson guberniya.

Fond 59, Odessa Building Committee (Odesskij stroitel’nyj komitet), 1800–70, (5,450 files), consists of documents about the first residents of Odessa who received land for building houses, stores, stocks, factories, and similar documentation regarding various institutions. The fond holds information on the establishment of Jewish institutions in the city, such as the Jewish Street, Valtukhovskij Lane, Jewish cemetery, Jewish meat stalls, Jewish mail school, synagogues and others. Most valuable is the collection of plans and façade drafts for the buildings that belonged to wealthy Jewish merchants and petty bourgeois.

The financial life of Odessa is reflected in the documents of various banks. Two deserve special mention. Fond 175, the Samuil Barbash Bank (Bankirskaya kontora Samuila Barbasha), 1880–1919, (43 files), holds business correspondence of Samuil Barbash with his partners, merchant certificates, information about his properties, warrants, notary acts and insurance policies of the Petersburg Insurance Company. Commercial agreements and correspondence with such firms as the Rotterdam Schutten; joint-stock companies Athid, Geula, Carmel, Jewish Colonial Bank in London; Palestine Industrial Syndicate; Odessa State Bank Office and the Society for Relief to Jewish Peasants and Artisans in Syria and Palestine illuminate the most varied activities of the bank in general and its connections with Jewish life in particular.

Fond 246, Records of the Ashkenazi Bank (Bankirskij dom Ashkenazi v Odesse), 1893–1918, (5 files), is not as substantial as the Barbash Bank files, but it also includes interesting materials on the establishment and work of the joint stock society of the Southeast steamship line Star, reports and balances on exploiting the steamship Eastern Star and income sheets of the bank.

Education

As the Jewish community grew, so did its institutions. In 1826, a secular Jewish school, one of the first in the empire, opened in Odessa. The curriculum included Hebrew, Talmudic studies, Russian, German, French, mathematics, physics, rhetoric, history, calligraphy and civil law. In 1835, a similar school for Jewish girls was established. In addition to the subjects taught to the boys, the girls also learned needlework. Soon there was a fashionable boarding school for the daughters of wealthy Jews. The founders included S. Pinsker, M. Finkel and I. Hurowitz, members of the Haskalakh (Enlightenment), who had to overcome the objections of more conservative Jews of the Hasidic community.

More than 40 fonds of educational institutions, colleges, schools providing general education and the organs of their administrations offer the opportunity to study such questions and topics as the establishment of the Jewish intellectual stratum, educational levels of Jews in Russia and their contributions to the cultural and scientific life of the city. Documents reflect the problem of the percentage quota for the Jews imposed by state educational institutions. In August, 22, 1909, Emperor Nikolai II confirmed regulations restricting Jews. According to the regulations, Jews in secondary schools were limited to 5 percent of total enrollment in capital cities, 10 percent in places outside the Pale of Settlement and 15 percent within the Pale. The quota for Jews admitted to the profession of pharmacy assistant and permitted to attend lectures in the universities to achieve the rank of pharmacist, was six percent for Moscow University, ten percent for universities outside the Pale and twenty percent for universities within the Pale. Some educational institutions—such as Pavel Galagan’s Collegium, the Noble Institute of Emperor Alexander II in Nizhnij Novgorod, and Nikolaevskij Orphan’s Institute in Gatchina—were totally closed to Jews. Jews could be accepted without restrictions solely by state primary technical schools and secondary schools that did not feed into the universities.

The Odessa Archives preserves records of three Odessa institutions of higher education. The materials of the Richelieu Lycee (Fond 44) 1817–1856, (3,262 files) hold considerable information about Jews in that first higher educational institution in Odessa. The Novorossiian University (Fond 45) 1865–1920, (44,688 files), founded on the model of the Lycee in 1865, played a major role in the formation of Jewish intelligentsia in Novorossiia. In addition to general administrative documentation, this fond is rich with the records useful for life stories and genealogical research; personal files of students are remarkable historical sources that permit personalizing an epoch. A typical set of documents usually includes enrollment applications; a copy of the birth certificate and graduation certificate, and information about conduct and progress in study and students photographs.

Fond 334, High Feminine Courses (Vysshyje zhenskije kursy), 1906–20, holds information about female Jewish students and development of education for females in Russia.

