Dorothea Atlas: The Woman Who Wrote the History of Odessa

Intentcontinues its series of articles about outstanding women and men from Odesa. This time, the article will be dedicated to Dorothea Atlas.

She was born in Odesa in the 19th century and received the only higher education available to women at the time—the Higher Women’s Courses. She wrote several textbooks on the history of her hometown. After the revolution, she barely made ends meet and never returned to her beloved profession.

From High School to Teaching

Felicia-Dorothea Heinrichovna Atlas was born on January 15, 1874, in Odessa to a Jewish family of Austrian subjects, Heinrich Atlas and Louise Atlas. After receiving a home education, she continued her studies at the prestigious Mariinsky Gymnasium, which still operates in Odessa today. At age 18, Dorothea received her diploma and the title of private tutor, with the right to teach arithmetic, geography, and history. This was the highest level a woman could hope to achieve at that time. To obtain the right to teach, graduates had to conduct open lessons in the specified subjects. The geography lesson did not go well, and Dorothea received unsatisfactory feedback. The situation was slightly better with history—she received a grade of “not quite satisfactory.” But given the examiners’ comments (“she spoke quietly,” “she did not ask all the students questions,” “did not use the word ‘emperor’ when discussing Peter I and Catherine II”), these grades can be attributed to the excessive strictness and rigor of the evaluation system in the Russian Empire.

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The building of the Mariinsky Gymnasium, now the “Mariinsky” Lyceum. PHOTO: upload.wikimedia.org 

The Path to Higher Education

For a long time, higher education for girls in the Russian Empire was impossible. But in the second half of the 19th century, Higher Women’s Courses began to appear—educational institutions that gave women the opportunity to pursue university-level programs. The first such courses in Odessa opened in 1879, but they were closed as early as 1886. Higher education for women in the city resumed at the beginning of the 20th century: new courses began in 1903.

Professors from Odessa University taught the courses. In 1904, a building was constructed for the courses at 15 Torgova Street. Tuition was 150 karbovanets—more expensive than at the university.

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The former building of the Higher Women’s Courses. PHOTO: Violetta Diduk

It was there that Dorothea Atlas continued her studies. She initially enrolled in the Department of Humanities within the Faculty of History and Philology, and later also studied at the Faculty of Law. One of her professors was the historian Ivan Linnichenko, who played an important role in her future academic work.

Researcher and Popularizer of Odessa’s History

Dorothea Atlas was frequently published in Odessa’s most popular newspapers, *Odesski Novyny* and *Odessky Listok*. In these publications, she combined historical material with urban legends, everyday details, and fictionalized narratives, making Odessa’s past accessible to a wide audience. This stylistic approach was not limited to newspaper articles.

For example, Dorothea Atlas’s article in *Odeskie Novosti* dated December 25, 1912, titled “Christmas Days in Old Odessa (the 1830s),” is stylistically reminiscent of Alexander Deribas’s essays. Describing Odessa in the run-up to Christmas in the 1830s, Atlas wrote: “It was a splendid year, and no one spared any expense. A motley crowd moved noisily through the streets, filling the stores and buying thousands of unnecessary things, for in the ‘golden city’ they neither knew nor wanted to know what thrift was.”

The most famous work on the history of Odessa was the book *Old Odessa, Its Friends and Enemies*. The researcher emphasized the need to teach local history in schools and even published a textbook that was reprinted several times. Ivan Linnichenko, Dorothea Heinrichovna’s teacher, covered the costs of the textbook’s first edition. Together with Professor Linnichenko, Dorothea Atlas also participated in the development and promotion of the project to establish the “Old Odessa” museum.

In the pre-revolutionary years, the researcher was active in the Odessa Bibliographic Society, where in 1916 she presented a proposal for an exhibition titled “Old Odessa,” which was to be held in the city’s educational institutions. However, this project was not realized until the 1950s, after the researcher’s death.

In 1917–1918, Dorothea Atlas headed the alumni association and organized public lectures.

The Final Years of Her Life

Little is known about Dorothea Atlas’s life after the revolution. From her letters to Professor Linnichenko, we learn that she was in a difficult financial situation. She ceased her scholarly and journalistic activities. She had planned to conduct research on Moldavanka, but no materials related to this have been found.

In 1923–1924, Atlas was a member of the socio-historical section of the Odessa Commission for Local History under the All-Ukrainian Academy of Sciences (VUAN). In 1929, she served as director of Labor School No. 65, located at 32 Bohdan Khmelnytsky Street.

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Building No. 32 on Bohdan Khmelnytsky Street today. PHOTO: Violetta Diduk

It is not known for certain when the researcher died or where she was buried. According to one account, this occurred during the German-Romanian occupation.

Dorothea Atlas’s books were republished in the 1990s and 2000s. Of course, their texts are somewhat idealistic and reflect the public sentiment of the early 20th century. But they convey the author’s vibrant spirit—a woman who loved her city and sought to instill that same love in readers of all ages.

Let’s conclude this story about Dorothea Atlas with her own words: “Love for one’s homeland is one of the most precious and, at the same time, strongest human affections. The educator’s task is to help children understand this love, to replace natural instinct with a rational sentiment. Overly broad generalizations are difficult for young children to grasp, and therefore, in all cultured countries, a student’s introduction to their homeland begins with an introduction to the place where they live.”

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