Ukraine Crisis Media Center Study Debunks Odesa Myths, Exposes Russian Propaganda

Ukraine Crisis Media Center presented the results of a study on the myths about Odesa as a city built by order of Empress Catherine II and other myths.

Ihor Stombol, coordinator of the press center of Ukraine Crisis Media Center, told Intent that the research was funded by the Estonian foundation International Practitioners' Partnership Network with the support of the European Union.

The study is entitled "Myths and narratives of Russian propaganda that destroy Ukrainian identity in the south and east of Ukraine. Refuting and Exposing".

As part of the project, nine regions of Ukraine, including Odesa region, were selected, and the myths of Russian imperial propaganda in these regions were studied. After that, they chose the two most striking myths and engaged local historians and experts from the Ukrainian Institute of National Memory to debunk them. The research resulted in a number of materials: videos, publications, and discussions with researchers.

In the case of Odesa, the most striking myths were "the creation of Odesa by Catherine II" and "the importance of Alexander Pushkin for the history of Odesa."

For more than two centuries, Russian propaganda has claimed that Odesa was founded by Russian Empress Catherine II, but historians insist that this is not the case.

Last year, Taras Honcharuk, Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor of the Department of History of Ukraine and Special Historical Disciplines at the Ilya Mechnikov Odesa National University, refuted these claims in a video created together with the team of the History Without Myths YouTube channel.

The scholar debunked 10 of the most common myths, including the idea that Odesa is a "Russian city," that the city's foundation and port-franco were "gifts" from Russian tsars, and the myth of the city's historical "Russian-speaking" character.

Every year on September 2, Odesa celebrates the City Day. This date is as controversial as the age of the city itself. Officially, Odesa turned 228 years old in 2022, but there is an opinion that the date of the city's foundation should be measured from the first mention of the Khadzhibey fortress, on the site of which the city stands. Then Odesa would be over 600 years old, and the date of its foundation would have to be changed.

In 2020, the Pivdeń Artbook channel already made a similar video. Back then, the project authors enlisted the help of historians Taras Honcharuk, Serhii Hutsaliuk, and Ihor Sapozhnykov.

Кирило Бойко