Fond 42, Office of the Warden for the Odessa Educational District (Kanzelyariya popechitelya Odesskogo uchebnogo okruga), 1834–1920, (16,393 files), is a valuable global resource on the educational system in Odessa and Novorossiia in general, and the Jewish educational system in particular. As the higher administrative regional organ, it included records about the opening, registration and closing of educational institutions; their teaching staff; economic and financial activities; tutoring system; programs on various subjects; correspondence regarding entrance examinations and percent quotas for the Jews in the institutions of general education. Data also exists on the opening of Jewish gymnasiums and schools and the appointment of Jews as teachers. Opis 6–33 has documentation, personal files and exam sheets of private gymnasiums where Jews primarily were educated at the beginning of the 20th century. Included are the Odessa female gymnasiums of H. Veksler, A. Getzel’d (also known as Tonchuk), V. Goldin/Golden (aka Abergaus/Averages), L. Kaufman (aka Zak/Zach), T. Kopp (Zhabotinskaya), M. Leibenson, E. Mashkevich, V. Maslova and M. Gradskaya, B. Fel’dman (Rashkovich), A. Steinberg in Elisavetgrad; M. Goslen; E. Lobzovskaya-Shapiro; in Kishinev of A. Goldenberg; in Ekaterinoslav of P. Ioffe; in Kherson of A. Karachevskaya-Volk. Material exists also for the male gymnasiums of M. Iglitskij, L. Kovalchuk and I. Rappoport in Odessa, I. Berezovskij in Nikolaev and A.Fovitskij in Ekaterinoslav and more.

The Odessa Archives also has some fonds of separate Jewish educational institutions such as Fond 441, Odessa Jewish school Talmud Torah (Odesskoye evrejskoye uchilishche Tamud-Torah), 1891–1906, (13 files), contains correspondence with the Odessa city council on problems of organization and finances, circulars and orders of an inspector for people’s schools, information about staff of the guardian board, regulations, petitions concerning payment of benefits to the needy and lists of pupils.

Fond 108, Odessa Craft School Trud (Odessakoje reneslennoje uchilishche “Trud”), 1873–1920, (62 files), contains documentation on the 1846 establishment of the school, its activity, reorganization, personal files of the pupils, progress reports, regulations, and correspondence with the Jewish Colonization Society.

Fond 101, Odessa’s eight-grade commercial school of G. F. Faig (Odesskoye 8-klasnoye uchilishche G.F. Fajga). Records begin at the start of the 20th century and continue until 1918. Its 1,302 files consist of 1,299 personal pupil files, indexes of the individuals, and progress reports for 1913–18.

Fond 116, Odessa polytechnic courses of I. Hoin (Odesskiye politehnichesiye kursy I.I. Hojna) is a complex of 500 personal files of the pupils from the beginning of the 20th century until 1917. Fonds 130, 253–255, private dental schools of I. Margolin, I. Redals, Ravinskij and Trop (Chastnye zubovrachebnye shkoly I. Margolina, I. Redalsa, Ravinskogo and Tropa) contain personal files and indexes of the pupils for 1904–19.

Documents about Jews are found in the documentation of materials on other gymnasiums and schools. Among those worth mentioning is Fond 52, St. Paul Secondary School at the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Odessa, where Lev Bronstein (Trotsky) studied. (His progress reports are preserved.).

Publishing Houses, Newspapers,

Magazines and Their Creators

Censorship institution records (Fonds 8–13) (1834–1917) provide insight into the exceptional role that the mass media played in the formation of public opinion on aspects of Jewish life. During the period 1906–11, local authorities issued permits to publish 93 periodicals, including 11 Jewish periodicals. Jewish newspapers and magazines were published in three languages: in Hebrew: Ha-schiloah, editor H.N. Byalik; Hathio, editors M.L.G. Lilienblum and H.G. Levinskij; in Yiddish: Odesser Morgenblatt, editor Z. N. Krupitskij; Gut Morge, editors O. I .Halfin and S.A. Gerzfeld; Des Judische Wort, editors P.I. Sigal-Meiler and H.-A.O. Zinkov; Scholom Aleichem, editors D.-M.M. Yankelevich and I.-L.M. Fridman; in Russian: Palestinian Review, editors. A. Zusman and I. Sapir; Jewish Medical Voice, editors I. S. Echelon, Y.M. Raimist, C.E. Maryashes, and C.H.B. Desman; New Israel, editor H.L.G. Paperin; Jewish Future, editors G.V.Kaplan and M.K. Gepshtein; and others. Many famous owners of printing houses and lithographers were of Jewish origin and played a large role in the development of publishing in Odessa, among them N. Byalik, Kozman, Galperin, M. Pikovskij, Y. Sherman, I. Ermans and others.

