20. A. Ilin, Plan goroda Odessy. Sankt Peterburg, 1888. COLLBN 010-14-050
Odessa, 1794 founded by Catherine the Great, was first governed by the Duc de Richelieu. A bronze statue of the 'Duc' crowns the famous stairs to the harbour. Odessa became the 4th city in the Russian Empire and the capital of the international grain trade. The city was a melting pot. End 19th century the ethnic composition of its 200.000 inhabitants was: 49% Russians, 31% Jews, 9,5% Ukrainians, 4,5% Poles, 2,5% Germans and 1,3% Greeks. The city centre is still dominated by aristocratic and bourgeois urban palaces, by tree-lined boulevards and richly decorated passages, by banks, hotels and restaurants in neo-styles and by its renowned opera theater. The Moldavanka quarter (centre map) was home to the Jewish lower middle class but in the low-lying Peresyp quarter (middle left) workers' slums were growing. Odessa turned into a hotbed of literature and political agitation.