Survey: Odessa's Youth Remain Under the Influence of Imperial Myths

The decolonization of Odesa remains not only a political or cultural issue, but also a profound ideological debate. A new study has shown that a significant portion of the city’s young residents continue to accept Russian imperial narratives as indisputable historical truth, without even realizing their origins. 

This was reported by Intent, citing a study by the NGO “History. Culture. Democracy,” conducted as part of the project “Odessa Overcomes the Russian Imperial Myth” (ODREAM).

The study aimed to examine how young Odessans who oppose the decolonization of urban space perceive the city’s history, its symbols, and Russian imperial narratives.

The study was conducted in the form of four two-hour focus groups. Participants included men and women aged 18 to 30 who have been permanent residents of Odessa for more than five years. Many respondents oppose the renaming of streets, the removal of imperial monuments, and, in particular, the relocation of the Pushkin monument.

As the researchers note, virtually all of the arguments made by opponents of decolonization are based on Russian imperial narratives that have been shaped over decades through the education system, cultural policy, monuments, national holidays, and the city’s public spaces. 

The report states that for many young residents of Odessa, imperial symbols have become part of their personal identity. That is why they often perceive the renaming of streets or the relocation of monuments not as a historical reevaluation, but as an encroachment on their own past and their familiar way of life.

The authors of the study also noted that many respondents view Odessa as a kind of “museum” that should not change. In their view, the city is associated first and foremost with the image of “old Odessa,” shaped by Russian imperial and Soviet traditions, while the modern Ukrainian context remains little known or secondary to them.

A separate section of the study focused on the language issue and the city’s literary heritage. Most participants were convinced that Odessa’s literature is exclusively in Russian. They named only the most famous figures, such as Pushkin, Ilf, and Petrov, while knowing almost nothing about Ukrainian writers whose lives and works are connected to Odessa.

According to the researchers, this pattern reflects the long-standing dominance of an imperial perspective on the city’s cultural history. They believe that many young people have internalized a certain set of historical notions as early as school, which has subsequently remained virtually unchallenged.

The report devotes particular attention to the figure of Alexander Pushkin. The researchers concluded that the positive attitude toward him is based primarily on an emotional attachment formed in childhood. For most respondents, the poet is associated with a symbol of creative freedom and Odessa, while his role in spreading imperial narratives is hardly considered at all.

At the same time, the authors of the study attribute the image of Pushkin as a “revolutionary” to the Soviet and Russian educational tradition, which emphasized his conflicts with the tsarist authorities rather than his support for Russia’s imperial expansion.

The findings regarding Isaac Babel proved no less revealing. Although the writer is one of the key figures in the myth of “Jewish Odessa,” most of the young participants either knew almost nothing about him or could not explain his significance for the city’s history.

The researchers emphasize that imperial historical myths continued to be actively perpetuated even after Ukraine gained independence. As examples, they cite the celebration of September 2 as Odessa’s founding day, the restoration of the monument to Catherine II, the significant number of Russian imperial monuments in the city, and the teaching of the city’s history through the Russian imperial narrative of Odessa’s origins.

This is precisely why, for some young people, the Russian imperial myth has become a kind of “default mindset,” and a rethinking of history began only after the Russian aggression of 2014 and the full-scale invasion.

The Odesa City Council also decided to conduct a sociological survey among young people and other population groups to determine the level of linguistic and cultural identification. Thirty thousand hryvnias were allocated from the city budget for this purpose as part of the Ukrainian language development program for 2024–2025.

Анна Бальчінос