The Odessa Archives holds a set of the magazine Kadima (1906, nos. 1–12), the organ of Southern Russia Zionists. Its frequent contributors included V. Zabotinsky, M. Aleinikov, G. Brodovskij, S. Gorelik, N. Shimkin, M. Schwarzman and Trivius. The magazine touched upon the most vital contemporary questions, such as how to change the life of the Jews for the better. Its maxim was, “We know how to die, even to defend, but don’t know how to live.” Such topics as movements to revive the economic and political life of the Jews in Palestine, the history of the Jews, theory of nationality, chronicle of Zionist activity and events, practical advice and moral encouragement for emigrants, news of culture and science all were illuminated by Kadima.

Pogroms

Information about pogroms in Odessa and Novorossiia is spread among the records of a variety of institutions. Dramatic events of 1881–86 in Odessa and Rostov-on-Don, and in Kherson, Ekaterinoslav and Bessarabian guberniyas are illuminated in detail by the reports of the Temporal Odessa Governor-General about causes, the course of events and its consequences,^[43] applications from the Jewish communities to prevent anti-Semitic crimes in Balta uyezd (Podolia).^[44]

      Odessa’s 1905 pogroms are reflected in documentation of the Odessa City Chief, in police reports about events since June, 13, 1905, and also in applications of the Head of Odessa Currency Market Committee, Angelo Anatra, to the Minister of Finance about a crisis in trade and finances in Odessa as a consequence of the pogroms.^[45] Materials on investigations of concrete pogrom cases also are in Fond 634, Prosecutor of the Odessa District Court (Prokuror Odesskogookruzhnogo suda), 1870–1917. (2,286 files). Included is the case of Rosa Drutman, a victim of the October 1905 pogrom in Odessa.^[46] A servant at the house in the household of the wealthy Jewish family Veizman-Var­shavsky, she witnessed a cruel massacre. Soldiers sent by the local authorities to prevent crimes, in fact, marked the beginning of the drama by using their firearms against the Jews. Six of the nine family members were killed. Rosa was wounded three times but survived after two months of treatment. Her testimony, medicine card, records of cross-examinations and protocols of court meetings allow one to reconstruct the events in detail. Victims of the pogroms of 1881–86, 1905, and 1919 are registered in the metrical death books of the Odessa City Rabbinate (F. 39).

Soviet Period

The period 1917–30 was a dramatic time for the Jews. The initiation of Soviet power affected the stabilization of economic and social conditions for all Russians, but the position of the Jews was compounded by the previous discriminatory state policies and pogroms during the Revolution and subsequent civil war (1917–20). Beginning in 1919, the territory of Kherson guberniya underwent numerous administrative/territorial changes that destroyed old, compact national units. In 1919, Odessa guberniya consisted of six uyezds: Odessa, Tiraspol, Voznesensk, Ananjev, Balta and Pervomajsk. Odessa uyezd was divided into 43 volosts (municipalities); in 1920 they were integrated into only 20. The population numbers in each of the volosts differed; they varied between 5,000 and 30,000. That ineffective system was changed again between 1923 and 1925, when the old pre-Revolutionary territorial organization was changed finally into the three-level system of management: rayon (administrative district), okrug (region) and center.

In Odessa guberniya, six okrugs were created: Odessa, Nikolaev, Kherson, Balta, Elisavetgrad and Pervomajsk; each was divided into rayons. Odessa okrug, for example, had 18 rayons. Former volosts were absorbed into rayons. But then that division revealed itself to be ineffective, and another large reform occurred in 1932 when five oblasts were created in Ukraine, including Odessa oblast with four cities and 46 rayons. From 1937 onward, the territory of Odessa oblast became smaller with the formation of new territorial units: Nikolaev oblast (1937), Kirovograd (former Elisavetgrad) oblast (1939), Kherson oblast (1944) and Ismail oblast (1944–54).

Administrative changes were linked with global economic and social changes, and society was divided into the rich and the poor. A policy to abolish private ownership began with campaigns against prosperous farmers (kulaks) in 1921 and led to the full reallocation of land and the taking of other possessions: kulaks being exiled to Siberia, starvation, church closings, imprisonment of priests and punishment of those who expressed discontent against the Soviet power—all of which finally destroyed the foundations of Jewish life. Such processes are reflected in the documentation of state organs, through numerous complaints from peasants to prosecutor and militia offices, in decisions at peasant meetings, and in materials on the collectivization and foundation of kolkhoz (collective farms).

Fond R-969, Odessa Okrug Executive Committee of the Soviet of Workers, Peasants and Red Army Deputies (Odesskij okruzhnoj komitet Soveta rabochih, krest’yanskih I krasnoarmejskih deputatov), 1923–30, includes records of the commission of national minorities (Opis 3) with information about Jewish life during the first years of Soviet control. The most informative documents include minutes of the commission for the registration of Jews who wished to be involved in the agricultural branch; correspondence with higher authorities about settling Jews and giving land for the establishment of Jewish collective farms and agricultural communities in Odessa okrug; information about inspections of Jewish kolkhoz in Ekaterinoslav guberniya; statistical reports about nationalities in Odessa, other cities and towns of Kherson guberniya, including villages with small Jewish populations such as Chernovo, Berezovka, Zakharievka, Grossulovo, Tsebrikovo and Oktyabr’; information about the Jewish communities of Frieling and Andreevka, also in Pervomajsk okrug; materials on the collectivization of Jewish householders; creation of small producer’s cooperatives; five-year plans for improvement of the sanitary conditions of the Jewish population and more.^[47]

More detailed information about the economic and social state of the Jewish population in the 1920s and 1930s is held in the separate fonds of Jewish organizations, societies, educational institutions and political groups.

Fond R-5138, Odessa City Bureau of Central Board of the Union of Societies for Artisan and Agricultural Work ORTFERBAND (Odesskoje gorodskoje byuro Zentral’ nogo pravlenija sojuza obshchestv remeslennogo iI zemledel’cheskogo truda “ORTFERBAND”), 1919–38, (1,101 files), contains minutes, reports about the Jewish population in Odessa guberniya (from 1923, Odessa okrug; since 1932, Odessa oblast). The fond also includes lists of Jewish households, colonies, communities and resettlers; correspondence with various organizations, including the Central Committee of Union “ORT” in Berlin regarding the importing of agricultural equipment and machines and supplying peasants with them; also about the establishment and development of professional education for Jewish youth; and a five-year agreement between the Soviet government and ORT for extension of ORT’s activity in the USSR (1929, copy).

Fond R–1509, Society for land arrangement of working Jews, Odessa branch, OZET (Odesskoje otdelenije zemel’nogo ustrojstva trudyashchihsya evrejev “OZET”), 1925–32, (114 files), consists of applications of poor Jews desiring to settle in national collective farms (kolkhoz) in Odessa okrug or to resettle in Biribidzhan, the Jewish Autonomous National okrug, and minutes of the Commission for Settling Jews and its correspondence, as well as information about its officials. Some materials tell about the appearance of Jewish national administrative/territorial units (some named in honor of revolutionary leaders, such as Stalindorf or Kalinindorf rayon in Crimea). Similar rec-ords are in two other collections: Fond R–1511, Representative of the Committee for Land Arrangement of Working Jews in Odessa Oblast KOMZET (Predstavitel’ Komiteta zeme’nogo ustrojstva trudyashchihsya evrejev na Ode-schine “KOMZET”), 1925–30, (51 files), and Fond R–1510, Odessa Oblast Council of the Society for Land Arrangement of Working Jews OZET (Odesskij oblastnoj sovet obshchestva zemel’nogo ustrojstva trudyashchihsya evrejev “OZET”), 1932–38, (264 files).

Fond R-5275, Odessa Rayon Commission of the All-Ukrainian Jewish Public Committee for Relief to Victims of Pogroms EVOBSCHESTKOM (Odessakaya rajonnaja komissija Vseukrainskogo evrejskogo komiteta po okazaniju pomoshchi postradavshim ot pogromov “EVOBSCHESTKOM”), 1920–24, (342 files), reflect dramatic events for the Jewish population events during the Revolution and civil war (1917–20) and subsequent consequences. Included are testimonies of victims and official reports about pogroms in 1919–20 in the village of Goloskovo (Pervomajsk uyezd, Odessa guberniya) and other places; also lists of victims killed by Grigoriev’s band and information about the organization and activity of the Boguslav self-defense guard. The fond includes numerous lists of victims of pogroms, their applications for assistance, forms and registers of refugees from various parts of Ukraine, questionnaires of individuals who had relatives abroad, and correspondence regarding people emigrating to Palestine. Some documents illuminate links between Ukrainian and American Jewish societies such as “Appeal from Jewish Public Committees in Russia, Ukraine and Belorussia to Jewish Workers in America” (1920), correspondence concerning activities of the delegate Pimmerman from “Odessa National Community in Chicago” for assistance to the Jewish population in Odessa, information about free aid from the United States and distribution of food and clothes for progrom victims in the Odessa region.

Three separate fonds of Representatives from All-Ukrainian EVOBSCHESTKOM in Ananjev, Balta and Barezovka Uyezds (FF. R-5994, R-5295, R-5297), (116 files), contain similar documents from 1920–23.

Some fonds of institutions for the support of the starving population in Odessa region for the period 1922–25 reflect the activity of the American Relief Administration (ARA), “the Joint,” Nansen’s Mission and other international organizations.

Soviet educational institutions such as the Stalin Jewish Agricultural Institute in Odessa (Fond R-4574), 1925–35, (340 files), Jewish Agricultural Institute in Novo-Poltavka (Fond R-5019), 1924–33, (464 files), Odessa Jewish Pedagogical College (Fond R–1650), 1925–35, (181 files), Odessa Jewish College of Precision Mechanic, Trust of “Ukrainian Film” (a business entity, something like MGM Studios, only directed by the state) (Fond R-5286), 1930–35, (13 files) contain management records, lists of teachers and students, progress reports, results of examinations, diplomas and personal files.

A fond that covers the period of the Romanian-German occupation of Odessa and Odessa oblast (1941–44) includes about 900 fonds of government organs formed in the governorship of Transnistria, the name given to the occupied territory between the Dniester and the South Bug Rivers under Romanian jurisdiction. The documents reflect the policy of genocide regarding the Jews in materials about the establishment of 138 concentration camps and ghettos (in Bershad, Berezovka, Domanevka, Mogilev, Obodovka and elsewhere), numerous directives, circulars and orders of the Romanian and German authorities regarding the eviction of Jews from their homes, expropriation of their property, hard forced labor in agriculture and industry, and massacres.

There are special proscription lists (death warrants) of Odessa Jews with indications of their addresses, registers of ghetto residents, reports about their medicine, their economic and moral state, and materials on the organization of anti-Semitic actions. Some documents illuminate the collaborative activity of the Jewish Committee during the occupation.

Detailed statistical information about victims is included in documentation of the extraordinary regional and district commissions established immediately after liberation to determine damage from the Romanian-German occupation. Reports from Berezovka in Odessa oblast, where most Odessa Jews were exiled, confirms that in 1941–44, 54,000 Jewish men, women and children were killed; in Domanevka, the death toll was 62,000. The approximate total number of victims approaches 300,000 individuals.

Since 1990, the Odessa Archives has issued about 20,000 confirmations to former ghetto prisoners. Their requests contain important information about that time and should be considered a historical resource as well.

Private Fonds

Odessa Archives preserve 146 private fonds of famous individuals—scientists, politicians, writers and actors. These fonds include materials about the public and private life of the person (or family) mostly private documentation such as: family correspondence, photographs, manuscripts, card collections, invitations, greetings, newspapers, posters and other resources. Some fonds refer to the history of Odessa’s Jews.

One of the most important private fonds relates to History Professor Dr. Saul Borovoj (F. R-7400), 1927–83, (35 files). It includes, with his curriculum vitae, materials for his book about credits and banks in Russia, correspondence with famous professionals (for example, L. Grossman, N. Rosental, O. Vainstein, P. Berkov and others), information on the participation of Dr. Borovoj in various conferences and a collection of maps of old Odessa (photocopies from the Moscow Military Historical Archives).

The actress Liya Bugova (Feldscher) (F. R-7972), 1905–85, (100 files), left very interesting documents about three Jewish theatres in Ukraine in the 1920s and 1930s, including Kunst Winkl in Kiev, Router Fakel in Vinnitsa and GOSSET in Odessa. Also included are lists of actors, materials about performances in various Ukrainian cities and towns, playbills, notes about the history of theaters in Ukraine, newspapers, critic reviews, photographs of staff and actors and L. Bugova in her characters’ costumes.

Fonds of attorneys Yurij Grossfeld (F. 195), Isaak Khmelnitskij (F.R-5250), Solomon Shapiro (F.194) and Mikhail Zwilling (F. 193) include materials of court processes under leaders of various political movements and parties accused of revolutionary activity and preservation of illegal literature and arms. Also included are the cases of Bejlis (1911), Livshiz and other bombers (1905), anarchist Wolf Gologorski (1905), doctor N. Rabinovich and others.

Journalist Isidor Brodovski (F. 269) collected more than 5,000 proclamations, newspapers, placards and applications published by various political parties and public societies that widely represent the social and political life in the Russian Empire at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century.

The private fond of economist Pyotr Routenberg (F. 267), 1916–20, (15 files) holds letters from editors of the magazines Evrejskaya Mysl’ (Jewish view) and Ob’edinenie (Consolidation) on social and political subjects, as well as economic reform projects in 1919, and a copy of protocols of the Defense Council acting during the period of English-French occupation of Odessa (1919).

In 2002–07 some new private fonds were acquired by the Odessa archives, including those of the satirist and editor of the humor magazine Fontain, Valerij Khait; Boris Litvak, a deputy of the Odessa city council, businessman, founder of a medical center for the treatment of children with cerebral palsy and the best sports school in Odessa; and the famous photographer Leonid Sidoskij, who presented to the Odessa Archives a unique collection of 15,000 photographs.

Current Research Projects

Studying the history of national minorities in Novorossiia has been a major activity at the Odessa Archives in recent years. The primary task of archivists is not only to preserve historical resources, but also to make them open and accessible. The process of declassifying the fonds of German-Romanians occupying administrative and other positions began in 1990, and a full register of them subsequently was published. A full version is on the Ukrainian Archives website <www.archives.gov.ua/Publicat/CD/

Okupatsionnye_funds>. The index of the Jewish files is published in the book Holocaust in the Odessa region. Odessa, 2006 [Russian]. The archives of former Communist Party members were put in GAOO in 1992 with fonds for 1920–1992. Some also refer to the activities of Jewish societies, schools, and institutes, 1920–40.

Every year material on Jewish history is presented at exhibits in cooperation with Jewish, literary and historical museums. A documentary presentation was organized in May 2007 for the 160 participants of the Klezmer Festival Tour (Unger Travel, Toronto, Canada) at the Odessa Historical Museum. Some special databases were created, for example, name indexes of the Odessa’s Jews in the 1897 All-Russian Census; the Odessa Board for Small Business, 1894–1918; a family register. Name and thematic catalogues on Jews also were updated [CD in Russian].

Publication of documents and descriptions of fonds are the most important part of the work in GAOO. In 2000, the complete register of fonds and collections for the pre-Revolutionary period, including Jewish resources, was published. A similar register for the Soviet period currently is being compiled. GAOO participates in the international program of annotation of Jewish fonds, “Documents on History and Culture of Jews at Archives of Ukraine” (Ukraine-Russia-USA). (This is a huge project involving YIVO and JTS. So far, two volumes have been published.) In 2002, GAOO and the Jewish Center, Migdal, jointly published a book, Jews of Odessa and Southern Ukraine: History in Documents (from the end of the 18th century to the start of the 20th century) [Russian] as a joint project.

Conclusion

At present, the Odessa Archives has 250 sources from which it acquires document collections. These are organs of government, educational institutes, state and private industrial and agricultural enterprises, and societies; some supplement documentation on the Jews. GAOO plans to compile new collections of the International Jewish Center, Migdal, and the All-World Club of Odessans. The Odessa Council for Nationalities and Migration and district administrations continue to concentrate on information reflecting a process to promote the renaissance of national traditions. These fonds will be taken to GAOO in the near future for safekeeping.

Jewish fonds of the Odessa Archives are an extremely valuable resource for researching the history of Jews in the Black Sea region and include thousands of irreplaceable governmental, communal and individual files. The creation of guides and databases, and the publication and distribution of these documents, are important projects for groups and individuals to undertake in order to make Jewish fonds better known and readily accessible to researchers. Restoration of these archives is a critical priority: 70 percent of them need urgent preservation and restoration or they may be lost forever. Finally, collections of Jewish records must be expanded by adding new fonds based on the efforts of volunteers and staff in Jewish societies, keepers of private family archives, researchers holding subject collections and others willing to preserve these valuable records for future generations.

Notes

Odessa Archive abbreviations found in these endnotes are as follows:

1. Fond – a complex of documents of one organization, a collection

Op. Opis – a register of file titles within a fond, an inven­tory

1. Delo – a file
2. List – a sheet

[1]. GAOO, F. 1, Op. 248 (1847), F. 3334.

[2]. GAOO, F. 1, Op. 249 (1847), F. 76; Op. 192 (1949), F. 30; Op. 193 (1854), F. 88-89

[3]. GAOO, F. 1, Op. 215 (1847), F. 31.

[4]. GAOO, F. 1, Op. 154 (1844), F. 37.; Op. 152 (1845), F. 90.

[5]. GAOO, F. 1, Op. 195 (1857), F. 707.

[6]. GAOO, F. 1, Op. 203 (1856), F. 47.

[7]. GAOO, F. 1, Op. 173 (1861), F. 24.

[8]. GAOO, F. 1, Op. 195 (1857), F. 549.

[9]. GAOO, F. 1, Op. 153 (1843), F. 128.

[10]. GAOO, F. 1, Op. 148 (1837), F. 1; Op. 148 (1838), F. 5; Op. 148 (1840), F. 33, 2728;

[11]. GAOO, F. 1, Op. 248 (1841), F. 2723; Op. 248 (1843), F. 108, 115.

[12]. GAOO, F. 1, Op. 16 (1859), F. 105; Op. 248 (1843), F. 110; Op. 248 (1841), F. 89.

[13]. GAOO, F. 1, Op. 215 (1840), F. 16.

[14]. GAOO, F. 6, Op. 3, F. 14576.

[15]. GAOO, F. 16, Op. 125, F. 2.

[16]. GAOO, F. 2, Op. 1, F. 255.

[17]. GAOO, F. 2, Op. 1, F. 3080

[18]. GAOO, F. 2, Op. 1, F. 1176, 1432, 1515, 1629, 1630, 1691, 1742, 1743a, 1823, 1830, 1850, 1926, 1982, 2050, 2161, 2169, 2567, 2712, 2947, 2948, 2989, 2991, 3023, 3099, 3152.

[19]. GAOO, F. 2, Op. 1, F. 539, 985, 2004.

[20]. GAOO, F. 2, Op. 1, F. 146.

[21]. GAOO, F. 2, Op. 1, F. 1728.

[22]. GAOO, F. 2, Op. 1, F. 2021.

[23]. GAOO, F. 2, Op. 1, F. 1356, 1363, 1454.

[24]. GAOO, F. 2, Op. 1, F. 346.

[25]. GAOO, F. 2, Op. 1, F. 720.

[26]. GAOO, F. 2, Op. 1, F. 1700, 2006.

[27]. GAOO, F. 2, Op. 1, F. 634.

[28]. GAOO, F. 2, Op. 1, F. 17961, 2905.

[29]. GAOO, F. 2, Op. 1, F. 685.

[30]. GAOO, F. 2, Op. 1, F. 1791.

[31]. GAOO, F. 2, Op. 1, F. 262.

[32]. GAOO, F. 2, Op. 1, F. 297.

[33]. GAOO, F. 2, Op. 1, F. 494.

[34]. GAOO, F. 2, Op. 1, F. 30.

[35]. GAOO, F. 5, Op. 1, F. 147, 187, 188, 943, 1385, 1528, 1547, 1870, 1935, 1943,

[36]. GAOO, F. 5, Op. 1, F. 1533.

[37]. GAOO, F. 5, Op. 1, F. 1459.

[38]. GAOO, F. 5, Op. 1, F. 1567.

[39]. GAOO, F. 5, Op. 1, F. 1385, 1397

[40]. GAOO, F. 2, Op. 1, F. 2001.

[41]. Евреи Одессы и Юга Украины. История в документах. / Авт.сост. Л.Г.Белоусова, Т.Е.Волкова. Одесса, 2002. с.179–299

[42]. GAOO, F. 17, Op. 3, F.445.

[43]. GAOO, F. 5, Op. 1, F. 193, 1582

[44]. GAOO, F. 5, Op. 1, F. 779

[45]. GAOO, F. 2, Op. 13, F.4

[46]. GAOO, F. 634, Op. 1, F.404

[47]. GAOO, F.R-969, Op. 3, F. 461, 493, 494, 498, 501, 503, 509, 510, 514, 540b, 600. 606, 611

___________________________

Lilia Belousova has been working at the Odessa State Regional Archive since 1985 and has been Vice-Director of the Archives since 2001. Belousova is the author and co-author of 11 monographs and reference publications. She is a frequent speaker at national and international conferences.